Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Taking Google Docs on the Road!
Well, I did it. Since I've been stuck at home, learning all this new technology stuff, I was just itching to take what we've been learning and hit the road, so-to-speak, and see if I could apply what we've learned in one of my classes. I chose my 6th grade because the darling stinkers are little brainiacs, and I knew they would be able to troubleshoot any glitches we might face. I wanted my first "distance learning" lesson to be simple, so I opted to create a Google Docs powerpoint to teach, coincidentally, Google Docs. Luckily, I did a test run with my 15 year old the night prior. I somehow had missed the very important detail that in order to view a Google presentation, one must have a Google account. After working through the bugs, I held my breath and went for it today. What a great time! Just as I suspected, my 6th graders were awed and extremely enthusiastic. Since most already had Gmail accounts, they could simply link to my presentation. How fun it was to chat with them and step into their world. They, too, thought it was pretty cool to chat with each other all at once and with their teacher. The presentation went off without a hitch, and they were able to watch the YouTube videos I had inserted, as well as the notes and graphics. Important to note, of course, is that even though I took control as presenter, the students were capable of "fiddling" with the presentation if they so chose, so I was careful to stipulate that they were to keep their mouse from clicking on my show. Anyway, now I've got them itching to use Google Docs, so I'm hoping that a bunch of you have some ideas for collaboration projects, appropriate for their age.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
I want an Oompa Loompa Now, Daddy!
So, somewhat rested and relaxed and under the influence of a beautiful cocktail concoction of Vicodin and Valium, I watched Tuesday's rerun of class, since I was unable to attend. As I watched, I found myself becoming extremely agitated. Assuming my Vicodin was wearing off, I thought to take more until I realized the root of my frustration: Now that I have been introduced to all this online learning and collaborating, I find I am no longer content with the notion of previously recorded sessions. While watching the group and Louis's discussion, I had to stop myself from adding comments and became irritated that the session was now officially in the past and I had missed out. GRRRRR! How quickly things have changed for me. Thanks to Google docs and all our online collaborating we've been doing, I have become like one of my young students who "wants it now!" and is itching for live action. Since I like to take what we're doing in class and apply it to my classroom setting, I'm beginning to make many connections, and suddenly some things are beginning to make sense. For example, numerous times during my classes, I have busted my bright, darling, nasty 6th graders chatting through their gmail during my "brilliant" lectures on the intricacies of software such as Powerpoint and Word. How could they possibly find their chat sessions more inspiring than my lectures? But now I get it. Their technical knowledge and aspirations no longer tolerate the boring details of such software. For much of our software at school, which is outdated, they've "been there and done that" and outside of class have moved on to bigger and better things. I have suddenly realized that I have been outwitted by my 6th grade! Without knowing the technical terms, they are already collaborating instantly through Google, Club Penguin, Adventure Quest, their PS3 and Wii, to name but a few. At any given time, they are connecting with others and living adventures and problem solving together live. And even though I am quite aware of their pastimes, having three kids of my own, I have brushed off their extracurriculars as pure fancy and meaningless to the heart of my technology curriculum. What a fool I've been! Hence it's no wonder my students are agitated. They no longer want to wait for the beep and leave a message so that someone can get back to them later. They want to live in each other's space constantly and work together. And despite my threats that Big Brother is watching, they continue to create connections and collaborate, often including Big Brother in the online sandbox.
During our sessions over lunch, I often hear other teachers complain about our students' need for instant gratification and their inability to sit still through a lecture and that they can no longer occupy themselves with quiet reading or focus on a worksheet of math facts. I used to second their feelings, but now I'm beginning to feel their angst. I myself am beginning to feel my transformation into a techie version of Veruca Salt: "I want instant collaboration now, Daddae!" Poo-poo to the "previously recorded" sessions, email, and weekly paper memos that appear in my school mailbox every week. Give me the instant messaging, the live webcam, Skype chatting, and online collaborating. How will I handle old-fashioned email where I will have to actually wait for a return message? Perhaps this will be my goal as I work through the MEIT program. How to maintain patience, control and establish boundaries and balance for myself as well as my students and co-workers. Afterall, we all need a little quiet, alone time, and everyone remembers what eventually happened to Veruca once she made her demands.
