Blogs

This went very well.  My students’ enthusiasm for their topics really shined through in their research and narratives.  What worked best was having them write about their passion about the time period.  This allowed them to take ownership of their blogs and learning, and in someways customize my course to suit their learning pursuits.  Some of my students even discussed their learning with other faculty, and some of my colleagues followed along with my students throughout the semester.   Each time a blog post was due I was really excited to read what they had done and learned.

But, nothing is perfect.  I still have to find ways to reach out to all of the students and engage them.  There is no one size fits all approach to any of this, and the thing about being pioneers in this is that I have no models to fall back on.  My colleagues and I are creating the models.

Another thing to make sure of is that this does not turn into a ubiquitous, ho-hum kind of assignment.  Some of it is novel, but if it becomes something that everyone is doing just to do it, or doing without purpose then the power of this assignment is lost.  Additionally we have to be sure that students aren’t being asked to manage too many different blogs and accounts all at once.  Blogs are supposed to be learning journeys…ideally they could maintain one blog for four years that could be a portfolio.  But to get there we have to take baby steps, and I feel that this blog project was a baby step.

Wikis and Copyright

My U.S. II Wikis were a learning experience.  We as educators need to engage students in understanding copyright and intellectual property.  As I see it now students see citations, works cited and bibliographies as an added and troublesome step in research and/or summative projects.   This is a conversation we are having at our school, and it’s one that should be occurring at every school.  What I ran into with the wikis is that not everything was cited properly (which is common on many research assignments), some of the material used was not allowed to be used according to the copyright holder, and that students confused “public domain” with “don’t have to cite or accredit”.  This is a major task that I want to tackle in the Spring Semester.

The content itself was great, and the students did put unique voices into the work.  I was pleased with their final products in that respect, and I feel that they did connect with the human side of the Great Depression.

The Future

For this coming quarter I plan on using Diigo to manage group collaboration in my classes, embarking on student analyses of the use of social media by politicians and government officials, continued conversion to Project Based Learning in my courses and the continued revision of curriculum Understand by Design.  As these things unfold I’ll be here asking for your help and sharing my progress.

Here is the project sheet.  It may be long and wordy because I am still new to the project myself and quite possibly I need to see my thoughts on paper to best communicate to myself and my students what is going on.

Between the Wars

At first I was trying to just figure out where to begin.  What do they have to know in order to be able to create and shape this project with minimal frustration.  After some serious thought I felt that I would first introduce the project, their topics, research expectations and requirements and take their questions.

Second step was to explain to them how they need to create works that were not just plain encyclopedia articles, rather they were creating work that was interesting to read, had lively and interesting diction and incorporated media and images which enhance their work.  I left it entirely up to the group to democratically decide how the work would be presented on the Wikispaces page.  I am seeing some great things so far.

Third step was to allow them to do research, keeping track of where they were getting information so that it can be cited later.

Fourth step was to enlist my friend Marci Zane (mzane on Twitter) of the Instructional Media Center at Hunterdon Central to teach about copyright, Creative Commons, fair use and public domain.  We found that the best approach was to team teach it so it didn’t look like her instruction was separate and apart from mine, and that it carried as much weight and authority as my instruction does.  Marci created (and we used) this link as a learning aid.

The World of Copyright HCRHS Instructional Media Center

We started with Kid Rock’s PSA on stealing music (the first 25 seconds of the video is NOT classroom safe! You have to explain the gist of what he says in the first 25 seconds so the rest is in context.),  and it generated a great conversation.  We started with the question “What is Kid Rock saying?” and it went from there.

This experience was an eye opener for the students, for me and for Marci.  It was also enlightening for our staff and it’s going to be the genesis of some discussions we are going to have at school regarding instructing copyright.  Most students don’t fully understand copyright and what it means — and not because they don’t care — it’s because they haven’t been taught before.  Our discussions about Disney, downloading music, using file sharing services, etc. made us ALL realize how much copyright touches so many parts of our daily lives and we have to be educated on how to use works created by others.

