Treasure Chest of Thoughts

Sitting here, reflecting, it just dawned on me (actually, quite literally, as I have also watched the sun rise on this beautiful morning) that you have not met the duck characters that my students created in our Ducks Galore project that I referred to in an earlier post!

Please check out this voice thread (by clicking on the picture) on which the students recorded an introduction to their duck for their peers:

This is our first project…and a collaborative one, at that!…using this tool. I soon discovered that students who would gladly talk all class period were suddenly shy, nervous, even insecure when it came to recording their introductions (and most of them recorded in private!).

The students learned/utilized several important skills here, though.

1. Sometimes the audience is not just the teacher…probably the toughest audience one ever has is peers.  Right?
2. They each requested access to our class wiki Cafe Pre-AP where this Voice Thread is housed.
3. They learned how to create avatars and to leave comments on a Voice Thread.
4. Using tone, they presented their introductions in a varied way from just writing it down on paper or even just turning to their neighbor and verbalizing their tone of voice.

All-in-all, this was a good project!  Now to develop another voice thread project where they are the writer, producer, director…lots of tremendous skills in that one!

Like this project?  Here’s the link!

This week during the meeting of one of my peer PLN’s (my Classroom Redesign Team), colleague Lisa Huff mentioned the term tradigital, a word that caught my attention, a quite interesting combination of terms, one that sounds much more interesting than the term I have been touting lately…blend. 

Tradigital?  Blend?  Yes..tradigital sounds much more interesting!

Therefore, I went where most of us go when initiating a search:  that’s right…Google.  When scanning down the list of results, I encountered this link to Word Spy:  http://www.wordspy.com/words/tradigital.asp

Ahhh…very interesting!

Below the “Example Citation,” the owners of this site then list the “Earliest Citation,” followed by “Notes.”

Thus, intrigued, I decided to check out other trendy vocabulary.  Today’s word is peanut-buttering, defined as “spreading the resources of a company or person too thin.”  Peanut-buttering…that word just might describe me!

Will such vocabulary appear on the ACT, SAT, Arkansas’ End-of-Level 11th Grade Literacy Exam?  Probably not in the near future.

I have subscribed to this site’s feed; think I will ask my students to add this feed to their Google Reader.  Knowing some of their busy schedules, I do think that many of them are peanut-buttering also as they sit in our tradigital classroom. 

This, I think they need to know!

Today, my own version of a sci-fi world continued as I created this cartoon strip for my World of Hollywood using ToonDoo:

Very easy to use, this cartoon strip took me just minutes to create (once I learned how to navigate the system).  ToonDoo provides many images and backdrops and literally with just a few clicks, I had this one created.

As you may recall, I created Hollywood last year using HeroMachine 2.5 for the Pre-Ap English 10’s multi-genre sci-fi project.  Just to review, Hollywood’s goal to save those innocent little fifth grade girls from the advances of the want-to-be-fifth-grade-boyfriends.  (I am probably having too much fun with this storyline!)

This, the creation of the cartoon,  is an excellent way to review punctuation of dialogue.

This year, instead of each student creating a new world, each lit circle group is creating one new sci-fi world…and, oh, the dialogue that occurs as they debate, discuss, and, sometimes, agree to disagree!  Good project for working on group dynamics!

The groups will present their final projects using Glogster, which has recently released a version for the education world.  Thank you, Glogster!  Yes, more updates on that to follow!

Tonight, two other facilitators and myself met with our new group of NBCT wanna-be’s…cool!

Working with teachers who are striving to better themselves professionally is an exciting endeavor. (In Arkansas, the Department of Education provides support groups, such as the one at our school, which the candidates may choose to attend .)

I look forward to working with these ladies through the process of enlivening their portfolios, of placing not just themselves but also their students within the literary works they each will create.

At the root of this process lies what all role-model teachers continually strive for…student achievement.  Interestingly enough, this process also reminds one that for each teacher, these methods are different…yet all are excellent as each teacher simply chooses the strategies at which she excels.

This evening, I could feel the excitement, the stress, the wonder…all those emotions intermingling as the teachers began…or continued…processing the many decisions that lie before them.  Each sat taking ownership in a work that in just a few short months each of these ladies will submit with pride…okay, with relief!  Relieved pride…there…that will be the true emotion!  I can still remember the huge load lifted when I mailed…yes…”the box.”

Those of you who work with teachers in a mentoring role, you understand this natural high that one gets from watching others grow professionally.  As Martha Stewart would say, that is ”a good thing.”

