Get Ready, Get Ready!

So I am trying to figure out how my trip to China for the Flat Classroom Conference can have the biggest impact on ALL 97 students at Stratford Elementary School in little tiny Stratford Iowa. After a visit with fellow cohort Cathy O.,  she gave me the idea of a video blog. Thanks Cathy O! I will leave a little video every night, for all the classes to look at in the morning when they come to school,  they can read my post, then post questions or comments for me. Makes perfect sense!  Since I tend to be "dork" anyway, my kids will love watching Mrs.Schaa try out squid or octopus, laughing at me the whole time, while learning a little bit about a culture they may never get to experience themselves.....hmmm many of these kids have never even been  in an airplane, and unfortunately may NEVER ride in an airplane, so I need to be their eyes and ears EVEN on the plane! So GET READY, I am going to blog about "Mrs. Schaa's Adventures in China"...Teachers are excited, kids are excited, Mrs. Schaa's excited...so Get Ready, Get Ready!

"Web 2.0- It's a No-Brainer"

How could anyone who "poo poo's" Web 2.0 tools look at these Tagxedo's by my 5th and 6th graders, and think they are a waste of time? These kids are studying the civil war, and though they do find slavery and the whole battle thing exciting, this art project was high on their favorite's list. First we brainstormed every word that they could think of that THEY knew about The Civil War. Many words were repeated, but that's was ok because Tagxedo changes the size of the font depending how often the words are repeated. We had 4 students recording the words as they were shouted out, then they emailed them to me in a Word doc and I edited, and condensed them into one doc. We went online and looked at some Tagxedo's, namely the one with Abe Lincoln with the Gettysburg Address inside his portrait, and decided on what "shape" they wanted to depict for their piece. After drawing and Mrs. Schaa uploading them to Tagxedo, they got to work, changing the font, color, layout with the words "they" came up with about The Civil War. Lots of ownership here! It is truly an exciting time to be an educator!

I want to flatten my school!

NO TIME

no time, no time

  I got got got got no time  

 No no no no no no no time  

 I got got got got no time

This is what I heard at ITEC and thought about on my way home from ITEC a few weeks ago. My fellow cohorts were talking about it,and I overheard teachers in the halls while waiting for a session saying, "What would really be nice, is if I got back to school and I could take a whole day to try some of these tools out".... I went back to my school so excited and asked my principal if she was going to give me a half day of PD to present some of what I gleaned to the staff. I'll give you 3 guesses as to what she told me....It seems, that schools and "the powers that be" want us to integrate technology but don't want to dedicate any professional development time for it. So- when will these teachers try it out? 

ON THEIR OWN TIME. Many teachers don't dedicate their nights and weekends to learning about new web 2.0 tools. They have families and other things going on, they have lives! This is what frustrates me the most. Wonderful web 2.0 tools, free, easy to use, and no time to try them out, and no time to show them to teachers.....Maybe we need to mandate some PD for tech integration...

who's for it??

Thoughts after ITEC

I went to ITEC in Iowa City and listened to a lot of tech people. Vicki Davis, Cool Cat Teacher was the keynote, and our cohorts were able to have some face time with her. Most or all of the things she said resonated with me. Like how she showed a picture of the biggest stacked sandwich and said this is most school’s PG& D…..wow, she hit the nail right on the head….we are overwhelmed by so much as teachers, and yet those of us who want to continue to integrate technology, there is EVEN more work to do! It is not a bad thing, except all of what we choose to take on, requires time that we don’t have to begin with! She also talked about how we need 3 big things to try to do this year. We can only do what WE can do…She told us to “be a transformer.” My school is piloting a new project where we are using smartphones. It is an amazing thing to watch these kids when they are told to get out their “pocket pc’s” and watch them fly. The teachers told me the other day that IT has happened: the kids asked to stay in for recess to work on them…We allow for “playing in the sandbox" as Vicki Davis called it, 1 night a month for 4 hours after school. We pay the teachers to try out new Web 2.0 tools or find new Smart Board activities.

If we didn’t do that, I am not sure if the teachers would use the tech tools…this all takes TIME!! This is something all teachers have a shortage of. I came back from ITEC with a list of things I want to show teachers from the MANY excellent and informative sessions I attended in additon to Vicki Davis's session, but first, I must “play in the sandbox” myself with some of these new tools and decide how/which tools would "fit" best with what each class is studying. Below is a list of things I'm going to "play with." ToonDoo, Classtools.net, Wallwisher, BigHugeLabs, Titanpad, to name a few! WOW! An amazing, energizing time at ITEC, but also exausting thinking about all I need to do in order to present these to my teachers!

The Best Part of Getting My Masters Is.........

The best thing about getting my Master's in IT is............my cohorts! When I am crabby and I need to vent about the droll reading, or have a question about the homework, I email, tweet, call, chat, skype or text my fellow cohorts! Talk about using technology! Tonight we used adobe connect with John Solis, and that is sweet, as we did not use the camera, just the audio and everyone came through loud and clear... Earlier in the night, we used Skype to "conference call" 2 of my cohorts. It worked awesome also! Some days are better than others in this program....All I know is, I would NOT want to be taking this without my fellow cohorts. It is tougher than I thought, this distance learning, you don't exactly know what the prof's expect of you, as there is no way to tell inflection in their voices, or read their body language, so you ask your fellow cohorts! They'll tell you!!

Blah, Blah, Blah and MORE BLAH

I feel the need to vent a bit about my new grad classes in IT. I have to take breaks from the repetitive, dry sometimes convoluted reading in order to not go INSANE !!!!!!!

I find it SO IRONIC that we are READING about the best types of Instructional Design, yet, are not USING those types in these classes, not to mention that READING material is not a particularly effective learning style for ANYONE!!

IF we are to talk the talk, we need to walk the walk, especially in graduate level classes! I ALREADY jumped through the hoops in undergrad. Been there, don't want to do that anymore!

I sincerely hope this is not what we have in store for us for the next two years. I will be a very sad and angry woman if that is the case........

OK, back to more reading.