Category Archives: Technology

Assessment, Teaching Literature, Technology

The Odyssey

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I am once again teaching The Odyssey.  I have posted my UbD plan for this unit over at the UbD Educators wiki.  The unit plan is not different from what I’ve done with The Odyssey in the past, but I don’t think I’ve ever framed it with essential questions.  Incidentally, inspired by Tom from Bionic Teaching, I have decided to integrate Google Earth into the project for the first time.  I need to do some more playing with Google Earth so I can figure out how it works, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I think it will be a good tool for us.

The performance assessment is a project detailed in English Journal, “Bringing Homer’s Odyssey Up to Date: An Alternative Assessment,” Vol. 86 No. 1, pp. 65-68, Jan 1997.  I was a student teacher when I first used it (the 1996-1997 year was my student teaching year), and I have always had great success with it.  If you teach The Odyssey, I highly recommend that you get your hands on a copy of that article.  I am going to have the students chart their own Odysseus’ journey using Google Earth.  I am contemplating publication online through a blog or wiki or some other type of website, but we’ll see.

Teaching Writing, Technology, Wikis

Flat Judaism?

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Many of my students feel a strong connection to Israel and have visited Israel at least once.  Some of my students are Israeli.  When an opportunity for my students to work with students in Israel on a “flat classroom” type of project, I jumped at the chance.  I am pleased to introduce you to our project, which I am calling “Faces of Judaism.”  Together with the Neveh Channah Torah High School for Girls, my students at the Weber School are exploring their Jewish identity through writing.  Some questions guiding our exploration:

  • What does it mean to be Jewish in Israel?  In America?
  • What is my home really like from my point of view as compared with how others see it or portray it in the media?
  • Who am I, and how does my religion form that identity?

We are still very much in the nascent stages of our joint writing venture, and unfortunately, a teacher strike in Israel didn’t come at the most opportune time, but we are soldiering forward despite this setback.

You can check us out at the Weber Writers Wiki and Israel Faces Wiki.

Assessment, Professional Development, Technology, Wikis

UbD Educators Wiki

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Some months down the road after its creation, the UbD Educators wiki has fallen silent. I logged in today to find that neither changes nor discussions had taken place in the last 30 days. Yikes!

I take part of the blame upon myself. Having five preps leaves me, ironically, with not much time to plan, particularly now as National Honor Society business has take up much of my time.

Update, 4:45: I have a draft of the lesson for my Canterbury Tales unit up now.

Well, at any rate, I invite new folks to join in, quiet members to speak up, and previously active members (such as myself) to become active again. I think this kind of professional development, sadly, is much more valuable and important than much of what teachers normally get. I’m only sad I can’t get you PLU credits for it.

I’m going to start with a unit on The Canterbury Tales. Wish me luck, but give me time to finish it before you comment.

See you over there.

Technology

Teacher Laptop Initiatives

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I remember some time ago, the Teacher Laptop Foundation (site is now defunct, it appears) was attempting to match registered teachers with a company who would be willing to provide teachers with free laptops. I wonder why the Teacher Laptop Foundation folded (or appears to have folded)?

I should think it would be a great benefit for computer companies to provide teachers with free laptops. First of all, I think it displays a commitment to helping teachers and influencing positive change in technology education. I think teachers with laptops would be encouraged to learn more about technology, which could lead to more technology integration in schools. More technology integration in schools can only be a good thing for computer companies, as they stand to benefit from increased sales.

Some schools and districts provide their teachers with laptops. My children attend Fulton Co., Georgia schools, and I know this district provides teachers with laptops. The laptops, I would assume, remain the property of the district, and should the teacher leave the district, I imagine he or she must return the laptop, but while the teacher is employed at the district, I think it’s great to have a computer that can travel.

