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msmithpds — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:30:48 +0000

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Professional Development Meme 2009

msmithpds — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:36:16 +0000

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2009 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

1. Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/07/09).
3. Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme 2009 and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme09.
6. Tag 5-8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

My Goals:
1. To design:
1 – a 9 week iMovie 09 class lesson plan for 6th graders to complete integrating their Building Boys Making Men curriculum.
2 – great presentations on 1 – the basics and 2- advanced tools found within iMovie 09 for this summer’s iSummit conference.
( http://www.lighthouseschools.com/isummit.html )
2. To organize my home and work calendar system to help better maintain all of those important people and things in my life.
3. Establish connections educators from around the world to skype in on the Mais-Tec monthly meetings to share what is going on in their school in regards to the education revolution!
(Mais-Tec) Memphis Association of Independent Schools Technology Education Consortium ( http://mais-tec.org )
(And now I am bucking the system by adding a 4th goal so that I may possibly finish it. To complete and publish my Internet Safety curriculum for grades 1-6.)

My Vision

msmithpds — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:55:50 +0000

I would like to set up iGoogle accounts through Google for Education for my 5th and 6th graders. I would like for these students to have their own iGoogle Homepage with widgets to get to their teachers’ blogs, shared and private Google Docs and presentations, use the To-Do list to keep up with their agendas, and gmail accounts to send homework, projects, and questions to their teachers and when working on group projects. I am not sure as to how to begin setting this up. I have gone to http://www.google.com/educators/index.html and looked at the tools, but don’t know what my next step is. I am looking for someone to advice me, send me to the place where to start, etc. I am stuck. Has any technology integration specialist or teacher done this and is willing to help me get started?

Party Discussion

msmithpds — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:18:12 +0000

I just attended a party where the majority of all the mini conversations were either about Facebook or Twitter. I sat at and ate with a Sociologist High School teacher who grumbled about how his teens were always needing bathroom breaks to go text a friend about the latest breakup discussion that was going on. He talked about how interfering this was in his class, how disconnected the kids were, how they have lost the ability to focus on their learning because of how the Internet kept their social lives going on. I was so mad at how he doesn’t get the newest, most exciting trend that is going on in education! If he complained about how technology interfered with his teaching, how come he can’t see that he should tap into this new revolution to enhance his teaching! I asked if cell phones were allowed at his school. No, of course not, but they all have them, but aren’t supposed to have them on. So, if they have them, and they really have them already on, why not use them? Have the kids continue conversations going on in the classroom by texting their ideas to sites like Twitter, Yabber, Edmodo. I have seen where a teacher, in a lecture based, large classroom used cell phones to allow all to share ideas. They allowed others, outside of the class, to chime in their thoughts on the topic. It allowed kids who weren’t the self-confident ones to vocalize their thoughts through the use of technology. I have seen, first hand, a teacher whose students were irresponsible, lazy, disconnected to the old fashion 20th Century teaching style – tap into this new revolutionary style of teaching and grab her students interest. The students blogged, connected with other classrooms, created multimedia presentations, used free tools off of the net and, in turn, all 70+ students scored in the 90 percentile or higher on their writing exam. Their scores offset the national norm for the Independent Schools writing exam. The kids worked at night, and on the weekend on their assignments. If teachers, like the High School teacher I conversed with tonight, don’t see the worth of that these technology tools have and can’t adjust to this new revolution going on in the classroom then I feel sorry for the students and ashamed that educators, who chose to enter a career to capture students’ interest to teach and instill idea of loving learning, are working in this field. Teachers need more professional development in this new revolution. They need to understand and be made to grasp this new era by administrators, parents, and students. It would benefit them, the students, the classroom management, the interest in learning, and so much more. I am just baffled and disappointed.

Teaching Movies

msmithpds — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:16:49 +0000

I have just been told that I will be teaching a 9 week movie making course that meets for 35 minutes, every six days, to 6th graders. They all will have take home MacBooks with built-in iSight cameras, iTunes, Internet access, Photobooth, Notebook recorder (for the ability to record their desktops), and iMovie 09. And I can not tie this class in with a particular subject because core teachers have to have the same lesson plans and activities for each group of students. I will be seeing no more than 20 boys at a time and am not sure if I will end up seeing the whole 6th grade class during the year.

