Writing Beyond Pencil and Paper

Our fifth graders have a new, county-wide required project. Last year my class was one to beta test it and this year my school is one of sixteen to pilot it. Last year I felt rushed and had another huge year end project we did as a school. As a result, I was disappointed in their projects (not that they didn't work hard). The project involves looking at different cultures (we study ancient cultures in fifth grade) to better understand global interdependence and to use technology.

This year we got started earlier, did a lot of prep work ahead of time, and I had a better big picture vision. So far, I have high hopes for how this will turn out next week when they are due.

My kids have found a new search engine they really like: boolify. They have almost all been using it frequently. My favorite thing about it is that it has them thinking more critically about their search terms. They are using the 'and' term and the 'not' term well to narrow their searches. I think that is a difficult thing for kids to do.

Another big improvement this year is that my students are really trying a variety of new technology. Last year they all either created web pages through an awful site or created powerpoints. This year, thanks to their push and my growing knowledge, we have a lot more going on. Many of them are using their own wikis in Blackboard to organize their research, especially if they are working with a partner.

One student is creating a blog using blogger. She wants to put a powerpoint slideshow on it as well as several other options, if she has time to create them. She's using the blog as a place for some text and a home spot for other aspects of her project.

Another student is creating a webpage using googlepages. Her site has inspired kids in my class and in other classes and she will not be alone in using this tool.


Several groups are using Movie Maker or Photo Story to create movies using images they've found (we're still struggling with some copyright issues, especially for those who want to include their movies on a website).

They're pushing themselves as learners with technology, which I find exciting. However, the biggest thing I think they're learning from this project is a broader picture of 'writing'. They are finding that they can use other ways of sharing information than simply writing a paper. And that they still need to do some planning, drafting, revising, and editing of their work, regardless of the medium. I hope that as they head off to other schools next year they will take that knowledge and their skills and continue to push themselves and their teachers (as they have done with me!).

In addition to updating our teachers' lounge, a couple of us worked on organizing the school's math resources while our student teachers did their independent teaching time. For the past few years those resources have been in a trailer along with the office space for our math specialists, meaning they were rarely used. Our principal has been trying to find a way to get the office for the math teachers into the building so that they are in the midst rather than removed. She found a small space for them so we moved the materials to our AV room off the library. In the process we did a few really smart things (thanks to the brilliance of various people):

• We moved a lot of materials back into classrooms. We did so by marketing the items and putting them out in the teachers' lounge. Even things we thought no one could possibly want disappeared quickly. That cleared out a lot.
• Our next step was organizing what was left. We purchased new containers so that things would stack neatly. When we moved things into the new home, we labeled everything, including listing instructional ideas for the materials.
  
• Finally, we wanted teachers to be able to determine what to use when they need materials. So, we created a group on flickr with pictures of all of the resources. Each picture is tagged with possible uses and more detailed instructional uses are listed with the picture. This way teachers can search for fractions or addition to find useful resources. As teachers find new uses for the materials they can add tags or comment on the picture.

This is all very new for us, so it remains to be seen how well it will work. We have high hopes however.

Pacing

This weekend our Girls on the Run team ran the final 5K of the year. I ran as a buddy with one of my current students. Buddy runners are along to encourage and push the girls during the race. Looking back and reflecting on the race I realized that my buddy did great when I set goals she could see and felt she could achieve. Telling her that we would stop and walk when we got to the halfway mark did not do much to motivate her, even if the halfway mark was only a short distance away. She couldn't see anything significant marking that point so she couldn't really tell how much farther it would be. However, if I said we could walk once we got to the bottom of the hill, she kept up a good, steady pace down the hill. At the very end, when we came around the corner and could see the finish line she full out sprinted. It was impressive.