Step 5 is where we are today.  After they got more research time and have some information and copyright safe/acceptable media it was time to populate the wikis.  So, last evening I sent the invitations to the students’ school issued email accounts and had them create the new accounts today.  We went over our school’s expectations for maintaining a safe environment on the Internet and the students used those guidelines to create appropriate screen names.

Here’s where it can get overwhelming.  Once they got in I had them tilt their laptop screens down to about a 45 degree angle and look at the LCD screen where I was working.  I walked them through the basic layout of the home page and then only showed them three things:

1. How to create a new page.
2. How to add and edit text.
3. How to add and edit images.

It doesn’t seem like much when you look at that list, but it’s just the right amount when you are teaching a new tool.  And we often times assume that kids know how to operate in a wiki and make content, but in reality they don’t have those skills yet because their social media experiences are more on Facebook and Twitter — interfaces that you cannot change and create in the same way you can on a wiki.

Once I did that I had them get into their groups without computers and discuss the actual layout of the wiki –  how many pages, what is the structure going to be, etc.  I told them that they can have as many pages as they want but that they have to keep elements of good web design in mind:

1. Integration of text and media for a pleasing appearance and in a good balance
2. Good color tone to the text and background
3. Pages of appropriate length
4. An organized structure that isn’t too deep or complex

Then, I let them go.  As they were meeting I passed out paper copies of my How to Use Wikispaces guide to them for their reference.  My goal for them was to get text and images up on a page by the end of the block.  Next week we will learn how to link pages together (again seems so simple but you have to be careful not to overwhelm) as well as how to use some of the more advanced functions on the tool bar.

I am really excited to see how this turns out.  It’s been a learning experience for me and it will inform my practice of teaching in the future.  Through past experience with wikis last year and earlier this year I think I am starting to develop a smooth technique for teaching all of this.

As always comments and feedback are welcome!

Between the Wars Wiki Project Rubric

They are now getting into addressing some of their questions via standard research.  Their blog posts this time around will be a preview inviting readers to read a brief paper (2-3 pages) they write related to their first research question.  The final step of the post will be to read each others’ blogs and offer support, encouragement, questions and direction via comments.  Here is the Second Blog Post assignment.

Second Blog Post Instructions
Second Blog Post Rubric

As always, any comments and feedback are welcomed!

This past Friday Heather Hersey and I went over the reasons for blogging, the use of blogs in the classroom (and issues surrounding it), privacy on the web, Creative Commons, attribution and copyright.  The students also chose their platform for their blog and got things set up initially.  They did a great job at being adaptable to new technology and they asked insightful questions on everything from technology, copyright, privacy and functionality of blog platforms.

At this point they’re working on their first post which is all about them, their plans and what interests them.  The skills that we are going to be working on with this post are writing for the Web, writing for a public audience, good web design, and general read/write web functionality.  Posted below are the first blog post instructions and the rubric that accompanies it.  As always any feedback is appreciated and welcomed.  Marci and Heather have also created this project link for our class to reference through out the semester.  Check it out, it’s such a great how-to resource!

Classical World Blog Project Link @ HCRHS IMC Site

To my U.S. educator- readers I hope you’ve had a great open.  To all else I hope this finds you well.

First Blog Post

First Blog Post Rubric

Classical World Blog Project Second Version

I am also in the process of creating/revising my new U.S. II curriculum.  I had the students reflect on their experiences last year and identify their strengths as well as their areas for growth.  I was not sure what to expect from them — rolling their eyes, “playing school” because they know I am asking them to do this or actually reflecting and planning.  I think I got the latter because what they wrote seems so honest and sincere.  Let’s hope it’s not just me being naive!

So I spent probably a good 4 hours revamping my materials for the 1920s this past Saturday.  The revisions are asking them to definitely do some data collection and basic reading/comprehension — which I feel is necessary to establish a knowledge base for this content.  But what I am trying to scaffold or frame is for them to look at the U.S. in 2010 and compare and contrast the 1920s.  I also think that this kind of activity would allow for a meaningful, authentic final assessment for this unit.

