Do you know Kevin Honeycutt? If you do not, you should. He is wise, talented, sincere, loves kids, and wildly funny. Here is a vidcast we did at the recent NCAETC conference. The most fun I have ever had in an interview.
A year or two ago I had the pleasure of teaching/learning with a group of very sharp graduate preservice teachers. Today I find this in my mailbox.
-----------------------------------------------
Hi Sheryl!
It's XXXXX. In case you can't remember me, I
was in your technology class at William and Mary a
couple of years ago. But of course you remember me, your help with my
thesis was invaluable.
Something happened last week that made me think of you so I decided to get in touch. Our TIS (Technology Integration Specialist) declared me "Geek of the Week" and put my picture in the hallway. Apparently, I can no longer remain the wallflower--my secret is out. And I think I have you to thank for being declared a geek.
First, I guess a little background is needed. I am beginning my third year teaching Kindergarten. I teach half day Kindergarten, so I have two classes and 42 students. We have three SmartBoards at our school, one of which is permanently set up in a classroom. We can sign up to take our students in whenever it is free. I love the SmartBoard. I want one in my room. I was the first to take my class down the hall and thus was declared "Geek of the Week." Of course, this led to much taunting, three requests from colleagues to show them how to use the SmartBoard (I had to hold my own little after-school tutoring session), and many comments that I used the technology because I was young. I keep telling people that it does not matter if you have been teaching 2 years or 20, everyone is capable of using technology in their instruction, but they don't seem to believe me.
I think it was really your class and the way you thought about technology that inspired me. It isn't an add-on, it isn't one more thing they make us do, it is really an integral part of everyday life and should be an integral part of education.
I get to present information in a new way and it holds their attention like nothing else. I was in the lab on Thursday with my afternoon class: 23 students, 15 boys! They are busy to say the least. Just sitting on the carpet in a major hassle. But as we were interacting with the SmartBoard, I turned and realized all 23 students were looking at me, sitting the right way and really just being perfect angels. I wish more people realized the power of technology to teach.
But I guess that is what you are up to. Out there in 9,000 different venues pushing what you believe in. I think it is awesome. I am trying to follow in your footsteps in my own way. Our entire Kindergarten program is based around thematic education and I have tried to show people that a theme is more than what type of clip art is on your math paper. I have established our presence in the SmartBoard room as a regular weekly occurance and I am the first teacher at my school to have a webpage. My principal even approached me about giving a presentation to the staff about my webpage to see if others might be interested.
So, Thanks. Thank you for inspiring me to use technology in my classroom and forcing us to make webpages, so I actually know how.
I hope all is well with you. I Googled you. You seem really busy. But I know that is just the way you like it.
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Well at least one student was listening. :) This is what I love about 21st Century Teaching-- if you empower/enable a preservice teacher and model how they should teach within your own higher education instruction-- then when they set up their classroom two things will happen:
1. They will also use 21st Century strategies in their classroom and feel good about it.
2. Even as a novice teacher they will operate in a leadership capacity by default because of the new strategies and concepts they bring with them to the school setting.
My goal is to create a change agent out of every preservice teacher I touch.
Wow. Talk about blown away! My students have been emailing me with excitement each time Anne Davis or anyone for that matter leaves them a comment. One of my students took joy in letting each one know they are not "special" in that Anne comments on everyone's blog. Well, just a few minutes ago I found out just how special my class is to have someone like Anne reading their first attempts at blogging.
Check out what she wrote- I hope Anne will forgive me for reposting her blog here, but in my opinion it warrants repeating.
You’ve
come a long way baby! -- Written by Anne Davis
April 26th, 2007 11:46 am
The bouncing baby bloggers entered the blogosphere with this delightful announcement this
past February. To say that have come a long way is an understatement. Remember
all you seasoned edubloggers out there, as Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach said in reply to
comments on the announcement “it takes a whole blogosphere to raise a digital
child.” Sheryl is their instructor for their class. Here’s the course wiki. So if you haven’t commented to
any of them consider doing just that before they close the class in May. Give
them the benefit of your experiences and wish them well. I’d like to whet your
appetite for some of their interesting thoughts on their learning. Of course
you’ll need to travel to their blogs to read some of the conclusions - a great
way to spend a few minutes of your day! Enjoy!
Chris of c.michaels says Own It!
All semester our
professors have been continuously talking about the idea of ownership and how
students need to own their learning in order for them to better understand the
material. My first impression of this idea, was that is completely ridiculous.
