#MACUL14

Having never been to a professional conference before, I wasn't totally sure what to expect from MACUL. (Honestly, I was just pretty excited to carpool in). I thought maybe there would be a lot about flipped classrooms and other "buzzy" ideas - things that I'm still trying to figure out. Mostly, I figured that the ideas that I'd gather would be filed away in that "Next Year" drawer where I put all the ideas that aren't so practical to enact in my student teaching setting right now.
I was pleasantly surprised by the first session I sat in on, and pretty enthused by the second. Andy Schoenborn's presentation on using Google docs to provide digital feedback to students gave me a realistic look at what using Google Drive can do in the classroom. This is an idea that I've thought about before for digitizing the writing process, so it was neat to see it put into practice. The second session that I sat in on was one that I'm sure several people are already mentioning. David Theune's "Friday Night Lights" presentation on creating authentic audiences was awesome. While Mr. Theune offered some great ideas for using technology to open your students' writing up to new audiences, what I appreciated most about his presentation was how "doable" the idea was. One of this biggest hold-backs that I've had with some tech tools is that, at least for the classroom/subject I'm in now, they aren't always practical. A lot of this has to do with the "middle school factor";  they're still acquiring most of their technology skills, and there is a wiiiiiiiide range of technological abilities. However, many of the concepts that Mr. Theune suggested - like inviting parents to sit in on class readings or linking research projects with local nonprofits - seem like options that I can tailor to my class's interests and abilities. (Though I will say, live streaming my class probably wouldn't fly considering about half of them aren't technically old enough to set up their own Google accounts).
One of the biggest takeaways from this presentation, for me, had less to do with a specific technological idea and more with a practice that I think is very important to the writing process. Having an authentic audience can be created in a number of ways (one being through the internet), but what is even more important is HAVING ONE. One idea from this session was having students write for younger classes in the district. I'm trying to flip that idea a bit, since I teach in one of those "younger" classes, and I've made it my mission for the rest of the year to give my students an out-of-class, in-district peer feedback opportunity. We've been introducing the idea of peer revision groups, and this motivated me to seek out other classes, either at the middle school level or even above, who would be interested in participating in a cross-class writing workshop. I'm still playing around with the idea right now, and have yet to cement anything with my MT. HOWEVER, let me take this final opportunity to shamelessly solicit for partner classes: get at me! ( :

Edubloggers!

Trying to decide on edubloggers to respond to was rather daunting. Simply Googling "edublogs" was overwhelming; I had no idea where to start. Also, I felt like every time I came across someone promising, the blog hadn't been updated in 2 or more years. While that doesn't negate the quality of the existing content, if I'm going to become invested in a blogger enough to follow them semi-regularly, I'd like them to be someone who updates more than once in a blue moon...

(Visual representation of updating frequency)

After some searching, I came across some edubloggers that I think are worth checking out. The first is Shelley Wright, from Wright's Room. She's a high school teacher from Canada, and shares some interesting perspectives from teaching in all grades K-12. I particularly liked her most recent post, about the importance of "Why," and why it is that we should always make our lessons purposeful and challenging. She offers some "As a Teacher" goals, including striving to be less helpful to students. And I see where she's coming from on that. Constantly giving students the answer doesn't really help them learn. It's ok for students to struggle a little bit in the process of coming to an answer. Not automatically offering assistance doesn't mean you're a bad teacher. Obviously, there's a time and place for all strategies, but in the case of the unchallenged high schooler that Mrs. Wright details in this post, NOT being given the answers is what leads to more involvement on the part of the student. 

So far in this program, I've read countless articles and posts and whole books on policy and strategy and method. And they're all incredibly valuable. But, it was refreshing to look through Mrs. Mimi's "It's not all Flowers and Sausages"blog. She's an elementary school teacher, but a lot of the issues she encounters are applicable across all grade levels. While I don't think it's productive to always be complaining about things out of your control, it's nice to read from someone who is being "real" about her practice. She talks about "classroom juju," which means that for every bad day you have, there is almost guaranteed to be a better day around the corner. Because, let's face it: in the classroom, you WILL have bad days. The lesson you carefully crafted might fall flat, the internet might go down and ruin the chance for you to lead with some great clips, etc, etc. We're all in this because we love teaching and want to be the best educators that we can be, but I think it's also useful to be reminded that it's ok if things don't always go perfectly. Also, as someone who is still student teaching, it's nice to hear that even experienced teachers have "one of those days." All that matters is how you bounce back from them.

