The great philosopher Jimmy Buffett tells us, “There is a fine line between Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.” I guess this post would qualify as one that rides the fine line between self-promotion, a preview, and an invite to a virtual visit.

I will be presenting on Friday morning at 10:00 am in the DeVos Place Grand Gallery Room E. The focus of my talk will be on web 2.0 tools specifically useful with PK-2 students.

Here are my session goals: 1) to give attendees tools and ideas that can be applied the first day they return to their classrooms and 2) to share some of my experiences with these tools that all come “kid approved”.

The hour will be split into sections with one featuring “teacher tools” and the other showcasing “student tools”. All resources are free and available online.

Please check out my list of session links as a preview or as a “virtual visit” if you are unable to attend.

I always look forward to meeting lots of other MACULers. Hope to see you on Friday.

In my humble first-year-in-the-building opinion my school has a problem with stopwatches. I’ve been told that, for whatever reason, when we buy them they just don’t seem to last. Maybe they are a poor brand, maybe the battery is shoddy, perhaps there is a seventh grader jumping up and down on them when I’m not looking – it is middle school – I don’t know.

I do know this was terribly frustrating as my students were sharing the remaining working stopwatches timing our science investigations. 27 students and four stopwatches is not a good ratio for efficiency. Then, thankfully, one of my students clued me in to the fact that almost every student was walking around with a stopwatch in their pocket, oftentimes more than one. “They’re called cell phones and iPods, Mr. Rommel, duh” she said rolling her eyes at me. And you know what I deserved the eye roll.

I mean, I consider myself a pretty capable problem solver but I had never even thought to have the kids use the technology they already had at school anyway. I had completely overlooked the obvious.

I agree there are probably a lot better ways of using these tools than as stop watches, but you know what iPods as stopwatches is a start.

What I mean is if we don’t start embracing the technology students arrive at our classrooms with then we are denying them the very tools they use everyday to learn on their own and that is denying them authenticity in their learning. It creates a disconnect. I know this seems to be a huge leap to make from stopwatches but I see it in student’s faces when they are made to only use resources which they feel no longer apply to them. How many kids do you know who would use an atlas to find directions? In fact how many of you use an atlas for directions? (For the record I’m not saying stop teaching kids how to use an atlas, I am saying stop teaching kids how to use an atlas without also having a conversation on current ways of finding directions.) The disconnect may not be there for all students mind you, (I realize not everyone has TomTom mounted on their dash) but for a sizable and growing amount it is all too prevalent.

So why not start simple? It’s an easy way to foster a connection with students, to embrace “their” technology even in a small way, an easy way for them to feel current, and in some way empowered. I think it also provides you with a low maintenance opportunity to bring a reluctant colleague along on this technology discussion we should be having in our buildings.

I trust once the conversation began you wouldn’t let it stop there.

In fact you could share this bit of information with them: five of the top ten novels on the 2007 Japanese best seller’s list began as cell phone novels. Have them read for themself this article“>here in this January 20 article from the New York Times. Cell phone novels, cellular storytelling, whatever you want to call it digital natives are going to use technology in ways I would not think of. I mean seriously, how many of you would sit down and write a novel on a thumboard? What about read a novel on your cell phone? Whatever our collective answer as educators, here is a key sentence from the article:

“Indeed, many cellphone novelists had never written fiction before, and many of their readers had never read novels before, according to publishers.

There it is. Plain as day. In education we should be ready to embrace anything which promotes learning. If writing on a cell phone causes someone to read a novel who never has before then by all means tap away. I understand the article is referring to a segment of the generation raised on graphic novels – it’s not like they were illiterate – but the point remains this “new” medium brought about new types of readers and that is the type of connection I want to make.

So tell me again how did I get here from stopwatches? It seemed simple at first…duh.

Did you know that the most of us use universal design and don’t necessarily have a disability? We use these tools to help us adapt.
•    Captions on the TV (too noisy use captions, or if you want to watch  TV and not annoy anyone else use captions)
•    Curbs designed differently so that we can wheel our suitcases, computers or strollers
It is so important that we help those who cannot read due to a disability.
Put all books into electronic form  (turning pages by people is not always physically possible)

WiggleWorks- scholastic program that reads to children

He showed some neat graphics of Pet Scans- where is the bran active- where it burns glucose. This helps us first understand what learning is, and what kinds of learner there are.

Memory is very different because we can watch it through scans now. The brain scans show that when people are passively viewing words or listening to words different parts of the brains are working.

He feels that Books:
Are not good about teaching process
Don’t necessarily prepare students for their futures.

The Options:
We can either dumb the books down
Or Smarten the books up
Smartening up through Technology

By using the power and flexibility of modern technology

•    Represent the information so everyone knows the information is there
•    Make it as big as you want
•    Play the book so you can hear it
•    Or have the words highlighted and pronounced

NIMAS  National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
Textbooks companies are now required to create a Print and
HTML copy for students with print disabilities  (blind or other students with print disabilities in elementary and secondary schools)

Check out the CAST website- Bookbuilder  Create your own Digital books

Session: Thursday, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Presenter: Keith Sadlier, Teacher, Utica Community Schools / TWICE Board Member
Connection: Ebeling Elementary, Utica Community Schools

Keith Sadlier is sharing with us today the power of kids talking to kids via videoconferencing. Keith started with a nice overview of what you can do with videoconferencing and how to find more information about shared classes, content providers, and more on the TWICE website.

We connected back to Ebeling Elementary and listened to their Spanish teacher talk about a project they did with a teacher in Costa Rica. The teacher in Costa Rica was from Michigan. The classes set up an activity where the students could learn about each other’s culture. The 4th grade classes presented to each other about their area. The Michigan students did a presentation on the alphabet of Michigan. The Costa Rican students shared native costumes and dances. The students were pen pals with each other and wrote to teach other. In the second videoconference the students were able to talk to their partner.

After the teachers described the session, a couple of the students reminisced about their presentations and interaction with Costa Rica last year. One of the students still keeps in touch with her pen pal. “The more I talk to her, the more I realize how much the same we are.”

They sent the letters by snail mail to the Costa Rican school’s P.O. box in Miami and they were able to send each other items as well.

When asked what they liked best about videoconferencing, the students said, “it’s nice to know that you have a friend so far away.”

After this connection, Keith talked about all the different types of projects and activities you can do in each content area. Good advice included: don’t pack in the students, don’t settle for a talking head, and don’t use this as a stand alone lesson.