Tech Tips & Timely Tidbits

Today, all Aiken County Public School teachers and administration were required to attend a mandatory inservice to hear Dr. Ben Caron, author of Gifted Hands and Think Big. I was looking forward to hearing Dr. Carson’s address and was not disappointed. A few of the tidbits I remember (hopefully correctly - any errors are my own) and/or wrote down include:

In response to parents bringing their kids in to be diagnosed with ADD - Yes, they do have ADD because of your plopping them down in front of TVs as soon as they can sit up. For allowing them to spend all their free time on computers and video games. Parents, wean your kids off of technology (TV, computers, video games, etc.) and start spending quality time with your kids. Get them reading, involved in sports, and make connections with your kids to slow their minds down. Parents are the ones who are ADD - they aren’t paying attention to their kids.

“There is no such thing as useless knowledge.” Learn anything and everything you can. READ! Reading leads to learning.

“Teachers are the ones who tell you why you CAN do something, not why you CAN’T.” Don’t focus on students limitations, have higher expectations for them. Also liked that he said stop making excuses - no matter what the student’s situations/limitations, they have a brain and they can use it. Excuses only hold them back.

Peers = People encouraging errors resulting in stupidity. Dr. Carson told of how after discovering his capacity to learn in elementary school and middle school, he entered high school. He faltered his freshman year by listening to his peers instead of following his own path.

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Carson’s address and thank our district and community leaders for arranging to have him come and share his experiences, thoughts, and beliefs with us.

Cathy Nelson wrote a post today that touched a nerve, not with her original topic “What’s in a name?” but with the following comment:

“…“teacher” in today’s world has come to imply that the learning is done, and it is now someone else’s (students) turn to learn. I wholeheartedly believe it is (in the words of Bud the teacher) pedagogical malpractice to stop learning if you work with students.”

It has become obvious to me that many media specialists and educators seem to stop the learning process once they obtain their degree/jobs. Oh, they will do the mandated requirements to keep up their teaching certificates, but they don’t take the time to become true “life-long learners” especially when it comes to their own profession.

I could go into a long rant listing all of the excuses I hear for not attending professional development both on their own time and through district, state, or national programs, and why I feel they don’t hold weight. — And I did, but realized that my post had too much negativity where my goal is to be more positive this year, so I deleted it! — Instead I’ll just counter any and all excuses with the fact that many educators, media specialist, and leaders in education seem to find the time to continually educate themselves and they all have the same hours in the day, family commitments, workloads, scheduling nightmares, etc.

What I believe is that it all boils down to commitment and compromises. What is important to you and what are you willing to give up?

For me, Instead of watching TV every evening or going into town every weekend to see a movie or visit family and friends, I’ll take online tutorials or learn a new Web 2.0 tool. I’ll alternate reading a book for enjoyment, such as the latest Nora Roberts or Dean Koontz, with professional blogs, journals, and books. (Although, I’ll have to say that my professional learning network has become more interesting to me than the latest bestsellers.) I’ll plan into my budget professional dues and conference fees that my school cannot cover, and maybe I’ll have to do without that new blouse, or latest DVD, or take my lunch this week, but to me, furthering (and many times just keeping up with) my education is more important. Most importantly, the people I serve, my students, teachers, and community, deserve for me to give them my best and not just the bare minimum.

Okay, stepping down from my soapbox. Let me just add that I challenge you, to learn one new thing each month. It doesn’t have to be anything huge or involved. Just try reading one professional book/magazine/blog; explore one Web 2.0 tool/software/technology of your choice; attend a professional group meeting related to your subject; or any number of things that will improve your knowledge. Need suggestions or help, just ask me. That’s why I’m here!

Warning, long blog post ahead!

I’m finally getting around to writing about my trip to Greenville where I attended the Upstate Technology Conference (UTC) (June 25 - 26), and let me tell you I am still tired and on brain overload even now.

UTC ROCKED! Thank you Cathy Nelson for telling me about this conference. I had already signed up to attend UTC when I was told the dates for the Education and Business Summit (EBS) overlapped UTC. Thankfully, both conferences were in Greenville, SC (practically around the corner from each other) and my new principal agreed to let me slip out of our High Schools That Work (HSTW) sessions on Wednesday to go to UTC instead. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Arriving at J. L. Mann HS I couldn’t help compare the school to my own school. It is amazing: new technology everywhere; whiteboards/LCDs in every classroom; large, open classrooms; ginormous library media center; computers all over the place; TV broadcasting over the computer; message displays in the lobby/café area; a drama/journalism studio; I could go on and on, but I’m sure you can already tell I’m envious! (BTW: Did anyone else notice the stairwell lights were motion censored to come on/brighten only when you entered the stairwell?!)

The other big surprise: blogs, wikis, Flickr, and other Web 2.0 tools WERE NOT BLOCKED! Now, this may have been only to accommodate the conference, but I’d like to believe that this is always the case.

The tone of the conference was set with keynote addresses by Ewan McIntosh and David Jakes. Both were awesome speakers - witty, informative, and engaging. Definitely not boring! If you don’t already subscribe to their blogs DO SO NOW! Both speakers stressed the need for educators to learn to use the Web 2.0 tools that our students and young people today are already using and for educators to develop an online learning community (professional network). Students shouldn’t be learning (and we shouldn’t be teaching) in isolation. Connecting with others enhances the learning!