My own school does provide each teacher with a desktop for use at school, and a very nice one at that. I also have a SMART Board attached to it, which enables me to do some truly great things with technology in my classroom. Frankly, for most of the teachers on my faculty, I believe the desktop is sufficient. My own laptop would be useful to me, however, because I would be able to plan activities with SMART software without having to move anything over using my flash drive. It’s fine for now, but it would be really nice if I didn’t have to do that.

When I Google relevant search terms (such as free laptop teachers education), I feel somewhat discouraged by the results. I wonder why, in an age when we have an initiative to provide laptops for children in developing nations, that we don’t have an initiative to provide teachers with laptops.

Teaching Literature, Teaching Writing, Technology, Wikis

Project: Utopia

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Orwell StreetMy students began presenting their utopian (or dystopian?) projects (based on this UbD unit for Brave New World).

First of all, I think it was a fun project.  The students worked hard on it, for the most part, but I think I gave them too much time.  I noticed they got most of the work done the last two days.  I think I was afraid that learning how to use wikis would take them longer than it actually did.  Next time, I think I’ll make it a week-long project and leave it at that.  Also, I think in the future that I’ll require the students to create wikis.  I gave them more options this time, but I really liked the wiki format for constructing this project.

The students gave me permission to share their wikis with you.

Two more groups will present on Monday when our class meets again.

Image credit: LGagnon.

[tags]utopia, brave new world, dystopia, project, writing, english, education, literature[/tags]

Issues, Technology

Technological Illiteracy

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Karl Fisch wrote a post Tuesday — “Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” — that really, really resonated with me. He was spurred to write it after reading Terry Freedman’s post “Oh, Sir, You are too Kind.”

I am in utter agreement with Karl and Terry. It’s time educators (and everyone else, for that matter) stopped displaying a bizarre sense of pride in their technological illiteracy. Not knowing how to do simple things in MS Word — such as moving between table cells and saving a document, in a scenario Terry describes, is inexcusable. In our society, dependent as it now is on technology, teachers who are incompetent with technology are jeopardizing their students’ success. I am not saying we all need to be at an expert level, but I’ll ask the same question Terry did. What message are teachers who can’t even create and edit a simple Word document sending their students?

It is especially frustrating to me when educators dismiss technology — “Oh, I just don’t know how to do any of that, ha ha!” To plagiarize the same argument Karl and Terry made — would you brag like that about not being able to read? Not being able to read as an adult in our society creates a sense of shame and embarrassment on the part of the non-reader, and a sense of outrage on the part of those who can read. It should not be acceptable in our society to be proud of not knowing something. I won’t go so far as to say that technologically illiterate teachers should feel shame and self-loathing, but they needn’t brag about their lack of knowledge either. There has to be a middle ground. A point at which, say, a teacher realizes his or her incompetence and decides something needs to be done about it — and not just running down the hall to the teacher who does know something about technology. As Karl said, teachers have to make the effort to learn. We accept nothing less from our students.

Teachers have to realize at some point that exhibiting ignorance with this sort of pride is not OK. It is OK not to know something and to try to fix that, and I would hope that most teachers would do so. I don’t know everything. That’s true. At the end of my life, I still won’t know everything. I would hope, however, that when I reach the end of my life, I will never have exhibited pride about being ignorant of anything.

[tags]technological illiteracy, education, technology, teaching[/tags]

Teaching Grammar, Teaching Literature, Technology

Overdue Updates

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I really need to go through my files and see what I can upload to the handouts page.  I know I’ve come up with some things I haven’t added.

I have now gone to Curriculum Nights for three children and participated in my own, so perhaps my evenings will once again return to some semblance of normal.  My middle daughter’s teacher has an interactive white board like I do, and it was interesting to see the parents’ reactions on both nights — so similar.  Well, they are pretty cool.  My students have been enjoying getting a turn correcting sentences with errors as a warm-up on the SMART Board, and when it gets out of alignment (which is an issue with my projector, not my SMART Board), they think it’s really fun to align it properly.