This got me thinking about teaching (of course). Right now we are working on a huge, end of the year, social studies and technology project. I'm really excited about it and as a result, so are the students. I've worked hard in my thinking to be sure I can see the big picture and the final goal. It's important that I can see this. But I don't know that they need to at this point. I think that one of my jobs is to set smaller, achievable goals for them throughout the project. The project, as I see it, is massive. It involves a lot of research, plenty of synthesizing what they learn, some tough decision making about technology tools to use, and serious work with those tools. I've set it up for them in those four parts, and we're currently working on the first and second. However, I'm thinking it needed to be broken down even more, at least for some students. The massive amount of research they are doing intimidates some and they want to give up. They can't see an end in sight so it doesn't feel worth the effort.

Anytime something is new and difficult, one needs to see success fairly regularly. A project of this scale is not something these students have done before. I've got to help them set a pace they can continue, hopefully with a burst of energy at the end.

Technology in Math

This lesson didn't begin with technology. Initially the students were working with three triangles from tangrams and creating polygons. Five regular polygons can be made with those triangles. They then had to find the area and perimeter of the shapes. The goal is for them to realize that shapes can have the same area but different perimeters (or the other way around). It was harder for them than I had anticipated, but they enjoyed it.




















We ended up writing the perimeters of the shapes as algebraic expressions based on the sides of the triangles. Actually measuring was not working well and this was good practice for them writing expressions. Plus, that pushed some of them to finally realize that the areas of the shapes were all the same. Once they recognized that the sides of the triangles remained the same no matter what shape they created, they were able to realize that the areas of each triangle did so as well.


As we neared the end of the lesson we realized that we needed to look at some of it a bit more deeply. I gave each student some fresh graph paper and asked them to try and create shapes with areas greater than perimeters, perimeters greater than areas, and equal perimeters and areas. (I know we are comparing apples and oranges to an extent here because we are comparing units with units squared, but they had a lot of preconceived notions that needed to be questioned.)

Then I wanted to be able to look at some of what they found together. So I pulled up grid paper on my smartboard.

They drew several different shapes to show how each of the possibilities might look. Some students were just amazed that you could have equal perimeter and area or that the perimeter could ever be a larger number than the area. It was interesting to hear their discussion. Then Mr. B opened up Geometer's Sketchpad with a shape that he could manipulate so they could watch the perimeter and area change. This allowed them to test some theories quickly without having to do a lot of tedious computation (which would have caused them to not test their theories). They were enthralled.

This was the best on-the-fly use of technology I've done all year. I was so glad to have the smartboard and Geometer's Sketchpad at my fingertips. The one depressing piece was that I hadn't originally thought to do these things as a part of the lesson.

Personal Learning Environments

The tech guru at our school has been thinking hard about how best to work with students and technology. He's pushing us to push the boundaries and meet students' needs in the best ways possible. This morning he shared an epiphany with me. He's been mulling over the idea of 'personal learning environments' and has created a working definition for himself. (I'm sure he'll correct my explanation if I'm missing something, at least I hope so.)

Here's an example: students are working on a study of oceans. In a group they could have a specific focus, say ocean currents. Their group would create a wiki as a base for all their research. They would create a group delicious site full of relevant links, a bloglines collection of feeds, and a blog that they write to share their thinking and their synthesis of their learning through the research. All of these sites would be linked in their wiki.

My question is, what else is a possibility? My feeling is that no piece will make sense for every group and for every project, but these seem like a good starting point. What other tools could help students research and/or pull their thinking together?

Technology

My four-year-old has just figured out how to truly use a computer independently. She uses the trackpad on my laptop fairly well. She can now choose videos to watch and play games on the preschool websites we open for her.

Neither my husband nor I did any direct instruction on using a computer. A while back her grandparents had a child-sized mouse and keyboard for her and probably taught her some things. But it's been a while since she was using them. However, she's sees us on the computer frequently (most likely too frequently) and has played games with us controlling things for a while now.

She's not even four and a half and I'm wondering when she'll get her first email address. How long before she joins social networking sites? When will we she begin shopping online? Will she have a blog soon? I'm excited and terrified by the possibilities.