Success is so sweet!  Absolutely awesome!

My attempt to Skype was a success…thanks to student tech person Casey.  Wow, he is so gifted.  Just want to state it here that I knew him when…! Casey is one of those students that I cannot say that I teach much in the area of technology…just maybe I am helping keep the doors to opportunity open for him,though.  Just maybe.

Thanks to Casey, Murphy’s Law finally took a hike out the door!  My journalism students skyped with Sgt. Frank Vaughn “live!” from Iraq.  Today was definitely a memorable one.  Talk about a natural high. Embedded within the many emotions…awe, wonder, excitement…though, was a sense of humility, humbleness…as they chatted with someone really in Iraq, someone serving our country.  Someone giving of his time with his family (throughout the conversation were continual stories about his wife and very young son). 

Today was a success.  Today was a lasting memory.  Hopefully, the beginning.  The beginning of my students striving to be more, to be better.  Maybe just knowing it is okay to be humbled.

What did I learn today about using Skype?

1. Have every student’s Skype account created ahead of time!  Considering that Mr. Frank and I set this visit up early this morning (and I do mean early…@4 AM!)  and that I had not seen this students in two days, we did okay!
2. Know what your computer can do!  I assumed my teacher PC would have a microphone; it probably does but come crunch time, neither Casey nor I could find it, so we had video but no sound.  Plan B…switch computers while the students continued to connect to the chat option  with Mr. Frank.
3. Thanks to Casey, he was able to switch the hook-ups  (from my teacher PC  to my mini computer)  so that we could view the live feed through the LCD.  Crazy!  But Casey was calm as the proverbial cucumber!   This allowed everyone to talk with Mr. Frank on the big screen versus the mini computer’s screen.

Student reporters talking with a real reporter…a real reporter in Iraq.   Quality conversation that resulted in Mr. Frank’s agreeing to visit the class upon his return…with the possible delivery of Sonic food (Mr. Frank’s most-missed food).

The positive promotion of reading (the good with the “bad”…to know what not to write) and the added encouragement to continue practicing their writing skills, these were just two more of the positive outcomes of this online visit.

Where do we go from here?  I want these student reporters to conduct interviews via Skype for assigned stories for the next student paper.  I want to record these interviews with our Flip Camcorders to have interview excerpts to post on our online student newspaper.

Of course, I am also brainstorming ways to use Skype within my English classes on upcoming projects…yes, this definitely has me thinking!

Today, hopefully, my journalism/newspaper students will meet Soldier/Sgt. Frank Vaughn, who is stationed in Iraq, via Skype.

I set up my Skype account, made contact with him via Facebook, chatted with him on Skype while I “played” with this tool, and he graciously agreed to meet with us “tonight,”  for, of course, our days and nights do not quite coincide!

How much more real will this very real-life situation become for my students as they literally meet this soldier face-to-face? 

Part of his assignment while there has been with the journalism section (I need to clarify that terminology with him…good question to ask later today!).  He has posted links to his stories on Facebook…Frank Vaughn.  Since Facebook is blocked at our school, he volunteered to email us links to his stories.  Love those resources!

The underlying beauty to this one-on-one lesson is that, thanks to Web 2.0, the world ever becomes a smaller place.  When I began teaching 19 years ago, what these students are going to experience today, while it may have been conceivable was certainly not doable.

Thanks, Mr. Frank, for serving our country and for helping educate our youth.

Let the Poe times begin!  Thanks to peer Ann Ballard (who is now blogging at Achieving Dreams…please drop her a comment.  She is a great teacher…and friend!) for reminding me and sending me the link to The Interactive Raven, our Focus on Poe began Friday with my Pre-AP English 10 class. 

This presentation of  “The Raven” also served as a review for the terms alliteration, assonance, and internal rhyme, as it highlights examples of these terms as the students advance through the multiple slides.

Then came the question for which every teacher should be ready:  ”Why are we reading this again?  We read this in eighth grade.”

After a mere second to think through my reasoning, I responded, “This is a poem that could be read every year about this time.  Just perfect for this season.”

“Oh.”

Yes, I think that was a very intelligent reply.  How can one argue with such sound reasoning as mine?

On a more serious note, I also reminded the class that reading a literary work more than once is very much acceptable.  Right?  Probably the foremost example of this is the Bible.  Another example that I recently heard two adults refer to was Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon as they planned to view the release of this novel in movie format.

Thus, with this in mind…yes, it is okay to revisit literary works…what Poe selections do you think every student should have read?