Let's Dance!

I just came across this picture I took earlier in the year.

This is a picture from one of my favorite days this year. On this day, some students in the grade 5/6 class organized dance lessons for the other elementary students.

The session was run during recess by a fifth grader who brought together those students interested in learning some dance moves. It was amazing to see how interested in dancing the students were - even the more energetic boys enjoyed it without the shenanigans.

The dance instructor for the day led the students through some moves, and then at the end she put it all together. It was great to see students taking action. I loved that this student had a passion that she wanted to share with others - and then she did it.

What can I do to encourage my students to better follow their passions next year?

Combining Making Thinking Visible Activities

Honghe Rige Terrace Micro-Ecology
via Visual.ly

While planning for my current unit about the ecology of rice fields (ecosystems, food chains, and life cycles) I came across the above infographic on Visual.ly. Thinking it could make an interesting provocation, I printed it onto an A3 piece of paper and put it up in the front of the room on the first day of the unit.

Wanting to focus on the rice field in the upper left, I asked my class what they saw.

When they started talking about the people, I knew I had to take it further.

I started by taking out some See, Think, Wonder sheets I made up, and I covered up most of the picture, so they focused on the terraced rice field.

Image 1

Despite seeing the picture beforehand, when I asked what they saw in the small square, I still got interesting responses like fossil and alligator tail. After discussing their responses a little, we wrote them down and moved out.

As I zoomed out more, I again asked what they saw. This time I got responses like mountain, stairs, and one student said rice field.

Image 2

The students talked a little about the woman, but surprisingly, since I was focused on the terrace, they were too. They ignored the field to the top. I asked them to write down what they think about the image.

Honghe Rige Terrace Micro-Ecology
via Visual.ly

When I pulled back the curtain, again, I told them that it was indeed a rice field. I think every student's hand went up and the air electrified. Finally, I asked them if they had any wonderings or questions. I had them write them down.

I really like going through the questions the students have after they get worked up about a topic like this.

I will be ready for this in the start of the units from now on. This was as interesting as when I showed the students pictures of rice field art.

Course 2 Final Project - A Technology AUP for Grades K-6

The school I am working at just recently updated the school's AUP. When I saw it, I felt like it was missing something, something besides easy-to-understand language for the elementary students. The school's AUP needed some positive language in it.

Too often when looking at other schools' AUPs, the rules and regulations made me feel as if using technology were criminal.

I, however, think that technology should be celebrated. Students should know that technology can be exciting and fun. Yes, computer games are OK to play in moderation.

When writing mine, I tried to write rules in a positive manner that revolved around our school STARs, or ESLRs expected student learning results. I wanted to focus on the "cans" and "shoulds" rather than the "don'ts".

I also wanted to make a document that was all on one page so young students would be able to follow along.

I waited too long to try to find someone to collaborate with so I made a post to see if anyone was interested. I was fortunate to find a few people to collaborate with: Adam, Ben, Claudelle, Margriet, and Vivian. Thank you all. Using Google Docs, collaboration was relatively smooth; or as smooth as collaborating through time zones and through borders can be.

My collaborators gave me some great advice, but I think this is still a work in progress. For it to be a truly elementary AUP, I need to add some graphics.

With that said, this is a lot better than what I started with.



Something I noticed when I started reading the AUPs from other cohort members was how there is a shift from talking about dont's, to more positive language. Are we all drinking the same Kool-Aid? I think the shift is a great one for education.

The Mirrors in My Classroom

I remember the day in the beginning of the year when I sat down with one of my first graders to review writing. She was talking about something I didn't completely understand. When I asked her about it she pointed to the part of her writing she was referring to.

But the pointing was not pointing; it was a rude kind of tapping that left me wondering where in the world she could have gotten that from.

A few days later I caught myself doing the same tapping.

Doh!

Fast forward to last week. The mother of one of my students commented on my new haircut and how it looked different since the front of my hair was kind of up. I told her my hair was up because I have a habit of brushing my hair back. Now that it is shorter, it stays up.

"So that's where he got that!" she said.
"Got what?" I asked.
She explained, "He always does that with his hair. I hate that."

Doh!

I have been amazed at the ability of these younglings to absorb the information from around them. When it's good, it's really good. When it's bad ...