I am also hoping that this will set them up to do critical thinking and problem solving, access and analyze information and improve their written communication skills.  (We are using Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills to guide our revision process.)  What I am still trying to do is find out what kind of summative project or assessment to have them do.  I am also trying to figure out how to have a good mix of formative and summative assessments in my course.  This is tough stuff; it’s so much easier when you have masters and mentors who have been there and done that and you can become inspired by their work.  But, that’s not an option so I am reaching out to you.  Any ideas?  I’ve already heard from an educator at Ewing High School whom I hope to collaborate with over the year.  My ears are open to more things!

So here’s our game plan so far, and more of it will unroll throughout the semester.  Today was the first day of school and I have to say that I am impressed by the energy that my student have for the course.  It helps so much when trying out new learning activities…and it’s what also makes teaching electives FUN!  Over the next week I will be introducing the idea of social media in class where it’s appropriate, and demonstrating sites and sources I use to learn.

On September 17 Marci is going to come into class and we are going to discuss what a blog is, how information is being shared globally now in 2010 and how that’s different from just even a few years ago.  We’re also going to look at how news is shared and how social media has changed the way that news and information is exchanged.  Marci has some great ideas and conversations starters that we’re going to try out for the first time.

Next we’re going to move on and demonstrate some sites and sources that we feel are somewhat like “primary source” type social media sites and websites.  They’re “primary sources” in that these are people doing current research and publishing media about it for the first time…they’re the primary generators of this new information (and maybe we need to chose a different term for this so as to avoid confusion.  If you have suggestions do tell!)

Then we’ll move onto demonstrating “secondary source” sites — people doing exactly what they’re going to be doing — writing about and sharing a passion.  Most likely the “secondary” sites out there now are from students, but many many people all over the earth have a passion for these societies and cultures (which is very relevant to the essential and guiding questions!) and they write and share.  We are hoping to find them.

And then we are going to show my students this site and I am going to talk to them about my experience blogging and the feedback I am getting.  It also shows them that I am not asking them to do something that I myself have not done.

They will then have time to poke around and find things that they may want to blog about this semester and we’ll direct them to an IMC project link page.  They’ll then have a week to really think about what they want to write.

Finally on September 24 Heather will come and help us get on WordPress.com and set up our blogs.  We’ll also use the Netvibes aggregator so that students can see what’s going on and make it easier to collaborate and comment.

Here’s a VERY ROUGH sketch of the project.  We have a lot of finer details to work out, but take a gander and offer up any advice or suggestions you have.  I think everything on there in its current state is self explanatory to and educator; I know more details are necessary for a student.

On a side note, I typed up this post on the same model of netbook that my students will receive tomorrow.  I love this model and it was so easy to use.  The keyboard is laid out well, the screen quality amazing and the overall usage experience pleasant.  They’re going to love these machines!

Thanks and have a great open (if you haven’t already) to any U.S. readers.  To readers elsewhere on the globe I hope all is well.

Classical World Blog Project

Students who take the  Classical World course at Central do so because they’re interested in the ancients and the world they created and inhabited.  Some of them are even taking Latin simultaneously!

I want to tap into this interest and have them create and  guide their own learning on some topic within the curriculum that is potentially their passion for this time period.  I was talking to a colleague of mine about this the other day and through our conversation we thought it may be a cool idea to have each student create and maintain a blog over the course of the semester which is devoted to a curricular topic of their choice.

I find that a lot of my students love the mythology and pageantry of the gods and goddesses of the ancient kingdoms.  Others love the blood, gore, courage and fear of war.  Gladiators are always fascinating and public and personal hygiene during that time period always seems to open eyes (and turn stomachs)!  I don’t want them to feel that there are certain days or times where we learn about and discuss these topics and others.  I want them to know that learning happens all the time and in many self-directed ways.

