When did I fall so far behind?
For many years, I have been used to leading the way technology-wise in my school. This week it became clear that while I may be leading the way there, the rest of the world has forged ahead. I am not sure when it happened, but I have missed a few boats recently.
I have been generally aware of blogging for about a year now, and more vaguely aware that some people were blogging about education related stuff. I was not really aware that so many people were using blogging in the classroom. I have had a very vague concept of wikis as websites to which multiple people contribute, but only for a couple of months. Many things (Twitter, VoiceThread, and others) remain terms that I run into in the blogs that I have been reading, but that I really know nothing about.
How did the web become Web 2.0 without me noticing? I could blame the fact that I have been busy with my new teaching position, but that’s not much of an excuse. I could claim that it all takes too long on dial-up and we can’t get high speed at home, but that’s just another excuse.
So I did something about it.
I have spent quite a bit of time this week reading about wikis and blogs and how various people are using them with their students. It seemed a good place to start catching up. Firstly, I was humbled by the thought that these so quickly passed me by as I sat, complacent in the knowledge that I was making great use of the technology at my disposal. Secondly, I was reminded that I need to keep reading, keep learning, and just plain keep up in order to offer my best to my students. Thirdly, I was fired up. Learning something new that has broadened my horizons has got me excited about what I will do next.
I don’t have many students – just three at the moment, but I am making plans. Plans for getting my students connected with their peers around the world, maybe even collaborating with them. Plans for my students to be able to share their work with an authentic audience beyond the walls of their tiny classroom. Lots of plans.
I wonder how soon I can get started…
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Emergency Plans - Not So Easy
I’m sitting on this side of the Christmas school holiday, and somehow it seems shorter than it did at the beginning – always does, I guess. Now I must tackle the work that I promised to do over the break…emergency plans.
Now, this might sound simple, but it requires a great deal of thought. As a virtual teacher, there are no supply teachers who are trained to do what I do. There is no one who can step in, read over my lesson plans and carry-on as usually with just a few extra discipline problems.
If I am to be absent from class, I must pre-teach the lessons and record them. This is analogous to standing in front of an empty classroom and teaching to the video camera. When the students come into the digital classroom, I will not be there (they are, of course supervised at their end, but instruction comes from my end). They will be able to view the archived lessons that I have left for them. To continue the analogy, they will press “play” to watch the video of the lesson I made for them.
This situation is clearly far from ideal. What if the students have questions that I have not addressed? What about the interactive nature of the class? Where there are multiple students at a similar level, I can allow some time in the lesson for discussion amongst themselves (either by asking them to pause the lesson, or allowing it to play silently until I begin speaking again). Where a single student is involved in a lesson, I can pause for reflection time before sharing my own thoughts, allowing a semblance of conversation. This is an imperfect system, but is none-the-less a workable one for the occasional teacher absence. After all, we can’t always count on the quality of the lessons completed by conventional substitute teachers either.
A planned absence for a day is one thing, I simply record my lesson the previous afternoon based on where the students need to go next. It is like teaching an extra day, but it can be worth it for a really good workshop. What about an unplanned absence, illness for example, which would prevent the pre-recording? What if the unplanned absence spreads over 2-3 days? My colleague quite suddenly lost her voice for 3 days in December and was unable to teach. School could not be canceled? What to do?
And so we come to the emergency plan. I am to prepare a short unit to fill about 3 days of instruction and work time for my students. It should be appropriate for any time in the year (I can clearly not do an extra day’s teaching each week!). Ideally, it should be appropriate for multiple grade levels (we could use it next year too!).
So here I sit, searching for the “ah-ha” moment as the holiday minutes tick away. Anybody out there have a ready-made lesson for 3 days of project-based instruction for students in a variety of grade levels that requires not particular background knowledge? It should be relevant and engaging and of course make appropriate use of the time to cover important elements of the curriculum.
I’m coming up empty.
Now, this might sound simple, but it requires a great deal of thought. As a virtual teacher, there are no supply teachers who are trained to do what I do. There is no one who can step in, read over my lesson plans and carry-on as usually with just a few extra discipline problems.