During our sessions over lunch, I often hear other teachers complain about our students' need for instant gratification and their inability to sit still through a lecture and that they can no longer occupy themselves with quiet reading or focus on a worksheet of math facts. I used to second their feelings, but now I'm beginning to feel their angst. I myself am beginning to feel my transformation into a techie version of Veruca Salt: "I want instant collaboration now, Daddae!" Poo-poo to the "previously recorded" sessions, email, and weekly paper memos that appear in my school mailbox every week. Give me the instant messaging, the live webcam, Skype chatting, and online collaborating. How will I handle old-fashioned email where I will have to actually wait for a return message? Perhaps this will be my goal as I work through the MEIT program. How to maintain patience, control and establish boundaries and balance for myself as well as my students and co-workers. Afterall, we all need a little quiet, alone time, and everyone remembers what eventually happened to Veruca once she made her demands.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Opening Day Kick-Off!
I've been toying with pursuing my Master's for many years, but quite frankly I didn't for two reasons; one, I never wanted to work that hard; and two, no program really interested me. At the time when my teaching license was about to expire, I was a high school English teacher, raising two kids, with another on the way, and living on the emotional edge of burn out. The last thing I wanted was to go back to school. I considered becoming a principal, but the thought of a Masters in Administration made me want to take a long walk off a short pier.
So now, many years later, here I am; a computer geek teacher in a K-6 setting, whose only formal training was on a Commodore in 1984 (Is anyone old enough to remember those dinosaurs?), obsessed with discovering the latest and greatest in classroom instruction and making my coworkers crazy with suggestions of how to get technology into their classrooms. And yet there's a side of me that finds all of this incredibly intimidating and makes me feel like perhaps I'm in over my head.
This is why I'm so excited and yet a bit anxious about our program. I am a sponge for information technology and, hence, am eager to learn more; yet there is so little I know that my confidence is shaky. Creating this blog is a great example of my emotional struggle. Of course I had heard of blogs but have never created one, so I was excited to immerse myself in my assignment and get "playing." But I have to admit it took me over an hour just to come up with the title for this blog. As I kept blurting out ideas, my 15-year-old daughter, observing my struggle, kept mumbling, "Just blog, Mom. Who cares?" "Yes," I kept responding, "I'll just blog," but I couldn't seem to get past the title. Then it occurred to me, as I reflected on how easygoing she was, and I nailed the reason for my anxiety. It's this whole concept of instant publishing. Unlike my daughter and others of her generation who are constantly texting and thus are used to publishing extemporaneously, I'm of the generation that was taught to write and rewrite and draft and edit and redraft and proof and perfect before publishing. Publishing one's words was supposed to involve a painstakingly long process and although creating a blog still involves a certain amount of proofreading, it still feels too sudden. I'm hoping with continued blogging, I'll become comfortable with the notion of instant publishing and putting myself out there for everyone to read. Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated. :)
Blogging isn't the only thing that has my mind racing already. This is my first time taking an online class and already the whole notion of using technology to collaborate is changing the way I want my students to learn. When I first started teaching computers, the curriculum was very literal, so to speak. I taught students how to use certain software, such as Word and Powerpoint. Students would learn the software, create projects and be done. Our first session, however, already has me rethinking much of what I do. Our introduction to Google Docs is a great example. I know many of my students already have Gmail accounts, so I've been busy thinking of how I can get them to work together on their projects. Ironically, one of our obstacles lately has been the students' inability to save to a common place when they work on projects in groups. Shazam! Problem solved. Who knew it could be so easy?!
Although I am excited about the prospects that these courses will offer, I also have some lingering questions and challenges. How will I be able to incorporate the newest technologies with the younger age groups? Is collaboration really for the older students? I have little difficulty coming up with great ideas for my 4th-6th grades, but how can I make learning just as fun for my 1st-3rd grades? And, just as importantly, as the technology coordinator for my school, how can I encourage other teachers to utilize what I learn? Fortunately, my Irish/German heritage makes me both stubborn and vocal, and so I am looking forward to attacking these challenges head-on.