So I have this nebulous blog idea out there.  The Big Question for this project that I am toying with is “Why do we call the civilizations during this time period ‘classical’?”  It’s not my question; it came from colleagues and it’s in our curriculum guide.  But I think it’s a great question because it creates the link between then and now and it can go a long way to explain why we still care about, and are fascinated by, these people and their achievements.

And when we go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in December for our artifact study I expect that they’ll have prepared and researched in advance so that some of the artifacts from the museum’s collection are familiar to them, and they’ll write on on their blog about what they learned at the Met based on their artifact study.  It’s almost like it’s didactic and reflective all at the same time.

I really want it to work and it’s going to be a journey for me, too.

I am going to be talking to my friends in the IMC and other colleagues over the next week to start to shape it up.  Some of the questions I have are:

1. How do I do this and get it all set up?  (netvibes and Edublogs)
2. What kind of structure do I give this in terms of how the kids ultimately address the Big Question and demonstrate learning?
3. Their writings have to be informed.  The site could become a part of someone else’s PLN.  How do I keep them true to a researched based assignment while at the same time giving them ownership of what they’re writing?
4. How do I make this authentic to them while at the same time meeting my curricular needs as well as my research skills needs?
5. How do I have them reach out beyond the four walls of the classroom to make connections with sources which enhance their learning?
6. How frequently do I have them post to their blog?  What’s the right balance of reflection, research and just plain writing?
7. Do I give them the option of taking it public if they want, or keep it private?  Both have benefits and drawbacks?
8. What am I not even thinking of?

As I go through this process I’ll write about it and post things that I create.  I am also looking for any suggestion or experiences you’ve had with this so that I can make this a powerful and fun experience for my students.

For those of you not familiar with Firefox, it’s an Internet browser.  In my experience it has crashed less, and techy people that I know say that it’s more secure than other browsers.  Please understand that I am not casting aspersions against Microsoft or Internet Explorer 8.  I use Firefox because I like it, and because you can customize it with different tools, called Add-ons, which do some pretty neat things.

If you have any contributions to make to this list that you use in your practice to teaching, in your classroom or with your students please let me know.

1. Xmarks — this started out as an Add-on called Foxmarks but has since become a stand alone feature that works with all major browsers.  Xmarks is an online repository for all of your bookmarks.  You can categorize them into different profiles (I have three:  Personal PC, Tablet PC, and Netbook) and then sync them to your machine.  It’s unlike social bookmarking sites such as de.lici.ous because Xmarks isn’t meant to be shared.  It’s meant to be a repository of all your bookmarks that you can sync to any machine that you are using.  This is really awesome for when you get a new computer, or if you have to re-format your computer, or if you are working on a computer that you’re not normally using.  Basically, you never have to worry about losing your bookmarks again.  I find this useful because at least once a year my Tablet PC gets re-imaged and I use three different computers in my daily life (my own desktop PC and the school-owned machines).  When I find useful things for class or for my own professional growth it doesn’t matter what computer I am on, I just make sure I am logged on to Xmarks and bingo — I have the link and can easily make it a part of one or all of my profiles.  And I know my students with the 1:1 will find this useful, too.  They’re doing the same thing in their world.  There’s a lot more information on the Xmarks site if you’re interested.  You can get it through the Add-ons page or by visiting their website.
2. Fireshot — Fireshot is an Add-on which takes a snapshot of everything that is on your computer screen and makes it an image file.  You can then do anything with that image file that you can with any other image file.  I find this very useful for demonstration purposes as well as when I create written directions for using computer programs or Web 2.0 tools.  You can find this on the Add-ons page.
3. Diigo Toolbar — The Diigo Toolbar allows full functionality of the Diigo site.  To see what Diigo does and how the Toolbar works, visit Diigo and go to the Tools menu.  It’s also available through the Add-ons page
4. Smart Bookmarks Bar — This application takes bookmarks that you move (or save) into your Bookmarks Toolbar folder which displays them as icons with text below the Navigation Toolbar.  Smart Bookmarks removes the text entirely and displays the bookmarks as icons.  I like this because my most useful and visited sites appear as small icons on my browser and I don’t have to hunt through the Bookmarks drop down menu to find what I want.  You can get this through the Add-ons page.
5. Firefox Personas — I find this more useful for students than anything.  Our district does allow them some customization of their 1:1 machine (we run anti-exe programs and a lot of settings are locked up).  But, I do show them Firefox Personas.  Basically they’re themes that they can use to customize the look of their browser.  There are 30,000+ personas ranging from art,  sports teams, colleges and universities, TV shows, etc.  Students can also create their own personas and upload them to Firefox.  A neat suggestion to creative or ambitious kids would be to make one for your school.  I go through this for the purpose of making the kids feel they have ownership of their electronic environment and to make them feel more comfortable with their machine.  It’s more of a human/personality thing than educational, but if it gives them buy-in to 1:1 or establishes a better comfort level with the class or me as an instructor I think it’s worth it.   You can find these at Firefox Personas.