Her grandparents are getting her an XO laptop for Christmas. I can't wait to see what she figures out how to do on it. Learning new technology is a challenge for me, just as learning a new language would be. However, at four it comes easily.

This has re-energized me about using technology with my students. Her ability to pick it up so quickly has reminded me that my students are capable of learning and utilizing technology as well. We'll be in the lap next week.

Baby Steps with Technology

I just overheard two teachers discussing a lesson one of them taught today. Her students are researching endangered animals and she is having them do their research independently (they are fifth graders). Ahead of time she set up a list of bookmarks for them on the server so that they had approved websites, including search engines, to get started.

This morning she got one cart of laptops from nearby and another cart from the second floor of our other building, not an easy job, so that each student would have a computer. Then, during the lesson, she showed them how to log onto the server to access the bookmarks. Only about five of the students were able to get logged in. For some reason, the other fifteen or so were locked out. She got them started on another website, but found the experience very frustrating, especially after so carefully setting up bookmarks. (As an aside, I've shown her del.icio.us for future use.)

I know that many educators, parents, and others are frustrated by how little many teachers use technology in their classrooms. I know that I don't use nearly as much as I should. I also know that my school district has done a pretty good job of supporting teachers with this. Each elementary school has a technology specialist full time who is there to support the use of technology in the classrooms. Each school also has another tech person a couple of days a week to do the troubleshooting and to fix problems. However, our full time person often gets stuck fixing things around the building because he's here more often. He's done a ton to offer workshops before and after school to help teachers and he's willing to work with anyone who asks. But most teachers don't. They have a lot on their plates already. I'm not sure how we move forward here. I'm about as open to using technology as possible and I read plenty to keep me up to date with the options for web 2.0 tools, but I still can't pull off what I think I should be doing. How do we manage to support teachers in a way that really helps them integrate this? What's the first step?

Web 2.0 Challenges

I've gotten motivated to really try some exciting things in technology with my students this year. BlackBoard now offers us wikis and blogs. We've got five wikis going (teamwork discussion, books list, science research questions, "Math Curse" by Jon Scieszka exploration, and interesting websites) so far. In addition, each student has a blog. They'll use these to write about their reflections on their reading and respond to one another. I anticipate other uses of the blogs as well, but we'll start here.

The challenge is that there is no way for me to know quickly when any of these items have been updated. I want to monitor them to be sure that the content is appropriate and to ensure that students are not leaving comments for one another that are unacceptable. However, the RSS feed option is turned off because of security concerns. So, my only option is to look at each wiki and each blog and click on each individual page and set of comments. That's five wikis and twenty blogs. It starts to seem like it isn't worth my time after all.

I really want this to work. I love the idea that using the wikis allows for collaboration and discussions that can continue beyond our limited time at school. Writing on the blogs offers a more authentic experience and wider audience than simply writing for me. Any advice on how to do this without spending hours clicking the mouse?

Challenges of Working with Technology

My 5th graders are working on an interesting social studies project. We're testing it out for the county and trying to cram it into the last few weeks. On the whole, it's a great project. The kids have to think about global interdependence across time, cultures, or both. They can look at it through art, literature, trade, government, etc. It's a rare chance for them to make a lot of choices about their learning and how they present their findings. Our technology teacher has been a huge help. The technology office, social studies office, and librarians did a lot beforehand to set things up for us. There is very little more that could have been done to make this project successful.

And yet...certain things are driving me insane. Many of my kids are creating PowerPoints. A couple of them are fantastic. Most are not. They are so focused on making the slides look cool, transition in interesting ways, and have fun graphics that the content is getting no focus. A lot of kids are creating websites. Again, a couple are really well done. Most are so focused on having fun with the technology (and posting on each other's guestbooks) that their content stinks.

Should I give them opportunities earlier in the year and throughout the year to work with these technologies in the hope of getting this out of their systems? Should I require a storyboard of their PowerPoint or website before I allow them on a computer so that I can get the focus on the content before they can play? Any other thoughts?

I really want to do this project again next year - and others like it. But I clearly need a better plan.