Exploring the Gulf Coast

A podcast created by our fourth and fifth graders. We made our own audio CD of the story because the one given to us through our reading series is terrible...according to the fifth graders.

Polar Clock

Love this screensaver. Read about it in Wired.

Probability Voicethread

This is a voicethread my students have been commenting on. The process was as follows:

• Students filled out a chart showing all the possible combinations that can be rolled with two dice. We then created a bar graph showing the probability of rolling a 2, 3, 4 etc. all the way to 12. They discovered that the probability of rolling a 7 was much greater than rolling a 2 or a 12.
• Students worked in pairs to roll two dice 50 times and tally the results.
• They used the laptops to visit National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and created a bar graph showing their results.
• I screencaptured their graphs using the PrtSc/SysReq button on the computers because their wasn't a screencapture program installed on all the computers.
• I uploaded the pictures to box.net which now has a feature where you can easily edit the pictures using picnik. I cropped the screenshots down to show just the graphs.
• I imported the pictures to Voicethread along with instructions on how students should comment.

Students are choosing to comment using voice and text. I instructed them on how to choose their own "identity" icon before commenting although sometimes they are forgetting to do so. We began this process before spring break and before the blizzard so unfortunately we didn't finish. I will re-introduce the process when we get back and have students finish commenting. I am hoping that others outside the classroom will comment as well, giving another perspective on this activity. Lesson plan to follow.

To Do:

Here's the plan for the remainder of the year:

• Create podcasts with the fifth grade, re-recording the reader's theater at the end of each Storytown theme. We started this before spring break. We were going to record on Thursday, but the blizzard cancelled our plans.
• Publish lesson plan on using Voicethread to teach probability/graphing lesson.
• Publish students creations from buildyouwildself.com along with their poems about where they live.
• Publish student created Voicethreads for Cultural Comparisons unit. My group will publish information about India. I will check in with other fourth grade teachers to convert their ppt files to Voicethreads and allow everyone to publish comments.
• Participate in PlanB 3.0 project with Todd and Liz. Integrate into our Give and Take unit on natural and man made resources.
  
• Remain connected, and flow through the rest of the year.
  

Leadership Summit 12/5/08

We have been learning all about leadership in Room24 at Alsup in the fourth grade! Now it is time for our second annual Leadership Summit on December 5th from 10:00 to 11:30.

The Leadership Summit is a chance for fourth graders to reflect on what it means to be a leader. They will be reflecting on these four questions:

1. What qualities to leaders have?
2. What problems exist in my school or community that could be solved if I were a leader?
3. What obstacles stand in my way that prevent me from being a leader?
4. What goals can I set for myself to get past these obstacles?

We need your involvement! Here's how:
We will present the answers to these questions on December 5th in three ways. First, we will publish them on the room24 blog. The questions will be posted and students will be commenting. You can comment too. Second, we will Tweet them (follow room24). What is Twitter? It is a way for students to respond online through 140 character "micro-blogs". We will also invite anyone to join us in a live conversation via WiziQ where participants can address these questions themselves, thinking about themselves when they were young, giving advice to Room24 or sharing a story of a great student leader. Sign up for this free session here.

We look forward to sharing all that we have learned. --Jeff

Planet Film Fest

Our "Planet Film Fest" was on Friday. Dave and Emily were there in addition to 8 of my students' family members, my principal and learning coordinator. I posted plans and resources that I used to help my students through the process of creating Powerpoints and Photostories on the Global Learner wiki.

This is the second year that I have taught this unit and used digital storytelling as the culminating project. Some thoughts:

• Last year I had movies, using Moviemaker, as a choice and I found it to be too hard for me to manage so I just didn't make it an option this year. Any suggestions for integrating Moviemaker? It is so difficult to manage multiple groups using two (or more) different pieces of software.
  
• I found last year's movies to be a little "thin" on information so I really tried to organize myself better to make expectations clearer. This group's is better, but there are some groups that clearly worked harder than others.
  
• I would still like to make the process more streamlined so that projects could be completed quicker. They took about 3 weeks to finish, which seems too long to me. Is it possible for them to do this faster, and still produce quality products? Do I move on to my next unit earlier and do the filmmaking process at a different time in my day, like writing?
  