Webinar Night

Heading into our webinar assignment, I was a little apprehensive, mostly just because it seemed like a lot of little technological things to keep straight, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to. However, having made it to the other side, I am pleasantly surprised with how well everything went. My group and I were able to work the Blackboard Collaborate site without much trouble, and we seemed to have got a lot of positive feedback from classmates.
First, a word on Blackboard Collaborate. At first glance (from watching an old webinar), it seemed kind of complicated, and seemed like there was a lot to keep track of. But, with minimal run-through time, our webinar went off without many complications. The controls for the site are pretty intuitive and straight-forward, and any time we had an issue it was pretty easy to figure out. For example, we wondered how to mute everyone else's microphones in our room without going through and manually disabling each permission. Turns out, there's a button for that. Our only issue came with turning the mic on and off, which we overlooked at the beginning of the webinar. Additionally, I hit "stop recording" at the end of our session, but did not turn the mic back off, so the listeners still in the room heard us chatting for a minute or two before we realized what was happening. (My bad, guys!) Overall, I'd consider working with the Blackboard platform again, because it was pretty easy to use and can be shared easily with others.
The tool we presented on was Google Classroom. I won't go too in-depth about it here, in part because I've already talked about it a fair amount in the last week. Basically, it is easily customizable and be as much or as little as you need it to be. I think this was a good tool to share with our classmates, because it can be used across all disciplines in a number of different ways. I'd also like to think that the high turnout for our webinar was because this is such a great tool, but I also realize we had a fairly convenient time slot... This presentation was valuable for me as well becuase it allowed me more time to play around with Google Classroom and gain familiarity with the site, which I can definitely see myself using in the future. I'm not sure what the tech situation in my future job(s) will be like, so I can't speak to in-class use right now, but I think the site is really great for organization outside of class time.
On one last note, I wanted to say how much fun I had with this project. Part of that was just because I was working with two clowns, but being in the Brandon Center with everyone prepping and listening to each others' webinars was a really nice experience. It was fun to see what everyone else had come up with, and having everyone together working on the same thing was a great vibe. Yay dolphilians!

Call Me, Beep Me

Where would our favorite crime fighter have been if she didn't have her cellie on her 24/7, even in the classroom...?

But really, the use of cell phones in schools has come up several times over our time in this course, and it was Liz Kolb's recent presentation to our class that put a spotlight on the issue. She is an advocate for using cell phones and other portable devices in the classroom, as a way to encourage greater student interaction with the material.

One point that she raised was related to why more schools aren't adopting a pro-cell phone policy (though, as she noted in her presentation, the number of schools that are cell-friendly has grown dramatically over the last several years). In an interview on the subject, she notes that most administrators in charge of making technology decisions did not grow up with the same kind of devices (or in some cases, any devices) that students today are using. They simply aren't familiar with them, and thus have a hard time envisioning their place in the classroom. While I can understand where such administrators are coming from, I also think that maybe they aren't considering the issue carefully enough. I mean, look at most smartphones today. They do practically everything for you. And most administrators that I've met so far are at least familiar with what an iPhone is/what it can do, if they don't already have one themselves. To some extent, how can you NOT think up at least one use for it in schools?

In terms of classroom use, I really like the polling sites that Liz introduced us to. In my methods class we've been working on writing lesson plans, and one of the trickiest areas to find activities for seems to be formative assessments. Tools for this need to be direct and easy to implement in a short amount of time in order for them to be really effective, and letting students take a poll with their phones strikes me as a really simple way to get student feedback in real-time, without taking up too much instructional time.

Of course, there are drawbacks, which I think have been pretty heavily outlined. One solution that Liz points to in terms of making students more responsible with their technology is the need for some kind of appropriate use education. It's one thing for students to sign an appropriate use "contract" at the beginning of the year and leave it at that, but I think (and have probably mentioned before in other posts) that it's important to teach students WHY they need to be responsible and HOW to go about doing this. Digital native students have for the most part always had technology and social media as a part of their lives, and treat it as an extension of their being. Liz brings up an important point when she notes that just because you send something using your personal device, doesn't mean it's personal to you. Educating students on the vast and interconnected nature of the internet, and the power that is held in their devices, is essentially for creating citizens who will responsibly and sensibly utilize the technological opportunities in front of them.

Tech Tools

All of the "Tech Tools in Use" presentations thus far have been really interesting (WHAT UP FAKEBOOK!?), but I was especially intrigued by the podcasting presentation. Podcasts are something that I've looked at a handful of times before, but I'm not even sure I've ever listened to one all the way through... That being said, I wasn't exactly sure how I'd use this tool in my classroom, but now I think I have a few ideas forming.
Probably the most obvious use would be to either play podcasts in class, or assign listening to one as homework (or provide something like Grammar Girl as a resource for students who wanted extra clarification). To be honest, I'm not sure HOW often I'd do this, but if I came across something especially relevant, I'd certainly be open to working it into a lesson.
Of the many resources that that Laura, Kelsey, Greg, and Nathan presented, the ones that really stuck with me were the voice recording ones like Google Voice and Vocaroo. Before this presentation, I knew that Google Voice was a thing that existed and that people used, but that was about it. Now, I would definitely consider getting a Google Voice account specifically for my classes. That way, I could give my students a way to reach me with questions, without running the risk of being woken up in the middle of the night by someone who waited to 1 am to start their project (though, let's be honest, I'm not in bed by 1 am these days...). I also know that calling a teacher can seem kind of intimidating, and this would give students the option of texting me, with me being able to check those texts right from my computer. That seems just way more convenient in general to me.
I also like Vocaroo's recording capabilities. I think it could be interesting to use for grading feedback as well. While I still prefer pen-and-paper grading for student papers (sorry trees), I could see sending student recordings of feedback for group projects, or as kind of mid-term progress report update. I'm not sure yet how I'd base assessments off Vocaroo (maybe poetry readings? Maybe?), but I could probably think of something.