The Power of Connection

Blog post reflecting on your own personal use of the Internet and how you use the connection and power of hyperlinks.

In college I was a foreign exchange student at a small university in Japan. I don't remember how often I called home, but I do remember that it wasn't very often.

Photo Credit: Endangered in Japan by kimubert via Compfight cc

When I did call home, I had to go to a payphone like this on campus, and dial a number to some phone company where I would have to dial another number that would connect my to my parents house. This was all before I had access to the Internet back in the U.S. (I was even sending hand-written letters then.) Fast forward to this morning when I used Skype to call my mom [from Japan] for free.

I am so glad I don't have to seek out a payphone.

I believe the power of the Internet, combined is how is is flattening the world and giving more people than ever access to information.

People can take free college classes. We can read newspapers from all over the world whenever we want, well, the free ones at least. There are ebooks, blogs, websites, videos, and infographics.

But all these tools are nothing without the people and the ideas behind them. Now, more than ever, it is so easy to find people with great ideas and hear what they have to say. We can get and give information quickly. (Sometimes too quickly.)

This is what the Internet is all about. The connections are where the power is at.

You Mean Google is not in My iPad?

This week I had a short discussion with my class about the Internet and what it is. While reading this article about a writer who spent a year not accessing the Internet. In that article, he writes about the conversation he has with his niece.

That was just the idea I needed.

I gathered my class onto the carpet and drew some pictures of computers on the whiteboard. I explained that when I was younger, [most] of the computers were isolated from each other.

Then I drew lines to connect the computers and explained that is basically what the Internet is, computers connected together.

Two excited students shouted out.

"It looks like a web!"

"It looks like a net!"

"Good observations," I said. "That is why those words are used when talking about the Internet."

My favorite part was when I was trying to explain again for the students who were not understanding what I was saying. I erased one of the lines and said when I disconnect my computer, or turn off WiFi I cannot access the Internet anymore. I become isolated. (These are not the words I was using by the way.)

Some students still did not understand.

So I opened Safari on the iPad and went to Google. I showed them that I am now connected to the Internet. But when I turn off WiFi, see? I cannot get to Google anymore.

You mean Google is not on the iPad!?

I also talked about hyperlinks and how they worked. My analogy was not very good, but if I were to do it again, I would bring them to the library. I would talk about how the library is like the Internet, and the books are like websites. All the websites have pages, like books.

Side note: Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net is the name of Homer Simpson's Internet start up company from a 1998 episode of The Simpson's called "Das Bus". When I was reflecting on the discussion I had on Friday with my class, this name is what came to mind.

For me, I use the connection of the Internet to, well, connect. I connect to information, content, and other people which would not be possible without hyperlinks.

Without hyperlinks, we would be isolated. (But I think there would be a different to hop from place to place.)

This is an interesting project: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/globe

So, How Will My Digital Footprint Affect Me as an International Teacher?

 All images in this post are screen shots from the infographic I made.


During this class I have been much about our online footprints the impact it has on job applicants when looking for a new job.

When I was reading the articles, I thought they were interesting, but I kept wondering what the hiring process of international schools looked like.

I went to my own headmaster and informally asked him what he does during the hiring process. While we were talking he said that he would be willing to send the survey out to other headmasters.

I got responses from 15 headmasters, headmistresses, or principals. See the survey results here on infogr.am.

Question 1

Do you perform an Internet/Google search about potential applicants during the hiring process?

The responses to question 1 surprised me. I assumed that everyone would "Google" an applicant during the hiring process.

After reviewing the results of this first question, I wondered if I should have asked that the survey go out to the person in charge of hiring. Maybe the two who answered no to this question don't do the hiring for their schools. Maybe they rely on references or they call the schools the teachers are coming from.

Question 2

If you answered yes to question 1, how long do you spend on researching applicants in such ways?

The responses here were what I had expected. School leaders are busy people and spend less than 30 minutes doing Internet background checks.



Question 3

Do you use Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.) to find additional information about applicants during the hiring process?

I expected that everyone would be looking at Social Media sites during the interview process. It is faster to just do a Google Search though.



Question 4

If you use Social Media, which sites do you gather information from?

 

This is another question where the results were not as I had expected. 11 of the 15 respondents said they looked at Social Media sites. I thought it would have been 100%. The breakdown was unexpected for me as well. I thought Twitter would be much higher, but it only got one vote.