So what type of movie should we make? I want it to be fun, a movie that they will enjoy creating, but creating it with a purpose. Of course I could do the “All About Me” movie, or one about their family. I can’t base it on a book, because I don’t know one that they all know, though they could make a movie out of a 1st grader book – or something along those lines. I can’t make the take home work to intense because I don’t think they’ll be getting a “real” grade on this course. The boys have too much on their plate with homework and sports anyway.

Do I focus it on scripting out the movie too? In 9 weeks – 45 days, possibly 7 meetings what could I get done? Gosh, I wish I could work with a core teacher on the purpose of the class. I hate wasting people’s time. I guess this is to be a “fun” techie class. Please help me brainstorm.

Memory Movie Mash Up

msmithpds — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:32:15 +0000

I just presented at my school’s newly revamped Award’s Day program. The heads of the school decided to move away from the awards part of the program and transformed it into a year end celebration. It was pretty neat. First of all it was only for the 3 highest grades at the school. One teacher from each grade presented a 5 minute speech on the fun learning times that they went through. Then graduating class, who were the only ones really given “awards” to, received their recognition. The top two grades, each as a grade, then recognized the students making honor roll. Then I got to show my memory mash up movie. Once the video was done, the graduating class lead everyone in our school’s song, and were then dismissed for their last recess. Everyone clapped as they walked down the aisle. Once they were gone the 5th graders moved into the 6th graders seats, and the 4th graders moved into the 5th graders seat. They were cheering for themselves.

And now more on the movie and what I did to make it.
Photos: (very time consuming – really need teachers to send pictures throughout the year, but only 1 or 2 of the best for each time they take pictures of an event
1. Collected photos of the students from the website gallery and teachers.
2. Imported and sorted into 1 album in iPhoto.
3. Created a slideshow and timed it. Then I gasped in horror when I realized this was going to be too long. So I then deleted many photos.

GarageBand:
1. Created 3 different podcast tracks and individually recorded 4th, 5th, and 6th graders reflecting on their favorite time during the school year. (Used an external microphone, explained to students to speak loud and clear, recorded in a quiet room, stop/started each student to be able to identify the different recordings.)
2. On each recording I inserted chapter markers and labeled them with the memory student reflected on.
3. If memory was stated more than once I picked best reflection and deleted the rest.
4. Removed all mumbles.
5. Removed long pauses.
6. Squashed recordings back into one piece and shared to iTunes.
7. Created memory mash up file in Garageband and imported the 3 different grade level reflections. (one per line)
8. Split each memory back in to individual pieces.
9. Mixed them up so not to have all one grade together.
10. Set 3 different audio volumes, moving LOUD recordings to track with lower volume, quiet recording to high volume, and kept good quality at a medium level.

(At this point I realized how long my audio file was, 7 minutes 22 seconds. My goal was to get 5 to 7 minutes. Next year 10 minutes would be better. The pictures went by too fast.)

I then went to http://freeplaymusic.com/ and found a nice instrumental piece to use as background music. I downloaded this to iTunes and then inserted it into Garageband.

11. I had to loop part of the song to stretch it out so that it fit the length of the student’s recordings.
12. With my wonderfully, musically talented husband’s help I changed all vocal tracks to male voice, boosted the bass and added (I believe) reverb. Then he did some magic to the background music – and made it come out of one speaker to really give it a background feel.
13. Messed with some p’s that were to POPPED in the tracks by lowering just that part of the audio track.
14. Exported the final file to iTunes.

Returned to iPhoto:
1. Moved pictures around in a random order, keeping grades not clumped together, and same subjects moved around.
2. Created a slideshow – setting it Dissolve, fit the music, remove Ken Burns (because it could cut of heads), and selected DVD screen. I also set the music to be my song that I had imported into iTunes.

After doing this I had to go back and edit more pictures because my audio repeated.