It simply didn’t make any sense. As I heard more and more though, it made more
sense and it seemed like it might actually be effective in the classroom. Now
after being in the classroom for a few months and looking specifically for
examples, I’ve seen it and that it does indeed work.
Kimberly of EDUC 330 (incorrectly
) labeled herself as Computer Unable in a beginning post had this to say in Learning through practice.
Working in pairs on Monday the class
split up to complete a public service announcement about forest fires by using
video clips, audio clips, and photos. The iMovie program proved to be simple to
use with the guide, and we cut, edited, added transitions, and completed a
video in one class period. I was amazed at how simple it was to create the
video. I would definitely consider using this technology in an elementary
classroom.
Rachel of EDUC 330 proclaims “I Have Seen the Light!!!”
Praise the Lord - I understand! To
be completely honest, all throughout my learning of how to incorporate
technology into the everyday classroom, I’ve had doubts. I had a hard time
wrapping my mind around the concept of fluidly using technology in elementary
lessons without it being a huge distraction (or in my case, complication). Yes,
I heard mentors talk about blogging, wikis, projects, etc. but growing up
without technology in the classroom and not seeing it used, it was a stretch of
the imagination for me.
Priyanka
of Teachers’ Words of Wisdom expresses horror
and follows up with good counter points on What, No Recess?!?!
I was horrified to read that 40
percent of American schools have or would be eliminating recess! I couldn’t
believe it! In Changing The
Recess Paradigm?, it talks about how quite a few schools want to cut
down on recess in order to increase more academic instruction.
Megan
of Megan McInnes on her post Observing Technology in the
Classroom shares some real benefits in technology as a tool for
learning.
What was the neatest thing for me to
see was there was a student in the class that had a few disabilities. I thought
it was so neat how well his project was done. Using this technology of making a
video really seemed to suit his learning style and the limitations he had. Now
I can see how important technology can be for students like him, he could
present what he learned in a technological fashion allowing him to learn and do
the same projects as his classmates.
Andrew
of Learning Enhanced Technology shares a new
tool, WOT, that sounds quite interesting.
WOT is a social networking device
designed to enhance internet safety and reliability. I downloaded Wot yesterday
as a browser extension for Firefox and am intrigued. WOT allows you to check
the reliability of a website based on user feedback, so that when you go to a
website the WOT icon shows whether or not other users view the website as safe
and reliable based on a general trustworthiness meter, reliability as a
business partner, as a keeper of personal information, and as a safe
destination for children.
Sarah
of Sarah’s Technology Enhanced Learning posted
about students’ reactions to technology in “Teaching about Plane Shapes” .
I can’t put into words how shocked I
was by the student’s reaction to the laptop, it was the equivalent of buying a
new driver a brand new car when they get their license. They were absolutely
thrilled and their excitement for technology really made me think about how
much I take computers and my laptop for granted. It also made me think about
how little the students must be using the computers in their school if it seems
so novel to them when I presented them with a computer. I also found it unique
how I was able to take a technology free lesson and turn it into a technology
friendly lesson. I know that it strengthened this lesson.
Sharlene
of If you give a girl technology shares a post
entitled “Education In a Non-Traditional
Classroom Setting” about an after school program that she finds
promising.
Going above and beyond the required
basics of model after-school programs, this program provides economically
disadvantaged students opportunities that may not have been readily available
to them prior to this experience.
Monica
of Me & Technology has a profound post
that will touch your heart. The title of the post is The Missing Piece Meets the Big
O.. by Shel Silverstein.
Wednesday evening, a 20 year old sat
in the children’s books’ section and read this short simple story, but found a
strong and courageous message
Angel of Ariana’s mom posts
thoughtfully about Protecting Our Students!
The tragedy at Virginia Tech has
really caused me to think of my life, my future career and my family and put
everything into perspective. The story of the Professor who was a Holocaust
survivor and risked his life and died trying to save his students touched me
deeply. It caused me to reevaluate what my role as a teacher will be.
Jennifer
of techlife is feeling Technologically Torn.
Technology has its pros and cons and
there are definitely situations when it is difficult to determine which side
outweighs the other.
Lizzie
of The new and improved technological Lizzie
shares her continuing journey to use technology in the classroom with this
post, So I used Technology…a little
bit.
I had this wonderful lesson plan all
ready and created to use to integrate technology within my classroom, but as
soon as I had it done my class was done learning about that subject. So I switched
really quickly into integrated technology into the science circus that I taught
with Angel.
Katie
of Designs for Tech gives a thorough Lesson Plan Critique.