1. Linkedin - 9
2. Facebook - 8
3. Google+ - 2
4. Twitter - 1
5. Pinterest - 0
6. Other - 0

One headmaster had this answer to Question 4:

No, I don't [look on Social Media when reviewing an applicant], Google is a search engine so I use that. Social sites are personal so I don't dig.

If I had the chance to ask a followup question to that answer, I would ask if looking on Social Media meant specifically going to a site to look someone up, or if this included those in a Google search result as well.



Question 5

Have you found information that has positively or negatively impacted the result of your applicant search when using Social Media?

 

This question was to see what kind of information was found about applicants. The three options were:

• I have found information that supported the applicant positively.
• I have found both positive and negative information about applicants.
• I have tried, but have failed to find any information at all.

Question 6

If you failed to find any information at all, does that negatively impact your feelings about the applicant?

Seven of the 15 respondents answered this question. All seven said that it does not negatively affect someone to have no online presence at all. This did surprise me. I assumed people might think those without an online presence had something to hide.



Summary

• All though I had only 15 responses to the survey, it represents more than half of the schools that it was sent to and it was a bigger response than I had expected.
• Before I sent this survey out, I had assumed that background checks using the Internet was more common among schools than it has shown to be.
• I really thought that having no online presence would be thought of as a negative, but this group disagrees with me.
• I am surprised only one headmaster looks at a teacher's presence on Twitter. I think it should be more popular than it seems to be [with these heads surveyed]. Twitter is a great resource for information.
• Writing surveys is challenging. I proofread this one about three times, and I can still see things I would do differently next time.
• Making a nice infographic is also really hard. I spent too much time trying to make my own before finding the website infogr.am where I simply needed to insert my data.
• It's a good idea to be smart when you post anything online and regularly check your own digital footprint because people are looking.

Time to Vote For Your Stars!

On the first Monday of every month the whole elementary school gathers together to group, recently showing off student work (which I think is great and I would like to see this continue), and to recognize students who have been outstanding at exhibiting our STARs [ESLRs].

Students who have been "living the STARs" receive an award and are recognized for their excellence. I have watched the older grades now for two years choose their own class nominees while I have sat back and chosen the STARs for my own class.

Today I decided it was time to put the ball into their court and let them choose their own STAR recipients.

It was a revealing experience. For one, the students were much more serious about it than I had expected. We discussed it for about 45 minutes - a long time for my class to talk about something. The conversation also showed me how superficial their knowledge of the STARS, ESLRs, attitudes the school [and I] want the students to exhibit.

How many times did someone ask me today what each one of them meant. Was it that they only understood the meanings of the words in one way and were unable to apply them?

Whatever the reason, it helped me see that I should be doing this every month. I think it is a great way for the students to learn more about what they mean outside of the "cookie cutter" definition they usually learn.

I set it up so that we first reviewed what the STARs were, in our case they are Responsible, Open minded, Communicator, Knowledgeable, and Risk Taker [ROCKR]. I then asked the students to nominate another student who had shown that trait in the last month.

This was hard for them, and it was even hard for me, as I think that we tend to think more about people's actions as an accumulative rather than in segments of time as I was asking them.

I thought it was good for students who were voted for to hear their name called. I think that it is important for students to that others are watching their actions - even if they don't think so. An act that one might think of as inconsequential, can be enormous for another. And vice versa.

I am wondering, as I am going to start doing this regularly, if it will motivate students to start thinking more about their actions. One student told me after the [secret ballot] votes were in, that she was disappointed she didn't get the knowledgeable award. I told her I was sorry, but maybe she could try to think more about what image she was projecting when she was interacting with others, and that she could even try to make her good deeds more visible to others.

I really don't want to start a competition here, and if it starts to become one I will have to tweak something, but for today, and for the next and last assembly of the year, the decision will be in the students hands.

As it should be.

How Does Light Move?

This picture is from way back in March.

I was being observed, had a cold, and the lesson was about how light moves.

It was one of the more interesting class periods of this year. I set up a flashlight and asked the students where they thought the light would go. To my surprise, I had kids going all around the room putting markers on the wall where they thought the light would end up when I hit the switch.

I thought that they misunderstood what I asked of them, so I repeated the question. I had them retell me the question in their own words - everything seemed fine.