• This is the first time I did a Film Fest and invited teachers and parents. I really enjoyed it and I think that it really put students on the spot (in a good way). They focused better and seemed very proud of the work they had done. Next time, I would like students to run the entire Film Fest on their own, but this time around I didn't feel like I had enough time to prepare them, and this group of students requires more "coaching" (shall we say...) to stay on task.

You can see the final projects here on our class blog. Students would be thrilled to hear your feedback.

Netiquette

(Picture Credit: Wesley Bedrosian)

I find myself starting off a little slower this year than last. I am trying to be careful how I set up expectations with my fourth graders on blogging, using Twitter and general internet safety. In addition to that, a Global Learner recently expressed frustration in students' blog comments. "There are so many mistakes that they are not postable." It is making me think about the importance of high quality work and helping my students be successful with the integration of web2.0 tools in our classrooms.

I read an article in the latest Edutopia magazine. It addresses the importance of teaching "Netiquette" to our students. But in a larger sense, it talks about how students can be safe on the web, and how to help our students make their writing appropriate for online viewing. Will Richardson is quoted in the article:

"A lot of schools are beginning to put in Internet-safety and Internet-etiquette units, but they're not systemic in any way, and they really need to be."

It is also acknowledged that we need to incorporate netiquette into everyday education. Rather than, "Let's go down to the lab to learn about Internet matters."

So, what is netiquette and how do we incorporate into everyday education? And, how do I set expectations for computer/internet use at the beginning of the year, just like I set expectations for all behaviors in my classroom and make it systemic? I see there being three different categories:

1. Behavior
Netiquette rules are going to vary depending on grade level of course. My fourth graders don't know much about instant messaging yet, so we don't need to have the conversation about IM-speak not being appropriate in other online (or offline) settings. Our rules center more around the golden rule. Treat others as you would like to be treated:

• Blog comments on others' work should be constructive and also say something positive about the work.
• Blog posts and comments cannot be anonymous.

There are many other suggesions in the article in a sidebar entitled, "Don't Even Think About It".

2. Quality of Work
Again, this conversation is different in elementary than it is in secondary, but I am always having a conversation with my students about the quality of their work. Their work on our blog or twitter should be no different. This takes patience. Students don't necessarily know how to do this upon entering the classroom. They are also anxious to push the boundaries with their new teacher to find out where the boundaries are.

• Set High Expectations: I set high expectations for all the work in my classroom (I try anyway), but am having the conversation with my students about the importance of publishing high quality work on our blog, considering the number of people that could be reading it. All the work on the blog needs to be revised and edited before it is published. By fourth grade, there should be no errors in caps, punctuation or spelling. If there is a mistake after publishing, you need to go back and fix it. If, after fixing it, there are still minor errors with grammar or layout, or trouble with spelling a complex word, I will let it go. Students could be turned off to the whole process if I insist on perfection and have a student go over the same post over and over. On Twitter, my expectation is perfection, considering it is only 140 characters. Updates should have some substance. What did you learn during math, not what you "did". Ask a question to encourage a response.
• Represent Yourself Positively: This is a standard conversation I have had with students on our way out the door to any field trip. You are not only representing yourself, but you are representing Alsup, Adams 14 and Commerce City. Act accordingly. The same could be said about how you represent yourself on our blog. Take pride in yourself, our classroom, school, community when you are writing about it.
• Work Together: Students work in pairs when updating on Twitter and will often work in pairs when they first publish to our blog. I am already finding "experts" in my room that are eager to get started and want to help their classmates.
  

3. Safety
Students are well aware of the online boogieman, ready to pounce and steal your identity. One way to keep students safe is to stick to a more student-friendly blog site like edublogs or blogmeister. Epals, gaggle and think.com have their own as well that are part of a suite that includes their email service. But I really have been pleased with Blogger and the way that it allows my students to reach a larger audience and we had no problems with safety during our first year of blogging. I do feel obligated to go over safety with my students, especially after last years' group was so eager to reach out to people outside of our school. I found this internet safety document online that I have revised and will go over with my students this week. I will add a signature at the bottom and send it home. I did this last year as well, but only after we had been blogging for several months. I realize these are not legal documents, but I am making an effort to better document my expectations and make my students accountable before there is an issue.

Two other resources from the article. A sample acceptable use policy from Bud Hunt. The other is an email safety pdf for students that was created by the Modesto city schools, which might be useful to students at the high school.

These are just my thoughts. How are you addressing these issues in your classroom? What kinds of behaviors do you encounter in your classroom that keep your students from accessing these tools efficiently?