Tech in MY Placement

Everything that we've been talking about technology in the classrooms has really started to come together after these first few weeks in the field. More specifically, it's started to become more clear the challenges that most of will face in our future schools.
What has struck me the most so far are the "age limits," so to speak, that seem to come as a footnote to technology availability and use. I'm placed at a middle school, and just from looking at the options on our tech surveys and talking to my classmates, I've begun to notice some differences in what is available for the students at my school.
Some things can be attributed to legal reasons; most sites don't allow students under 13 to sign up for accounts. That's about 3/4 of our school population. Of course, that doesn't mean students DON'T have accounts on sites like Facebook and Twitter, just that they aren't technically SUPPOSED to...
Similarly, the use of technology in the school is very heavily monitored. The acceptable use policy for middle schoolers in AAPS (which is different from the high school/faculty policy) has explicit instructions for how students are supposed to pick up, carry, and in general handle laptops from the portable carts. This isn't to say high schoolers don't get the same warnings, just that I sense that middle schoolers really need some extra instruction when it comes to how to properly carry a laptop across the room. Similarly, our first day in the computer lab came with a 5-minute debriefing from the media specialist about what NOT to do with the computers. My school just got a new lab full of Macs, and within the first 2 weeks of school one of the keyboards had already been broken.
In terms of what is available, I noticed I left several boxes unchecked on the survey. Software is installed pretty equally across the district, I believe, but my school doesn't have all the same hardware that I expect a lot of high schools to have. There aren't digital cameras or camcorders for students to check out, and scanners are reserved for teacher use/ special permission only. Part of this is most likely due to the fact that most middle schools don't have the same elective classes that high schools do that would require such devices. Also, we still rely heavily on written work, and only have used the computers for online testing or image searching for poster-making. This leads me to wonder if my students would have trouble utilizing more technology, or if they just aren't given much opportunity.
Have any of my fellow middle school homies noticed any similar differences?

Digital Footprints

Our discussion about online assessments last class got me thinking. I was in the first batch of high school juniors subjected to the MME/ACT/combined three days of insanity testing. Actually, I don't remember it being so bad. They gave us free food. And at the time, I didn't realize the ACT was that big of a deal, so I didn't study or anything. So all in all pretty low stress.

When I took the MME/ACT, it was all on paper. But everything is digital nowadays, right? I mean, does the high school class of 2014 even request for paper copies of scores to be sent...? Some quick Googling took me to the ACT's website, where some quick trial-and-error of old potential usernames (ohhh, blondie73) told me that I had, at some point, actually made an account with the ACT. And my score report from the 2007 MME/ACT is still available. Crazy.

This brings me to my point of a digital footprint, albeit on a smaller scale. We've talked about this before in class, but looking up my old scores really hammered it home. People not that much older than myself have a box of papers in their parent's basement to turn to if they ever were curious about their own long-forgotten tests. And, really, there's no reason I can think of where I'd need to know my ACT Writing subscore ever again, but it slightly blows my mind that I can call from any computer if the whim ever arises. And that says nothing of the students now who will be taking exclusively online standardized tests. Their records will probably ONLY be available online, for who knows how long past when they'd reasonably need to access them. 

This all, in my opinion, is a separate scenario from the "online footprint" associated with embarrassing statuses, corny photos, and other social media evidence gathered over the years. What I'm thinking of here is specifically this accumulation of records and other information scattered across different sites. Just off the top of my head I know I have accounts with the ACT, SAT, AP, GRE, MTTC, and probably various other ones that I'm forgetting. This is an academic online footprint, a curation of your educational progress, digitized and preserved so that you can prove to your grandchildren that you got a 35 on the science subtest in 2007. (That's just hypothetical - there are many reasons I'm an English concentrator, and my science subscores may be one of them).

 I know police records and the like have been online for years, but what I'm thinking about here is more the "box in the basement" stuff - the forgotten tests and report cards you sift through maybe once a decade. I know I still have my K-12 records somewhere, complete with gold stickers and crumple marks from where the reports were shoved in my backpack. Maybe I'm focusing too much on just a tiny part of online learning, but this idea of an academic digital footprint kind of amazes me. I'm not sure I'll ever look at my ACT score again, but it's there, in case I ever want to. I wonder how long it will take before report cards, test scores, everything, are all just uploaded somewhere instead of being sent home. Or maybe they already are... UM does pretty much all scoring online, but at least when I was in high school, we still had paper report cards mailed home. 

Will this change the way we approach the grades and tests? Would you care more if you knew every score of yours was preserved indefinitely somewhere on a server? Could we better analyze progress and setbacks? Would this help? Would this detract? Would it make no difference? And, what does that mean for us?