TeachingSagittarian

Newsmap

teachingsagittarian — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:31:20 +0000

If you’re a visual learner then this is the news site for you!

It’s called Newsmap and it was shared by Andrew Churches in his Project-Based Learning Session (blog post brewing) at ASB Unplugged 2010, in Mumbai, India.

I think I love it because, not only is it colour-coordinated to the type of news it is, but you can also change the feed based upon the countries that you are particularly interested in. It’s interactive and visually attractive!

Immediately I’m thinking ways to use Newsmap in the classroom.

Students compare what news makes the headlines in which countries
Identify reasons why news may not make the headlines in other countries
Identify the top categories of news
Compare one country with another country in terms of top categories of news
Collect data regarding how long the top news, stays the top news

The list is endless really! What a great find and an amazing resource for the classroom!

Student Projects – Flat Classroom 2010 Mumbai, India

teachingsagittarian — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:57:30 +0000

The Flat Classroom Workshop and mini-Conference was held during the ASB Unplugged 2010 Conference in Mumbai.

Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, along with Bernajean Porter, Anne Mirtschin, Steve Madsen, Sara Patterson and other amazing Flat Classroom participants and educators encouraged students to envision the future of education. As an action-based conference format student teams, (and educator teams too) designed a futuristic global project or idea that could most likely be implemented.

I had the absolute privilege of attending a session in which the student teams (and a couple of adult teams put together on the day) pitched their ideas/presentation at a table with 2-3 guest educators. When the allotted time was up, the student teams were given feedback from the adults, then given time to “huddle and improve” their pitch from the feedback they’d received, before moving onto the next table. I have to say that this session was the highlight of the conference for me. The room was full of energy, enthusiasm and had a positive buzz. As an educator, I was blown away by the honesty and openness to feedback and constructive criticism these students took on board. The students were also able to give us feedback on our feedback, thereby empowering themselves with a voice that mattered. We were all stakeholders in the pitch because of that one extra step. A step that we so often forget about in the “rush” of our school day. I got to experience the value of TIME. TIME for our students to put together their ideas, TIME for our students to received feedback and TIME for our students to reflect on the feedback, tweek their ideas, and TIME to present their ideas again – and perhaps even TIME to complete the cycle again.

However, it really wasn’t until the three finalists presented their digital stories at the closing ceremony of the whole conference that it truly dawned on me what a powerful process the Flat Classroom Project entails. I was delighted to see that one of my most favourite groups that I’d been part of the feedback process for, had made it into the finals. It was incredibly humbling to see their final project, how much they’d tweeked it, how much they’d taken on board our advice to them in the early stages of their ideas pitch. Congratulations to ALL of the student participants, Vicki, Julie, Anne, Steve, Sara, Bernajean and everyone else involved in way, shape or form in the Flat Classroom Conference, Mumbai, India. You were amazing! Voting is still open so please, go on over to the wiki, watch the videos and cast your vote!

Only much later did I discover that this group IMPACT had lost their entire presentation the night before and had worked fevourishly through the night to put their digital story back together again for the finalist presentation. That just makes me even more amazed at the capacity of our students to succeed (amidst failure) when they have a personal stake in a project and are given the tools, the encouragement and the TIME!

In The News

teachingsagittarian — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:09:31 +0000

I was recently contacted by Shanthi Venkataraman, a student from Columbia University, Graudate School of Journalism, as my friend Silvia Tolisano (Around the World with 80 Schools skype project mastermind) had passed on my name as a teacher who had been using skype in the classroom for a number of years and had taken part in the Around the World with 80 Schools skype project.

Columbia News Service is staffed by master’s candidates at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Articles are written by the students, then edited and vetted by professional journalists and professors. All articles are transmitted to New York Times News Service clients, but are also available for republication by any professional media outlet at no charge. Photos may also be downloaded from this site; multimedia links are also provided

Shanti was interested in hearing how Skype was used in Schools. We connected when our timezones were decent for the both of us via , yes, you guessed it via Skype. She just informed me by email that her article Skype Gives Students Window on the World was published. Of course, Silvia was interviewed and Wes Fryer, was too.