If I am to be absent from class, I must pre-teach the lessons and record them. This is analogous to standing in front of an empty classroom and teaching to the video camera. When the students come into the digital classroom, I will not be there (they are, of course supervised at their end, but instruction comes from my end). They will be able to view the archived lessons that I have left for them. To continue the analogy, they will press “play” to watch the video of the lesson I made for them.
This situation is clearly far from ideal. What if the students have questions that I have not addressed? What about the interactive nature of the class? Where there are multiple students at a similar level, I can allow some time in the lesson for discussion amongst themselves (either by asking them to pause the lesson, or allowing it to play silently until I begin speaking again). Where a single student is involved in a lesson, I can pause for reflection time before sharing my own thoughts, allowing a semblance of conversation. This is an imperfect system, but is none-the-less a workable one for the occasional teacher absence. After all, we can’t always count on the quality of the lessons completed by conventional substitute teachers either.
A planned absence for a day is one thing, I simply record my lesson the previous afternoon based on where the students need to go next. It is like teaching an extra day, but it can be worth it for a really good workshop. What about an unplanned absence, illness for example, which would prevent the pre-recording? What if the unplanned absence spreads over 2-3 days? My colleague quite suddenly lost her voice for 3 days in December and was unable to teach. School could not be canceled? What to do?
And so we come to the emergency plan. I am to prepare a short unit to fill about 3 days of instruction and work time for my students. It should be appropriate for any time in the year (I can clearly not do an extra day’s teaching each week!). Ideally, it should be appropriate for multiple grade levels (we could use it next year too!).
So here I sit, searching for the “ah-ha” moment as the holiday minutes tick away. Anybody out there have a ready-made lesson for 3 days of project-based instruction for students in a variety of grade levels that requires not particular background knowledge? It should be relevant and engaging and of course make appropriate use of the time to cover important elements of the curriculum.
I’m coming up empty.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Getting started...
As I began this school year, I expected to be teaching grade 3/4. I expected to be teaching in a classroom with posters on the walls and a blackboard to write on. Our school board has a one-to-one laptop program for students from grades 3 to 11, so I expected to be integrating technology seamlessly into my lessons. I was thinking that blogging with my students might be an interesting new adventure for me to explore with my students.
I didn't know anything!
One month into the school year, I changed teaching positions when the school board began a new school - a virtual school with students from grade 1 to 11 around the world.. I am now a "virtual teacher". We meet online for 2 hours each school day using software that allows us text chats, voice chats, video, and a shared "blackboard" (okay - more like a whiteboard) of sorts. I do some explicit teaching, we discuss the progress each student is making on various projects and what the next step is, etc. Each afternoon, the students work on the assignments and projects that we have discussed online. A learning assistant or teacher on-site is present to support them. It is very exciting for me to be a part of this.
I now have a new motivation to get into blogging with students. I have just one grade 11 student. I would like to get him involved in discussions with his peers. I think it is important for him to have those kinds of interactions with other teens, not just the adults he is surrounded with. I think that the best way for me to figure out how to use blogging with him is to start myself. In the past, I have not been so good at keeping up with regular posts, but I am going to try. All I can do is get started and see where we go from here.
I didn't know anything!
One month into the school year, I changed teaching positions when the school board began a new school - a virtual school with students from grade 1 to 11 around the world.. I am now a "virtual teacher". We meet online for 2 hours each school day using software that allows us text chats, voice chats, video, and a shared "blackboard" (okay - more like a whiteboard) of sorts. I do some explicit teaching, we discuss the progress each student is making on various projects and what the next step is, etc. Each afternoon, the students work on the assignments and projects that we have discussed online. A learning assistant or teacher on-site is present to support them. It is very exciting for me to be a part of this.
I now have a new motivation to get into blogging with students. I have just one grade 11 student. I would like to get him involved in discussions with his peers. I think it is important for him to have those kinds of interactions with other teens, not just the adults he is surrounded with. I think that the best way for me to figure out how to use blogging with him is to start myself. In the past, I have not been so good at keeping up with regular posts, but I am going to try. All I can do is get started and see where we go from here.
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