Even though the lesson was quite
stressful, it was 100% worth the stress and effort. The students begged for
math to continue when I told them the lesson was done and I am scheduled to go
back in a week to allow the students more time to play math games during their
“Friday fun.”
Lydia
of Technology Enhanced Learning has many good reflections on her blog. Her closing statement on High Stakes resonates with me.
Hopefully soon, our nation will
return to valuing more than test scores.
Amy
of EDUC 330 is seeing the value of having her
materials on a wiki in Wikis and Webquests.
I always wondered why W&M was
pushing for us to create an online portfolio. It is so inconvenient to make and
it’s almost like learning another language. However, today it hit me when i was
talking to my CT. I was planning the math lesson for next week and she asked me
if she could look at my lesson plan to review it and make sure it fit into her
curriculum. I told her that the lesson plan is saved on my computer and that I
didn’t have access to it now. I was in the process of making another
appointment with her when it hit me that I had uploaded it onto my wiki. I
pulled up the wiki and my lesson was there! We were able to look at it right
then and there. It felt really cool to have my stuff on the web and I didn’t
even have to e-mail it to myself or print it out. Now I understand a little
better how an online portfolio could come in great handy!
Amaya
of Amaya’s Edutastic Blog has a really
intriguing post on Teaching is Candy…No…Cookies…and
I’m A Cookie Monster!
I challenge all three of the people
who read this blog to pose a simple question to someone today, and see if you
can’t change their life for the better. Maybe you’ll get a “fine” or maybe a
“well, thank you, how are you?” But, you could get a “well, I have this problem
with my mother, well, not really with my mother, but, wait, sit down and I’ll
tell you… I think I want to be an elementary school teacher, but I’m not sure
and I really need to talk to someone about it, but my mom lost her cell phone.”
Don’t you wish you’d listened before?
Photo credit: http://www.stopdesign.com/log/img/200312/hp_blog_lg.jpg
Each Monday this semester my elementary preservice education students have been hearing from a variety of educational bloggers, many of them practicing classroom teachers, via Elluminate on how they use technology to teach content based objectives. (See the class wiki)
Jeff Utecht had the tough job of his vitual Monday falling on April 16, the day of the Va Tech shootings. In addition, he had to get up at 2am (Shanghai time) to present. He did an amazing job! Here is a copy of his archive if you would like to see what he had to share. He has also created a support page on the class wiki. I especially loved Jeff's connection activity he used to introduce his session.
Jeff is such an awesome role model for us all. If you are not famlar with his work-- you should be. Thanks Jeff.
I was over on Christopher Sessums site today. If you do not have him in your feed, you are missing out. His blog is the perfect mix of art, information and intellect. This post caught my eye:Educational Technology and Teacher Preparation: Bridging Theory to Practice. Chris does a wonderful job of looking at the struggles teacher educators have with technology adoption, which in turn creates a struggle for preservice adoption, which in turn carries over to the classroom. As you can imagine a wonderful, engaging conversation began in the comments. One comment jumped out at me...Kelly says...
Christopher, so much to be done at so many levels. After reading through Will Richarson's discussion with soon-to-be-teachers and having several interns in our school in the past few years, it is clear that the new teachers will not bring about the momentus change in technology use that many thought would happen. From my perspective, we need to look to the people in the middle, those who have been teaching for a while yet who are willing to try new things. To me, they are the best hope. They are not struggling with all the stresses of new teachers nor are near the end of their careers. Most have children that are "wired" all day and see the possibilities of what could be done. We almost need to focus on a retraining program and then have these teachers be mentors. As someone in the middle of my career, I would love to do more work with technology and help others to do it but the time just isn't there no matter how I refine my schedule. As for higher learning, it is in the same rut. We've been waiting for quite a long time for there to be a change in teacher education. It must become a priority and this will only happen once we have gone the next step and begun to hire people who see that technology is important and not an add-on because they live with it. I feel that, until we see a movement in the upper administrative positions in these areas, technology will not be a part of the whole picture.
There were other comments too - all passionate and brilliant laying out well thought ideas. But Kelly's comments and one about tech integration kept gnawing at me. So I responded with this:
We have to stop thinking of it as integration and start thinking of it as teaching in the 21st Century. At what point did we stop thinking of the whiteboard as new technology and it became simply a medium through which we communicated to our classes.
Not sure I agree with preservice teachers not being part of the solution. If Ingersoll is right and 1/3 of the teaching force is retiring or leaving, then these bright idealist could truly become the tipping point for true educational reform. What I have noticed is this--
1. Who we think of when we think of netgenrs are not showing up in my ICT education courses. It is as if we draw the technophobic/resistent to education.