Curtain Raiser Video – Mumbai, India

teachingsagittarian — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:04:30 +0000

I’m home from ASBUnplugged 2010 – graciously hosted by the American School of Bombay – February 24-27. As I begin the process of reflecting on the sessions/workshops that I attended – editing and organising my notes for posting, I thought I would share this little video with you. I managed to get out and about for about 2 hours with the wonderful Simon May and the equally fabulous Kim Cofino, to explore Linking Road, Mumbai, India. The traffic catches your attention almost immediately so I thought I’d try to capture a little reminder of what it was like as we explored.

Sustainability – Take Action!

teachingsagittarian — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:26:32 +0000

(Reflection Post 2 CoETaIL Course 5)

Grade 5 is using a google doc to help each other teach our students the technology skills required in order to complete the Culminating Project for our Environments/Sustainability Unit for Science/Social Studies.

In pairs or as individuals, our students will be creating PSAs (Public Service Announcements).They will need to analyze one aspect of their family’s environmental impact (i.e. electricity, water usage, garbage, paper usage, etc), research why there is such an impact and create an action plan with their own innovative ways to diminish that impact in order to create a preferable future. The PSA will make a compelling recommendation for change based on evidence (that includes written, oral and visual aspects) and that includes specific actions to take in order to improve their family’s environmental impact.

To help my colleagues help their students to successfully complete this project using technology, the following planning has been started on a google doc which we can all add to as we progress through the final stages of our Sustainability Unit. The google doc will also serve as a reflection point for future reference when we are planning for this unit again. Please add in the comments below anything else that may need consideration or documentation. We’d like to share and learn from not just each other, but fellow educators that may be doing something similar or have done something similar – wherever you may be.

Here’s what the project has so far by using the Understanding by Design planning:

Proposed Timeline:

1 x session to Investigate
2-4 x sessions to Plan (invest the majority of your time in this stage – the better prepared your students are in this storyboard phase, the better the creation process will be)
1-2 sessions to Create
1 x session to Peer Review
1 x session to Reflect

Tools Used:

Inspiration (optional) for brainstorming ideas
iMovie (PSA)

Investigate:

Brainstorm actions that can make a difference to your impact on the environment and influence sustainability
Read “How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint (365 practical ways to make a real difference)” – Joanna Yarrow if students are stuck for ideas
Watch a sample PSA - Example of a PSA – created by HS students in 3 days – (about the Digital Divide)
Watch Leonardo DiCaprio’s PSA – Global Warning
Watch sample 30 second simplistic PSAs related to sustainability: Planet2025
Reiterate that a PSA is like a commercial – it’s message is strong and succinct
Students can work in Individually or in Pairs

Plan:

Your Public Service Announcement will need:

1st min max = explain what the problem is
2nd min max = why is this a problem? (causes and effect)
3rd min max = what are we going to do about it (go further on something we’re already doing)

Research why the aspect you have chosen creates such an impact (it’s cause & effect on the environment)
Use a storyboard to plan out your PSA
Write a script based on the research
Find pictures, talk about research, citing sourcing, how to save and organize images
Use: Compfight or Search:Creative Commons (both search flickr)
Find creative commons music for the video (no copyright probs)
Use: Jamendo

Create:

Create PSA in iMovie (Book Tech Co-ordinator if you’re not familiar with the basics of iMovie – use your “experts” in class)
Subject the movie to peer review before final posting and make necessary changes

Evaluate:

Rubric – (generic digital storytelling rubric currently being tailored to suit this project)
Conduct class discussion of what could have been improved
Self-Assessment Rubric (generic digital storytelling self-assessment rubric currently being tailored to suit this project)
Students upload their PSA to their blog and write blog post reflecting on their personal experience with the project  What did they learn?  What was difficult?  What was easy?  What would they do differently next time?

What’s your thinking? What are we missing? What could be added?

CoETaIL Course 5 Begins

teachingsagittarian — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:43:46 +0000

The final project for Course 4 of CoETaIL was to create a unit and assessment based around our content area that addresses ISB TAIL Standards (Technology and Information Literacy).

The Grade 5 CoETaIL cohorts, Teresa, Robin, Dan and myself, along with our fellow Grade 5 team members, Jim, Ali, and Sandra have put together this culminating project for our integrated Science/Social Studies Environment/Sustainability unit which we are piloting for the first time this year.

As our Science sessions come to an end, we are about to begin the Social Studies Culminating Project for Sustainability. This side of the unit has been a challenge for us all. The Grade 5 team has done a fabulous job so far of integrating tech tools to help their students learn about Sustainability as well as learning some new tech skills. It’s not only the students who are learning – their teachers have been learning right along side them too. Our final project will see the use of technology to help us spread our message about taking action and making a sustainable difference.