These are the most useful for me and I hope you feel the same way, too.

Last year my Classical World (ancient Western Civilization) course was a 1:1 pilot class.  My idea for authentic learning was for the students to add content to a Wikispaces.com wiki which shows what one will learn and do in the course.  At the end of the course I was going to  give the URL to our Counseling Services personnel to be included in next year’s Course of Studies so that kids interested in Classical World can see what happens in the class.

This is an authentic work because they are writing for a real audience with a real purpose — which also allows us to teach one of our major objectives with the 1:1 pilot — positive interactions on the Internet which lead to the development of a student’s own PLN.  It also allows them to showcase their creativeness in unique and different ways.  It’s a project I will be pursuing again in the future.

I wasn’t able to get it 100% off the ground last year through no one’s fault.  In the first growing pains of the 1:1 project there was A TON of learning to do on all parts — and having never taught this technology before I had alot of personal growth to do.  But, those awesomely exciting and very anxious days with this new technology and these new tools made teaching fun and allowed me to interact with my students as a student.  They know just as much about this technology as we do, and many times they know more.

Suggestions for You

Creating a class wiki is cool and exciting.  In fact Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers writes about it in his latest post “How to Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year” What I took away from the experience is this:

1. Try out wiki services that are out there to see which one you like.  (Wikispaces, Wetpaint, PBworks are some that I am familiar with using)
2. Discuss with school administration or your supervisor the district’s regulations/position on making wikis open to the public vs. keeping them closed and private.  This will have to factor into what you plan to do and what your students’ final products will look like.
3. Once you decide which one you are using, determine what you want to do with the wiki or what it’s purpose will be — you need to do this because it will guide you on how you lay it out.
4. Physically, on paper, sketch out the structure of your wiki (whether it’s a drawing, word web type graphic organizer, an outline, etc.).  Once you conceptually see this on paper it may be easier to assemble it and decide what students (or the public) can edit and create.  BUT, if you don’t operate this way then skip this step.
5. Put some content or samples on the wiki so that your students have a guide as to what they may be doing.
6. Stress to the students that your example is just that — an example.  Point out the essential features of your example that they must include in their work and use your best judgment in tightening or loosening the restrictions on how they accomplish your task.
7. Before they log on or create accounts:
   1. Set the ground rules.  A good rule of thumb is to tell them that the rules they follow on campus, etc. must be followed on the wiki.  You will need to check with your school district administration or supervisor before you get to this step.  But, it’s the most familiar framework for your students.
   2. Set guidelines for user names.  I tell my students that their user names on a site that is going to be potentially public should in no way identify them as individuals.  And you need to tell them that they have to be “school-rated”.  Also, your student may have user names.  It’s up to you if you want them to create a new account — but before you do ask yourself if it truly matters that the kid have another account unique to your class.
   3. Find out who does not have Internet access at home.  If a student does not you will need to work out something with him or her which will allow for participation on the wiki.
8. Plan to spend at least 1-2 days just teaching the technology.  Inquiry based learning and project based learning lends itself to less is more.  And for the kids to ultimately be successful and enjoy the project they have to be comfortable using the technology.  Think about what your reaction would be if someone quickly went through a new tech tool and then told you to produce your magnum opus on it!
9. BE FLEXIBLE, BE FLEXIBLE, BE FLEXIBLE.
10. REMIND STUDENTS TO FREQUENTLY SAVE THEIR WORK!  Sometimes 20 minutes worth of work can disappear if they accidentally hit “Back” in the browser or navigate to a different site.  I’ve seen it happen, and it’s not good because there’s nothing you can do about it.
11. Learn with the students, and use them as resources to help their peers with the functionality of the site.  Students are eager to assist, especially when they realize that the teacher-student roles have switched.
12. Have clear expectations for what their work process and work products are.  Evaluating their process and product formatively is also highly recommended in my experience.