2. However, when they spend a semester in a virtual community with tech savvy minds from the blogosohere, when they start blogging for deep reflection based on what they are reading in their content classes and in the edublogosphere, when they start co-creating the syllabus and direction of the class and actually start using the tools and planning for the kids to use the tools to create and collaborate in their lessons--something happens. A light comes on and they see kids getting totally turned on by learning. Then they become true advocates.
My last few weeks are spent showing them how even as novices entering the workforce they can be teacher leaders. That teacher leadership is when you have an expertise to bring that can help other teachers- help their students achieve. That their expertise in 21st Century teaching skills makes them teacher leaders by default and advocates for children. By cultivating an attitude of advocacy early on, these fresh minds who can still remember why they went into teaching- "want to change the world and help kids"- are bold in advocating for using knowledge management tools, adaptive expertise, modeling connectivism, and being ok with the messy side of change.
I do think we need to be breathing life into mid-career teachers as well, but I place my money on those who havent been tainted by the system or jaded by disempowerment- as being the real power behind educational reform.
We really need to focus on teacher prep programs -- cant wait to read Linda's new book, thanks for sharing.
Then I scooted over to David Warlick's site reading this post. Diane Hammond rocked my world with this-
“She talked about how they teach teachers to collaborate.”
I wonder if we shouldn’t be lowering the profile of the technology in these conversations with teachers and just focus on getting the job done. Why do the teachers want to collaborate? What do they expect to accomplish? What impact will collaboration have on professional practice? These are the questions they should be getting their heads around. The technology should be incidental, merely tools to accomplish specific tasks.
I don’t notice “technological apprehension” in other professional groups as much as I do in education. For instance my husband had a new ocular imaging system installed in his office last week. This is completely new equipment, software and processes for the office staff. This week staff are familiarizing themselves with the camera, imaging and analysis software, and patient database. We aren’t hearing questions such as “Why do I have to learn this; how will I learn this; how will I keep up?” Everyone is focussed on the end result, improved patient care. The staff are getting some preliminary images that are too dark or out of focus. They are practising and working together to take clearer, sharper images that will show the healthy eye, or the pathology, the doctors are looking for. Along the way…they’ll master the technology…
Why don’t we do that in schools - job-embed learning opportunities and give teachers a variety of tools to meet their pedagogical goals? Then along the way…
It Is What You Want to Do and Learn That Matters!
I couldn't agree more. I ask teachers all the time- When do you think about the air conditioning/heating unit? They always respond, "When it isn't working." EXACTLY! Web 2.0 and other technologies should be just like that. You do not even notice them. They are so not the point. Have you ever seen this? Proving change is always seen as premature.
Change will happen when we have a reculturation of the institution of school. When we focus on what is important rather than the tools. We are like a bunch of 4th graders who have just been given math manipulatives for the first time-- we have to play and explore with them first before we can actual get down to business of using them for learning.
Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/28481088@N00/434872938/
If I was ever to believe there are computer gremlins, today would have been the day. Today's Virtual Monday speaker was Vinnie Vrotny and despite the tech issues we had in Elluminate he did a wonderful job. Vinnie's school is doing some incredible things with their students. You absolutely need to check out his resources on the class wiki. Also, you can catch the archive of his presentation here.
From student made digital movies about Vietnam to Google Sktechups of student created Mayan Villages, Vinnie and his colleagues are modeling for all of us the wonderful things we can do with open source tools to make students content creators rather than content consumers. Also a big thanks for Annie and Frank, two of the teachers at Vinnie's school for joining us today.
Interesting discussion over on Will's site. University of Michigan is offering a M.A. specialization in Social Computing.
Here’s the list of courses you have to take:
Amusing for Sure
I responded in his comments.
The part I find amusing is the content to be covered is an established set of courses-very linear. It kind of defeats the purpose of social networking which emerges out of an organic mix of "wisdom of the crowds" and "just in time" learning.
Each Monday's class is virtual and the various teachers in
the blogosphere present. Each Wednesday's class is spent creating content and
unpacking the things we are learning together through this experience and in
their other content courses in terms of how it all translates to 21st Century
teaching and learning.
Mark Wagner and Aimee Smith
The two most recent speakers were Aimee Smith, who spoke on email and asynchronous discussions and Mark Wagner, who spoke on educational gaming and constructivist theory. Aimee's archive can be seen here and Mark's can be seen here.