There will be 4 further posts on this blog, for Course 5 of CoETaIL, reflecting on the journey embedding technology and whether it makes a difference to student learning as we progress through this specific project.

Below is the planning that we have created to meet the needs of our CoETaIL requirements:

Unit: Sustainability (This is an interdisciplinary unit involving science, social studies, language arts, and TAIL standards / benchmarks. We are only including the S & B’s revolving around the “global citizenship” piece of this unit.) See this google doc for full unit overview.	Grade: 5 (Chrissy, Ali, Robin, Sandra, Teresa, Dan)
Established Goals (Standards)
Recognize bias in digital resources while researching an environmental issue with guidance from the teacher. (TAILs: 1, 2) locate, access, organize, and apply information about an issue of public concern from multiple points of view (A.c) Explore causes, consequences, and possible solutions to persistent, contemporary, and emerging global issues, such as pollution and endangered species. (I.f) Recognize and interpret how the “common good” can be strengthened through various forms of citizen action (A.j) Suggest ways to monitor science and technology in order to protect the physical environment, individual rights, and the common good. (T.e) Identify, collaborate, and investigate a global issue and generate possible solutions using digital tools and resources. (TAILs: 1, 2, 4, 5)
Enduring Understandings: Students will develop the understanding that Global Citizens . . .	Essential Question
understand that sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. keep informed about current sustainability issues examine sustainability issues, in depth, in which they’re interested learn how to deal with sustainability issues, which do or can affect them consider probable and preferable futures and human potential to affect change plan and take action towards a sustainable future	As global citizens, how can we contribute to a sustainable future?
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
GRASPS Task A	GRASPS Task B
• Goal: Help ISB have a more positive impact in creating a sustainable future. • Role: You are a global citizen concerned about the impact our school is having on the sustainability of the environment. • Audience: ISB community and other schools around the world • Situation: You need to analyze one aspect of ISB’s environmental impact (i.e. electricity, water usage, garbage, paper usage, etc), research why there is such an impact and create an action plan with your innovative ways to diminish that impact in order to create a preferable future. • Product, Performance, Purpose: You will make a compelling recommendation for change based on evidence (that includes written, oral and visual aspects) and that includes specific actions to take in order to improve ISB’s environmental impact. • Standards for Success: Your product/proposal will be analyzed for your understanding based on the rubric.	• Goal: Help your family have a more positive impact in creating a sustainable future. • Role: You are a global citizen concerned about the impact your family is having on the sustainability of the environment. • Audience: Your family and any other interested families around the world • Situation: You need to analyze one aspect of your family’s environmental impact (i.e. electricity, water usage, garbage, paper usage, etc), research why there is such an impact and create an action plan with your innovative ways to diminish that impact in order to create a preferable future. • Product, Performance, Purpose: You will make a compelling recommendation for change based on evidence (that includes written, oral and visual aspects) and that includes specific actions to take in order to improve your family’s environmental impact. • Standards for Success: Your product/proposal will be analyzed for your understanding based on the rubric below.
Other technology skills that will be developed during this unit: Google Earth Blogging RSS feeder Evaluating validity and quality of sources Excel (graphing data)

TechTrain2010 – EARCOS Weekend Workshop

teachingsagittarian — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:41:30 +0000

The weekend is over and it’s been a big one!

I’ve been most fortunate to have been involved with co-hosting an EARCOS 2-day weekend workshop called TechTrain 2010 – masterminded by two fabulous ISB staff members, Kim Cofino and Tara Etheridge.

Along with these two ladies, Dennis Harter, Dana Watts and myself have very successfully (I feel) inspired and helped the technology learning journey of a great bunch of educators from around the Asia Region who willingly gave up their entire weekend to join us.

The planning of each of our sessions offered has been going on behind the scenes for quite some time. Kim and I combined our group as we felt that we both wanted to offer similar things to the workshop participants. I LOVE brainstorming and planning with Kim as she is an expert on using the Understanding by Design planning cycle. We both were fairly confident that we’d come up with two “jam-packed” useful days for our participants.

Here is the link to see the final projects from our two groups – I think they did a great job considering most of this was new for the majority of them.