Please feel free to comment on what I have done and on my suggestions.  By no means do I have all the right answers, and if you disagree with anything I have to say I am very interested to hear and learn from you.

Historical fiction allowed us to meet many curricular goals in both English and social studies, and it was a replacement for the traditional MLA-style research paper.  As you will see from the project sheet the students had to select a persona to assume and write that person’s story, entering his or her life no earlier than 1938 and then leaving the character by 1946.  During the war years (1939-’45) this person had to be at least 16 so that the character is a young adult during the war — and possibly serving the nation at some point.  If the character was an immigrant that person’s story had to take into account the legislation of the early ’20s which curtailed immigration to the U.S. substantially.

You will notice that we did not allow students to assume a Japanese persona.  This was because our mentor text for the unit was When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka.  The students needed to research and create their characters and in her novel Ms. Otsuka had done the research already.  (By the way, if you’ve never read it you should…it’s a fantastic book and students WILL respond to it!)

The final product was four 5-page (approx.) chapters corresponding to four different mini-eras of World War II.  Over time the character had to develop and mature, react appropriately to the news of the war or to being a part of the war, and be historically accurate the whole time.  This is where the research paper skills are employed.

To begin the project the kids had to get an idea of what 1938 United States was like, so Mary and I put some print and electronic resources into learning  stations (most were hosted on Moodle).  Using a guided inquiry process the students learned about the nation in ’38 and came up the the questions that they still needed answers to in order to get a more full picture.  After this process the kids were ready to research and write.

Mary and I connected with our friend and colleague Marci Zane (marcizane on Twitter) of the IMC/Library to teach research skills.  Students think that they know how to search, but in reality we needed to teach them how to use search engines.  So for a few days that winter Marci came to our class and taught them how to key word search, how to narrow searches and how to search in and across the subscription databases that Hunterdon Central has.  Without her help the project would not have been of the high quality that it was.  If you are going to replicate this in your school then reach out to library staff and get them in class to help you.

Then after that the kids started to write Chapter 1,  and they posted their drafts (incomplete at the time) to a Moodle forum.  We taught them how to peer edit and give constructive criticism since the suggested revisions were going to also be posted in the Moodle forum.  As suggestions came in the students revised their writing, and as due dates came and went Mary and I gave formative assessment feedback on each chapter’s draft.

After the chapter 4 formative feedback had been given the students worked on their final products.   The four chapters had to be put into a book format, reflect the suggestions and revisions from formative feedback and constructive criticism and then get uploaded to us for the final, summative assessment.

I know that the kids cared about this assignment because the characters that they created were multi-dimensional, and I was fully invested in these “people” and their stories.  The kids were careful about historical accuracy and really tried to write creatively and vividly.  Some of them drew upon their own family’s  heritage to write their stories, and some of them created a whole new world.  But all of them had to do significant research to get a historically accurate narrative and at the end of the project their research skills, especially electronically, showed improvement.

And the best part about the whole deal was that I didn’t have to read one flat, unimaginative, uncreative research paper.  At all. 

As always here are our materials.  For this project we don’t have too much because much of it was hosted on Moodle.  If you have questions just contact me.

World War II Historical Fiction Project

Historical Fiction WWII
Historical Fiction Rubric