Speaking of great collaboration, for those of you interested, I am on the emailing list for the JASON project, a nonprofit subsidiary of the National Geographic Society, that connects young students, primarily 5th-8th graders, with great explorers and great events to motivate them to learn science. On January 27th, you and your students can join hurricane researcher, Jason Dunion, for a live video stream discussion. Log onto: The JASON Project
Okay, it's late. I'm tired, and I have no final words of wisdom, except to say that I am looking forward to working with all of you and am excited to hear your feedback and insight. I must warn you that I work very hard but take very little seriously. I'm often the person who must be shushed and who finds humor in everything, often at the most inappropriate times. With this in mind, I can't wait for our first group assignment, LOL...
So now, many years later, here I am; a computer geek teacher in a K-6 setting, whose only formal training was on a Commodore in 1984 (Is anyone old enough to remember those dinosaurs?), obsessed with discovering the latest and greatest in classroom instruction and making my coworkers crazy with suggestions of how to get technology into their classrooms. And yet there's a side of me that finds all of this incredibly intimidating and makes me feel like perhaps I'm in over my head.
This is why I'm so excited and yet a bit anxious about our program. I am a sponge for information technology and, hence, am eager to learn more; yet there is so little I know that my confidence is shaky. Creating this blog is a great example of my emotional struggle. Of course I had heard of blogs but have never created one, so I was excited to immerse myself in my assignment and get "playing." But I have to admit it took me over an hour just to come up with the title for this blog. As I kept blurting out ideas, my 15-year-old daughter, observing my struggle, kept mumbling, "Just blog, Mom. Who cares?" "Yes," I kept responding, "I'll just blog," but I couldn't seem to get past the title. Then it occurred to me, as I reflected on how easygoing she was, and I nailed the reason for my anxiety. It's this whole concept of instant publishing. Unlike my daughter and others of her generation who are constantly texting and thus are used to publishing extemporaneously, I'm of the generation that was taught to write and rewrite and draft and edit and redraft and proof and perfect before publishing. Publishing one's words was supposed to involve a painstakingly long process and although creating a blog still involves a certain amount of proofreading, it still feels too sudden. I'm hoping with continued blogging, I'll become comfortable with the notion of instant publishing and putting myself out there for everyone to read. Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated. :)
Blogging isn't the only thing that has my mind racing already. This is my first time taking an online class and already the whole notion of using technology to collaborate is changing the way I want my students to learn. When I first started teaching computers, the curriculum was very literal, so to speak. I taught students how to use certain software, such as Word and Powerpoint. Students would learn the software, create projects and be done. Our first session, however, already has me rethinking much of what I do. Our introduction to Google Docs is a great example. I know many of my students already have Gmail accounts, so I've been busy thinking of how I can get them to work together on their projects. Ironically, one of our obstacles lately has been the students' inability to save to a common place when they work on projects in groups. Shazam! Problem solved. Who knew it could be so easy?!
Although I am excited about the prospects that these courses will offer, I also have some lingering questions and challenges. How will I be able to incorporate the newest technologies with the younger age groups? Is collaboration really for the older students? I have little difficulty coming up with great ideas for my 4th-6th grades, but how can I make learning just as fun for my 1st-3rd grades? And, just as importantly, as the technology coordinator for my school, how can I encourage other teachers to utilize what I learn? Fortunately, my Irish/German heritage makes me both stubborn and vocal, and so I am looking forward to attacking these challenges head-on.
Speaking of great collaboration, for those of you interested, I am on the emailing list for the JASON project, a nonprofit subsidiary of the National Geographic Society, that connects young students, primarily 5th-8th graders, with great explorers and great events to motivate them to learn science. On January 27th, you and your students can join hurricane researcher, Jason Dunion, for a live video stream discussion. Log onto: The JASON Project
Okay, it's late. I'm tired, and I have no final words of wisdom, except to say that I am looking forward to working with all of you and am excited to hear your feedback and insight. I must warn you that I work very hard but take very little seriously. I'm often the person who must be shushed and who finds humor in everything, often at the most inappropriate times. With this in mind, I can't wait for our first group assignment, LOL...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