I’m thankful teachers from my school as well as other Aiken County folks attended to learn from these masters. Hopefully, we can start a movement in our district to bring the ideas and tools to our students, too! A few of the concurrent sessions that made an impression on me were:

“Making Your Podcast More Pro” - Ewan McIntosh: After attending this session, I wanted to immediately take down my podcasts and fix them. Of course, this isn’t practical. At least I have better guidelines for future endeavors. Basically, my big mistake is having long intros. They should be no longer than 10 seconds and should state the purpose of your podcast/what you’re going to talk about so people can decide if they want to listen or not. Another tip, host the podcasts where your listeners can leave comments to promote an ongoing dialog.

“Thinking Out of the Xbox: Creative Writing Through Computer Games” - Ewan McIntosh: “Play helps us understand the world around us.” He equated reading a game (level) can be the same as reading a chapter. Not being a gamer, I was unaware of just how much text could be in a video game. He showed example of a teacher using the game MYST III: Exile to have students write about their thoughts, observations, feelings the game/visual/setting evokes.

“iPod-abilities in the Classroom” - MaryAnn Sansonetti: If you click on the title link, you’ll be taken to her wiki for this session, which has links for all of the notes I took so I needn’t post them here! Since I already have an iPod and am familiar with educational podcasts, I was mostly interested in ways to incorporate them into the classroom. Thanks MaryAnn for all the wonderful suggestions.

“Digital Storytelling 2.0: What’s Next?” - David Jakes: You can click the link in the title above to go to the wiki where the keynote slides and digital storytelling information can be found. Along with various storytelling tools, the message I took away from the Digital Storytelling session is that it’s “the story within the story” that should be the focus of any storytelling project. You’re going for the emotional impact, not the “we did this and this and this…” Use sounds, visuals, music, cutting to images, etc., all to evoke an emotion in your audience. Also, script and storyboard before you put together your digital story.

“Don’t Read to Me - A Presentation on Presentations” - Chris Craft: WOW! Chris used Cognitive Load Theory to show why bad presentations cause students to revert to bad habits because they cannot process all of the information you’re throwing at them (among other reasons!) Talk about a dynamic speaker with such a needed message! I admit, I’ve been a bad PowerPoint user in the past, but I’ve never been a fan of PPT to begin with. Needless to say, I immediately Twittered Chris to come speak at our school! Great thing is, he’s practically around the corner (relatively speaking) to Wagener, and best of all he said YES! Now I have to convince my principal this is a great idea, too! (Carrie, help me out!) Oh, you can also read Ewan McIntosh’s post about Chris’s presentation here.

Of course, I have a lot of additional notes (or should I say more messages to myself), and I went to a few other sessions, but this post is already long enough! [BTW, one of my teachers won a drawing at UTC, so not only did she take away the prize of new ideas, but computer speakers, too!]

I also want to say it was great to meet so many of my Twitter friends and people whose blogs I follow…many for the first time face-to-face. It was also a thrill to have lunch on Wednesday with Pat Hensley, Cathy Nelson, Julia Davis, Chris Craft, and MaryAnn Sansonetti … but to make my day even better, David Jakes and Ewan McIntosh joined us! I also want to send out a big thank you to the folks who organized the UTC. You did a phenomenal job and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next year.

Today was graduation day for our seniors. To me, it was a day early as we usually have graduation on Fridays. Because of it being a day earlier than normal, I almost didn’t get our senior tribute video completed. I kept thinking I had an extra day!

During graduation we show a “video” as a look back over the seniors’ high school experience. The first part consists of a baby picture followed by a senior photo for each of the graduates. The second part contains candid shots from around school and at school events. Each section is set to appropriate music. I was up reeeealllyyy late last night going through all of the photos I’d been collecting over the years. It was extremely difficult to narrow them down to a manageable level AND make sure I had one for all of the graduates (which I never do, but oh, well!) From experience I knew to be organized and had been pulling out senior photos all year long. I still spent most of the morning editing the photos and adding the music and effects.

Thankfully, I got all my tears out during the time it took to pull the video together and only teared up once during the ceremony. This is the second graduating class that I’ve taught since the kids were incoming freshman. Five of my actors as well as six of my crew were among the graduates, making if feel as if my own offspring were leaving me! I’ve worked, cried, screamed, laughed, and bonded with these kids for the last four years! I don’t want to see them leave, even though it is time for them to go off to bigger and better things.

Today also marks the end of the school year, even though we have one more day for closing up our rooms. Of course, I’ll not be finished for a few more days, still lots of library books to inventory now that textbooks are (mostly) taken done. I’m soooo looking forward to having a new assistant principal next year and turning over textbooks to him. SC is moving to a statewide textbook circulation system and, lucky us, Aiken County was one of the first ones to convert. Since our current asst. princ. is retiring this year, and he’s not too tech savvy, I agreed to be trained and assist him this year. I know, never volunteer, as they tell me I’ll never get rid of it! But Mr. Mac is the best and I’d do anything to help him out. The school is loosing one of it’s best assets, that’s all I’m saying.

Anyhoo, just needed an outlet to reflect on the closing of another school year. They never tell you in library (or teacher) school how hard it is to let go when you get attached to students, teachers, administrators, and staff. We’re loosing some great folks. I just have to keep in mind that we’re getting new folks, and new folks mean new excitement, enthusiasm, ideas, and more. So, adeu Class of 2008 and here’s looking forward to a new school year….after two months of summer vacation to recharge!