I’m really glad I started my classroom website a couple of years ago.  I think the students and parents really like it, and even though it takes some time to maintain, I think it’s well worth it, especially when students are forgetful or absent, and I can remind them of the resources at their disposal at the website.  Last week I made some improvements to it so that it’s even easier to find notes saved from the SMART Board and handouts I’ve uploaded.  I have tried to engage students in activities designed to force them to explore the site.  Those students who have explored it have told me it’s pretty easy to navigate.

I wrote two Shakespeare units last weekend, so I don’t think I’ll spend any of the remainder of this weekend planning.  I am excited, however, at my students’ progress on their Brave New World projects.  I am concerned about the progress of one group, but the others are all coming along nicely.  I am ready to finish summer reading in all my classes, though.  My comma unit went over really well with students, parents, and the faculty members I shared it with, too, so that’s encouraging.

Well, I’m curling up with Rebecca.  If you are interested in following my progress with fall books, step on over to my personal blog.

[tags]commas, teaching, education, planning, interactive white board, smart board[/tags]

Assessment, Teaching Literature, Technology

Webquests and UbD Units

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I created a UbD unit for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which my seniors read for summer reading.  Please check it and tell me what you think.  The webquest for the unit can be accessed here.

Also, I created the webquest for my UbD unit on Brave New World.

[tags]ubd, brave new world, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest, webquest, literature[/tags]

Technology, Web 2.0, Wikis

Web 2.0

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I’m kind of confused.

I thought I knew what Web 2.0 was, and frankly I was and am excited about some of the possibilities it holds for my students, particularly wikis.

But I’m going to admit after reading Clay’s post here, and Will’s post here, I’m not sure anymore.

What do we really want to accomplish with Web 2.0 technologies?  What do you think Clay and Will are saying?  (And I’d encourage you to continue the conversation on their blogs as well as mine, as I’m not sure they’ll see it here if you have something to address to them personally.)

[tags]web 2.0, wikis, education[/tags]

Technology, Web 2.0

Google Maps

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I introduced my six-year-old daughter Maggie to Google Maps, and it has become one of her favorite websites. We sat down together a couple of weeks ago, and just for fun, I showed her our city, our house, her school, and a few other landmarks I knew she would recognize. I also showed her how to zoom out so she could see the whole world. She particularly likes to look at Japan. She mentioned that characters in a cartoon she watches live there. I tried to show her the Great Wall of China, but I had trouble seeing it. I did show her the Eiffel Tower, and if you haven’t checked it out, you should. I can’t post a screencap because I think it violates Google’s Terms of Use, but you can easily locate it simply by typing “Eiffel Tower, France” into the search bar.

I can hear Maggie talking to her father in the other room as I write this, and she just told him that Russia is the biggest country in the world. This, of course, is something she figured out by looking at Google Maps, and not something she learned in kindergarten. She is always sharing interesting facts about what she learns from Google Maps. For instance, when I came in the room where we keep the family computer this morning, I discovered she had figured out how to search for pizza restaurants in Japan. And there are a few by the way. And more than you’d think in Cairo, too. A little while ago, we looked at the Pyramids in Egypt. Maggie likes to switch to hybrid view so she can see both the satellite image and the place names and roads — it helps her navigate better.

She has mastered using the Firefox search bar to look for cat videos in YouTube, too, but this post is about Google Maps, isn’t it? What an interesting way for a six-year-old to discover her world. I remember I had an old Replogle globe. I used to spend a lot of time looking over the globe and imagining the far away places on my map. I never could have dreamed the extent to which we can go there with current technology. Not only that, but it has some amazing implications for teaching.

I’ll admit to being a novice in terms of teaching with Google Maps and Google Earth, but after seeing how much my daughter has learned, and — and this is important, too — how much fun she has, I admit I’m brainstorming ways to incorporate Google Maps into my own curriculum.

[tags]google maps, earth, globe[/tags]