As a co-host, I want to reflect on what I think went well, what didn’t go so well and what I’d do differently next time. But first I want to “debrief” with my fellow co-hosters! Keep an eye out for that post! Judging by the oral feedback we’ve received so far …… we may well offer TechTrain2011! Watch this space!

CreativeCommons Image Searching

teachingsagittarian — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:05:54 +0000

Since becoming more aware about Presentation Zen, the need to search for suitable images has increased. Using images licensed under Creative Commons goes without saying, and as a classroom teacher, I believe it’s very important for me to model image attribution and Creative Commons usage to my students.

Usually I just use the advanced search on flickr but I’ve been feeling the need for something more …….

Today, just by happy accident, I stumbled across this delicious bookmark I’d made a while back but hadn’t had a chance to read properly. (I tag anything with that I haven’t had a chance to really explore or read if I’m in the middle of looking for something else, or working on something, with lookatlater – very handy!)

Amongst the glorious things that you can do with flickr, here was that need for something more ……

Q: I know Flickr offers a search engine but it won’t display more than 24 pictures at a time. Is there a better alternative ?

A: Switch to either Compfight or PictureSandbox – these are some of best Flickr search tools on the web, even better than Flickr’s built-in search engine.

PictureSandbox

Don’t you love how easy Picturesandbox makes image searching?

Compfight

It really doesn’t get much better than this does it? What I’d like to find next, is a simple add-on that will get the attribution for me automatically (less clicks for me). So I’m off to find that now.

How do you search for your CreativeCommons images?

Fireworks Animoto Style

teachingsagittarian — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:37:10 +0000

I’ve written about Animoto before. It’s very intuitive, quick and easy as well as free to use when you want to create a 30 second video. For just US$3 per video or US$30 per year, you can make longer videos.
Some ways to use Animoto in the classroom:

Teaser (introducing students to a new topic)
Assessment (students put together the most important images about their learning)
Highlights (highlight the best parts of learning)
Discussion Starter (poignant images that would spark a discussion on a topic)

It took about 5 minutes to upload chosen photos, type some text, add music and render the video. This video is the highlights of the fireworks set off at midnight on January 1st 2010, on Marine Parade, Napier, New Zealand. The photos were taken from my balcony using the 55mm – 200mm lens.

The Photographer Within

teachingsagittarian — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:15:45 +0000

Cross-posted at Eye to Eye

The idea is simple. Take one photograph a day for the next 365 days.

I will be using my Nikon D40x and new Kodak Zi8 or whatever else I can lay my hands on. All photos will be uploaded to my Flickr 2010 365 set and then embeded in this blog. I began the 2009 365 Flickr Challenge but did not get past day 263. My photography definitely improved and this time my goal is to complete the whole 365 photo a day challenge.

January 1, 2010- December 2010.

Last year I joined the Flickr group 2009/365photos It was started in 2008 and has rolled over each year ever since. Thanks to D’Arcy Norman and Alan Levine for getting this one started and keeping it going! It will be renamed to 2010/365photos for the 2010 photo challenge.

There’s also a Flickr group for those in Education and/or Technology, EdTech 365/2010.

For all those in Education and/or Technology who are looking for a 365 group. Please tag all your images ‘edtech365/2010′ and please consider using Creative Commons licensing so that we may all benefit from these images.

Want to participate or have your own challenge? Perhaps 365 photos is too much of a commitment. How about a 52 Challenge? It’s only one photo a week.
Here are some great hints and tips for doing so:

Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way – Photojojo
Tips for a ‘One photo a day’ Project – Jason Webber
PhotoChallenge.org- For inspiration and themes

Thanks to Silvia for starting this brilliant list of fellow Edubloggers taking part in the 2010 challenge!! Let’s support and help each other make right through to the finish!

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano 365 Photo Challenge
Allanah King Allanah’s Photo Blog
Roswellsgirl Martha’s 365 Challenge
Patrick Woessner 365- Challenge on Flickr
Steven Anderson 365 Project 2010
The Shoe Diva A year in Shoes
The Shoe Diva 52/2010 Ed Tech Challenge- 1 photo a week.
The Shoe Diva 365/2010 Ed Tech- 1 photo a day
John Evans- Speaking of…A Photo a Day for 2010
Cyndi Danner Kuhn 365 Photos: An iPhone Photo a Day
Matt Guthrie 2010 in 365
Bob Sprankle 365: A Photo a Day
Cheryl Oaks 365 Photos