Treasure Chest of Thoughts

Just read Will Richardson’s latest blog post “The Larger Lessons,” which continues the discussion about tech tools being simply that…a tool that teachers should use to educate the minds of those who entered our doors.  A tool.  Not the curriculum.  Not the reason I teach grammar, writing, vocabulary, reading.  Just one of the many tools that I have at my disposal.

It’s one of the reasons that I get continually frustrated with NECC sessions and Tweets and blogs that celebrate tools without giving weight to the considerations that goes into choosing a tool in a pedagogical sense. We need more sessions on “why?’ not “how?”…

While many if not most of these lessons can be learned without technology, I think transferring those lessons into the contexts of online networks and global, cross-cultural, sometimes anonymous interactions is not necessarily fait accompli with our kids.

As a Year 2 Web 2.0 learner, I really appreciated this post.  Last year I was truly overwhelmed just learning the reality of the existence of Web 2.0…I was fairly content in Web 1.0; actually, until peer Lisa Huff, no one had taken the time (or was it that no one else knew about Web 2.0 either?  Maybe?) to show me, to teach me, so that I could then learn.

This year, I am still overwhelmed.  I have spent several days this summer learning more tech tools.  Now, as I sit here and as I talk to my fellow comrades who are also now entering the land of Web 2.0, my head and theirs now are spinning with the “why.”  Which tool do I use with what Framework?    Which ones (besides blogs and wikis) am I the most comfortable with in showing my students?  What lessons would best be enhanced with Penzu, Protopage, WikiSpaces, Webspiration?

School starts in about four weeks.  Am I crazy, or do I need another workshop?  A shop where we actually “work” on these very decisions.  While my being crazy might be debated, the answer to this question is yes.  We need another workshop.  Oh, my.

My journey continues through the highways and byways of 21 CLC through two avenues:

1. My 21 CLC Professional Learning school team.  I will record those thoughts at this blog:  Mrs. Gillmore’s 21 CLC Journey.
2. Classroom Redesign…yes, a newly redesigned classroom, which includes a class set of mini computer and other tech tools.  Too cool, right?  Thoughts about this journey will be recorded at this blog:  Cafe Gillmore.  (The six teachers involved in this project chose “Cafe” as  our theme…as our motto and as an inspiration for interior decorating!)

I hope you check back and check on my progress…and leave any tips to make this journey even more successful.  Thanks!

Updated my book review blog (Mrs. Gillmore’s Book Reviews) this evening…still behind on some commentaries.  Right now, I would rather read novels than write about them!  Uhhmm, is there a lesson here for me, the teacher, who requires her students to write reviews of novels as they read their “required” six reads per nine weeks?  Yes, probably a blog post about that will follow…need to “read” a little research, though, gather some data before I can “write” about it.

My latest read and review is novel number 25 Eclipse.

Now, on to novel number 26…yes, New Moon!

You are cordially invited to peruse my students’ blogs and read their latest poetic creations in honor of National Poetry Month and our current thematic units.  (Poems should be posted by Friday!)

• English 11:  Click here to go to a list of this class’s blogs.  Their latest poetic posting is a haiku commemorating the Holocaust and what they have learned thus far in our Courage to Be Responsible thematic unit.  By the way, Holocaust Remembrance Day is today April 21.  Tomorrow, this class will learn about fate of the butterflies each has created in memory of a child who was a part of the Terezin Concentration Camp…(will post tomorrow about this…with pictures of fluttering creations).  Each student’s butterfly is based on a poem taken from I Never Saw Another Butterfly. These butterflies will now migrate to the Holocaust Museum in Houston, TX, where they are attempting to collect 1,500,000 butterfliesto commemorate the children killed in the Holocaust.
• Again…thanks to Dr. Pezz for inspiring this project through a blog post of his.
• Pre-AP English 10:  Click here to access this class’s blogs.  Today we discussed William Carlos Williams’ poem “The Little Red Wheelbarrow” and how this poem aptly fits into our Utopia vs. Dystopia unit.  Then, to my delight, I assigned each to write a poem using this one as a model.  (Please click here if interested in reading this poem and checking out my PowerPoint I used with this discussion.)  Such a powerful poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

The Arkansas Department of Education now has a blog.  Now, how cool is that?

ADE Briefs, online just since January, makes me wonder if a school district should consider posting updates via a blog as a means of communicating with parents.  Coincidentally, this thought falls just, literally, minutes since I sent an email to all our faculty requesting news from them to insert into a parent e-newsletter that I hope to send out tomorrow.

On such a blog, teachers could brag, counselors could inform, administrators could share building and district news.  Students could even be invited to post exemplary class work.

Do you know of any schools hosting a blog as another avenue of keeping parents informed and involved within their districts?

Uhmmm…I am going to ponder on this more. 

As I scanned my Reader, I read this post by Dana Huff at Much Madness is Divinest Sense…and was inspired to create such a blog of my own, so I did. 

This year…a new goal on this the first of January of the new year 2009…to catalog, to reflect, to share…my thoughts on books as I read them.  Mrs. G’s Book Reviews will catalog my reflections on authors of my choice.

Ms. Dana read 23 books this past year…wow! Amazing, especially when you appreciate her extremely busy schedule.

Right now I have no idea how many books I read last year, but I did peruse this blog and co-posted my thoughts on some that I had read on the new blog.

Thanks, Ms. Dana, for the inspiration!

Yes, I do marvel at the many uses of the blog.

Today, my husband had knee surgery, so last night I posted my lesson plans on the class blog.  Now, surely, oh, surely, I won’t hear, “But the sub didn’t tell us to do that!”? 

Yes, that’s right…I am my own substitute…with assistance from Mrs. Holmes, of course.  Thanks, Mrs. Holmes!

Yes, the power of the blog.  I really like this power!