I then exported my slideshow to a movie, and threw it into Keynote for the final presentation! Here it is on vimeo where I am sharing it so that others may see it and I do not have to deal with families wanting a copy.

http://www.vimeo.com/4752100

Wanting to do the Right Way the First Time

msmithpds — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:26:08 +0000

A few of my teachers began to blog this year. What became instantly confusing was the different programs that the teachers were using to blog. Also, the kids began to compile a list of usernames and passwords longer than my own list! So as this year winds down I am putting thought now into next year. I envision my students to blog, for my teachers to blog, for my students to blog reflections to my teachers’ posts and by using tags have their post tie back to the teachers. So now the dilema…What program to use? I would like to poll my audience. So what do you think?View This Poll

Scary Man or Techie?

msmithpds — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:20:11 +0000

I have had this post on my mind for about a week now. It happened this past weekend when my child and I were leaving a mall, that is quite nice, but has had some scary incidents over the past 10 years. So, as she and I were walking through the parking lot, hand in hand, my mommy radar was in full force. Is that car pulling out? Are those teens approaching going to try and snatch my purse? Does that driver know we are crossing the street? Questions like those popped up in my mind, but it isn’t that I am super paranoid, I live in a high crime city. Every day we hear on the news about murder, attempted rape, kidnapping, etc. So I am on high alert, but find it to be my normal state of living. . . I don’t know any different. So back to the mall – as my daughter and I were walking, I noticed a man at the adjacent gas station, wearing a bright yellow worker’s vest, standing still and snapping a picture with a very little camera. I laughed because there were some attractive older teen / college girls that had just past. But my radar was up and I continued to watch him. He turned a slight angle and snapped another shot. This time of a man walking in the lot. My hand gripped tighter to my little girl’s hand and I stared or glared at this man, waiting for him to rotate and snap my shot. He was completely unaware that I was watching until he saw me – eye to eye -through his camera lens. He dropped down the camera, turned and walked back into the grocery store. I upped the speed on getting my girl in the car, buckled, and with locked doors, headed home. Then the thought crossed my mind, “Could that man have been one of those people taking random shots and posting pictures to places like Flickr just for the sake of banking images / digital footprints?” I have seen people Twitter links of photos they had taken on the subway, the hot dog they bought, or while sitting at the coffee shop, and thought nothing of the links. But now, after this man, not knowing if he was a scary man taking pictures of people to look at or was he documenting his day, I wondered if other bystanders are getting a little freaked out by the photographic documenters of the Internet world.

6 Behavior Management Mistakes

msmithpds — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:00:54 +0000

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6000095&s_cid=16

This blog post I found to be an excellent site for teachers at any place in their years of experience for it makes one reflect on how they are dealing with others. It is quite humbling and, I feel, an eye opener. I am not a member of the site so I could not comment, but here is what I would have said:

As a human who interacts with others, a person in the working world, a mommy, and an educator the management mistakes can be found and followed in all aspects of my life. I think that it is important to remember to just try to do your best and managing others and your emotions. Staying calm and positive is the best advice I can think of.

And now to write about my worst behavior moment as a teacher is very humbling and makes me feel small and embarrassed for my actions. I think that I can say that losing my temper and correcting students in a loud way – in front of others was my worst action. I now watch other teachers pull students out in the hall, whisper for a private discussion, or just being respectful and acknowledging the fact that these littler ones are humans with emotions, pride, and are learning how to be appropriate still.

Just remember that you are the adult, modeling what is appropriate and respectful.

Reflection on Getting Boys to Read Post

msmithpds — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:10:23 +0000

I just watched a video on 6 reasons why boys like to read magazines posted on a great blog: Getting Boys to Read. http://gettingboystoread.com Here are the top 6 reasons:
#6 – Cheap
#5 – Current
#4 – Visual Design – Boys like color and graphics
#3 – short reads – read little pieces – not long time to read
#2 – non fiction
#1 – find on a topic on their interest

As his movie post went on I just kept thinking, “This is the same reason that teachers should blog, and or have students create blogs!” Blogs are free. How much more current can you get than reading something that someone just posted? Students can add all the graphics and obnoxious color schemes that they want! Short reads – Well that is just a post that did not get carried away! Nonfiction – Can be. They can create create explanations of what they learned (class scribes), create commentaries on their school day or football game, or create posts from researching on topics. Students could set up their own RSS feeder and subscribe to online magazines that interest them! Boys and blogging should go hand in hand.

Now what I would like to know is how much different are the girls? I would think girls would lean more towards fiction…but they could make up stories and post those, like an extension of a story read in the class. But all the other 5 reasons I bet are just the same.

So really, Blogs are kid friendly. And teachers really need to tap in to this world to tap into a way to create energy and interest in students learning environments.