Electronic Mentoring
In addition, we all engage in an electronic virtual learning community that consists of student teachers (another class I have) highly accomplished tech savvy teachers from around the globe and this class of students.
Giving Back
If you would like to check it all out I would be interested
in your feedback-
http://techenhancedlearning.wikispaces.com/
Photo credit:http://diskurs.hum.aau.dk/english/dexus3/images/collaboration.jpg
Vicky Rocked the House
Vicki Davis graciously agreed to present during a Virtual Monday for my EDUC 330 course. She rocked the house. But did you really expect any less? Her presentation is on wikis. The archive can be viewed here. Her page on the class wiki can be viewed here and it has all her resources and the presentation she used.
The students have been contacting me in Skype all buzzing about how much they understood and enjoyed what she taught.
I first "met" Vicki as one of the presenters for the K-12Online Conference of which I served as an organizer. Then rediscovered her through Women of the Web 2.0. She is a prolific poster to her blog and is known for breaking Web 2.0 pieces down into understandable bits that are easy to implement in the classroom. On behalf of my students-- thanks Vicki!
Tech Enhanced Learning
Anne Davis is an amazing
teacher and woman. Yesterday my students had the priviledge of spending
50 minutes with her chatting as though we were having tea around the
kitchen table. Anne style is so natural and relaxed that she makes you
feel like all of this is really doable. The students loved her.
I first met Anne through another precious Web friend, Darren Kurpatowa, who is a secondary math teacher in Canada. I met Darren through his blog. Anne and I also worked together during the K12Online Conference where she gave one of our keynote presentations. When I was putting together this course I asked Anne if she would be willing to speak at one of our Virtual Monday sessions and she graciously agreed. She shared her experiences about blogging with elementary students and as all of these students are starting to blog themselves, she gave some general tips for professional blogging as a teacher. If you would like to watch the archive of the session click here.
Virtual Mondays
The course is Tech Enhanced Learning and it is for preservice elementary teachers at the College of William and Mary where
I serve as an Instructor. I have the unruly task of teaching this
course on Mondays and Wednesdays in 50 minute periods in a classroom
with laptops that have to be taken out, set-up, and booted and then
taken back down as part of the 50 minutes. It has challenged me to be
very concise in the information I choose to share and be quite creative in
delivery.
On Monday, we meet in Elluminate. In an attempt to model networking and illuminate the possibilities of collaborating with others from around the world, I have asked various guest teachers experts to meet with us on Mondays and share their ideas and enthusiasm for different 21st Century teaching strategies. You can view the lined up speakers on the wiki.
As a solution to being able to engage the students more with the concepts of the course I decided to meet f2f on Wednesdays and online on Mondays. In addition, we are using a class wiki and Tapped In to organize, collaborate, and build networks throughout the course.
F2F Wednesdays
On Wednesday, I typically arrive 45 minutes early to class and find most of the students there waiting! I use the time to answer questions and troubleshoot. It is so humbling and inspiring to see these students in their seats so soon before class. Then when everyone arrives at the official start time of the class, I teach like a wild person for 45/50 minutes (to allow take down time of the laptops). It is very intense.
E-Mentoring
The students are also collaborating with many talented educators, another W&M class (secondary preservice) and other tech using educational stakeholders from around the world in our electronic mentorship experience in Tapped In. The conversations taking place there are lively to say the least.
The differing global perspectives are making this a learning experience for me as well. If you would like to be part of a virtual mentorship experience just comment here and let me know.
A big virtual thank you to the following mentors:
Secondary
Barbara Besal- Virginia
Chris Craft- SC
Vicki
Davis- Georgia
Randy Fullington- Alabama
Joseph Papaleo- Australia
Bud
Hunt- Colorado
Vinnie Vrotny- Illinois
Marsha
Ratzel- Kansas
Crystal Wright- Alabama
Mark Clemente- Virginia
Art Lader- South Carolina
Elementary
Connie Stigler- Alabama
Jon
Hanbury- Virginia
Paul Harrington- Wales
Lynn Holland- Alabama
Allanah
King- New Zealand
John Holland- Virginia
Jeff Utech- China
Past Teacher - Or Edc Specialist
April
Chamberlain-Alabama
Jonathan Messer-Virginia
Emily Kornblut-NY
Mark
Wagner-California
Anne Davis-
Georgia
Karen Janowski- Massachusetts
Aimee Smith- Alabama
Special Guest Preservice Teacher:
Christine Papaleo- Australia
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