We spent an hour and a half inquiring into how light moves.

I expected that part of the lesson to last 5 minutes. But, I went with where they were and had a great time.

Thank you Craig For the picture.

Edit: To get started, I had the students draw a picture of how they thought light moved, and what they drew was pretty wild. Just today, two days after I published this post, I came a cross a blog post on Inquire Within and Tasha Cowdy writes,

Unusually, the children were slow to respond and when they did, their answers were not obviously related to the question. It occurred to me that the question I had asked required the children to think abstractly about something that they had never experienced. I hadn't asked the right question, offered a meaningful invitation.

... I am reminded of the importance of framing a good research question and thinking carefully about a meaningful provocation.

Understanding by Design Chapter 2

Photo Credit: perspicuus by
 woodleywonderworks via Compfight cc

Transfer is the ability to apply knowledge to new situations and is at the heart of understanding and learning. If students cannot transfer knowledge or if they donor have an opportunity to do so, they will forget.

So avoid forgetfulness
1. Uncover student potential misunderstandings

2. Uncover q's, issues, assumptions, and gray areas lurking underneath the black and white of surface accounts

3. Uncover core ideas at the heart of understanding a subject


Big Concepts
Wiggins and McTighe also talk about uncovering the big and hidden concepts. This got me thinking about my next unit about ecosystems. I came up with a few:

• Everything is connected
• [Almost] everything is a cycle
• Systems run the world

That's what I got off the top of my head. I'll have to revisit them this weekend.

The Three Players in Copyright

I believe there are three main players when it comes to copyright. There are the consumers, the publishers, and the authors. The burden usually falls on the consumers, and maybe it should, but I think all three have a responsibility to ensure copyrights are not violated.

The Consumers
The consumers are everyone who uses the Internet and digests information. The consumers are the ones who the copyright burden usually falls on. That is with good reason as the consumers are the ones using other people's materials.

I agree that people should give credit back to the authors of content when they use it. I would like to see it go a little further though.

Photo Credit: "189/365: Makin' Copiessss" by if winter ends via Compfight cc

We should add not only links back to the page where information is found, but also include site names, and a link back to the homepage of the website. When using pictures or art, I also think that the artwork's title should also be included.

All this is to ensure that a reader can get back to the original source.

The Authors
Today I was surfing around reading some COETAIL blogs and some other blogs in my Google Reader, and I came across Vivian's post, Seriously Trending #Cyberbulling. In it she gives a very personal account of her own childhood experiences, and she links to some worthwhile content about bullying.

One of the resources she links to is a pdf and I followed it to get more information. There I decided that it was good enough for me to use in the future, so I downloaded it to my Google Drive.

While reading the pdf, I was looking for the authors name, or at least the organization where the document came from. Afterall, if there was one good source of information, there would surely be more.

The problem was that the pdf does not have the author's name or the organization where it came from. It does however, contain a citation from where the author got information to make the document.

When I was looking into how to find the source for this document, I continued to think that this author should protect him/herself by putting a name on it. In a pdf, you can also place active links that would help readers quickly make it back to your website to find out more information about who made it.

Photographers also fall under the authors title. Photographers can add metadata including their name, date, and a copyright mark. (As a photography hobbiest I think pictures are better without the watermarks.)

The Publishers
The publishers are websites that post copyrighted content. I even classify publishers to be those sites that allow for the curation of copyrighted content i.e. Google Drive.

For these sites, I think it is their responsibility to give the consumers an easy way to cite an author when reproducing it. Imagine if when doing an image search on Google that it was as easy as it is on Compfight to cite an image. Imagine how easy everything would be if website publishers gave you a snippet of code tell the public where you got your information. PowerPoint and iMovie should include easy ways to insert and display a link back to the source of an image. Google Drive should also have something where you can put a link back to where the document or photo came from. Yes, we can do it ourselves, but these companies should have a stake in helping people to use content legally.

Come on - it's not that hard to do. And it can even look decent if done right like the way Haiku Deck does it.

I also think they have an obligation to forewarn consumers when they [we] are using, embedding, linking to copyrighted content. A lot of trouble comes when consumers take copyrighted content without knowing it should not be taken. A simple warning when right-clicking would do wonders.

The burden of responsibility will always fall back on the consumers, but all three players have some responsibility to help prevent copyright infringement.