Tech Talk 113: Thoughts from Lisa Suhr

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In early December, I spent two days at a great conference put on by SDE titled Power Up! which focused on lots of great technology integration ideas.  I had the pleasure of attending with two great elementary teachers from one of our district’s buildings and I’m excited to work with them to implement a few of the ideas we brainstormed while we were at the conference together.

One of the things that I was motivated to do as a result of the conference was to dedicate myself again to sharing more information out through my blog.  So for the next couple of weeks, and through the Christmas break, I’m going to try to be faithful about writing blog posts and promoting my blog to our staff a little bit more.  (Hopefully I can develop this into more of a habit!)  The content I’m going to focus on for these next few weeks is going to cover the main points and resources I came away from the Power Up! conference.  So . . . here is my first “share out” from this conference:

“Engaging Students with Digital Images” was the title of one the sessions I attended.  Gail Lovely presented this session that really has application for all educators no matter what the grade level or subject matter or type of students in your classroom.  Some main points from the session that I think are worth being reminded of:

• Images add context to anything students read (handouts, presentations you’re using to deliver instruction, etc.)
• Images prompt students to question what they read/hear, to reflect on what they read/hear
• Images can help build a common background before instruction
• Pictures can help students understand your expectations
• VERY IMPORTANT:  Teach students at ALL grade levels to use images legally and give credit for images not their own when used in any way.  Model this!
• Learn what Creative Commons means and teach kids to look for images that are free to use with creative commons rights
• Model using pictures with permission and citations in your presentations to kids.

Some specific examples of how images can be important in your classroom using the ideas above:

• If you’re delivering instruction using PowerPoint or another presentation tool, carefully select the images you include.  They should just be humorous or pretty.  They should support the ideas…ask yourself before adding an image…will this picture help kids with no exposure to this topic, better understand this information?…will this picture prompt the class to ask questions around this topic? …will this picture encourage deeper thinking about the information I’m presenting?
• To use images to teach classroom behavior and social expectations, ask students to help you “set up” and take pictures of the right and wrong way to do things.  Take a picture (or video) of kids lining up the right way and show to your class compared with a picture of a class lined up the wrong way.  Show a picture beside a center of what the “cleaned up” center should look like before students leave for the day.  Show pictures of how students should look when they are paying attention to the teacher, when they are working with a partner, when they are working in small groups.  Discuss body language in the pictures and how it affects the dynamics of the classroom settings.
• Teach students to properly identify and cite where an image comes from.  If used from the internet, when you ask a student where they got a picture…the answer is NOT Google.  Just like you don’t “live in the phone book,” a pictures doesn’t “live at Google.”  It has a specific web address (URL), and that is what should be used for citations.    When students want to use a picture in a project, teach them to FIRST copy the URL and create the citation, THEN copy the picture they want to use.

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I sometimes review manuscripts for publishing companies, and I’ve had the pleasure of recently reviewing one that mentioned Jeff Utecht’s Ted Talk titled “Community Trumps Content.” He does an excellent job of bringing to the forefront the idea that schools are trying to keep kids away from the social aspect of today’s technology when, in reality, that very social aspect is what can draw kids to technology and its application in education. Here is the video from YouTube:
…read more

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Recently I had an opportunity to attend the Kansas MTSS Symposium in Wichita. We have various stages of MTSS implementation in our district: all the way from full-blown Math and Reading implementation to “just starting to talk about what MTSS is.”  But I believe a couple of main ideas that I saw at the symposium will apply to everyone…one relates to technology, one does not.

First the technology concept I came away with: The most important first step a school takes as it implements the MTSS process is to focus on the main, core curriculum that all students receive. Strengthen it, analyze it to make sure it addresses necessary concepts, and then look at all the ways it could be delivered. That’s where technology should first be used…not as a strategy for “fixing” problems, or even as a means for gathering data about students, but as a tool for providing a variety of instructional delivery approaches. How can technology be used to help deliver your core curriculum? Are you using video and audio to support your delivery where appropriate? Are you using motivational assignments that allow students to choose technology applications to demonstrate their understanding to you? Are you giving kids plenty of practice in ways that take advantage of technology? This should be the main role of technology in our classrooms.

The second and perhaps more important thing I think everyone in the district can benefit from being reminded is not a technology concept, but valuable none the less: MTSS is NOT about meeting AYP, earning grade level “Standard of Excellence” marks on state assessments or being awarded the Governor’s Achievement Award for building-wide excellence. All those are worthwhile building goals to have. But the MTSS process is about KIDS. Not “kids” as in “the 3rd grade class.” But “kids” as in “Johnny, Susie, and Bobby.” MTSS is about using data to help make instructional decisions for what is best for each individual student whose face you smile at each day. This is an especially hard concept to grasp when your overall grade level or building performance is already outstanding. But as I listened to some of the speakers at the symposium, I thought…this should really be about never being satisfied with “good enough.” As a teacher, I always encouraged my students to never be satisfied with less than their best work. Are we as a staff satisfied with less than our best work at helping kids become all they can? That’s really what the MTSS process is about.

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Google just keeps making itself more and more valuable to me! I love the possibilities that I have to use the Google Docs tools to gather information and work collaboratively. I can’t WAIT for our students to have a Google account option so that teachers can make good use of it, too. But now I’m really anxious for that day to come because they’ve added online file storage to the Google Docs application. Now you can upload, store and share any type of file into the Google Docs arena. We have students using a similar program through Kan-Ed called the “backpack,” so that if they want to finish a project at home and still be able to access it at school, they can log in and use it. This will give the kids even more file storage space and is so simple to use. The traveling teachers that I work with will also love this application as they can access files of all types in whatever building they are in at the time. Here is a link to a great blog entry by Glenn Weibe about the details on using the feature: Tip of the Week: Google Docs “G” Drive.

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Well, the school year is underway.  I know this because I’ve celebrated my birthday.  Having an end-of-August birthday has always meant that I associate my birthday with the start of school.  But this year was a little different.  My birthday was a “significant” one. . .I turned 40!

I spent a little time that day reflecting on all the changes in the world I’d seen in those 40 years…well, ok, the 35 or so from which I actually have memories.  My children laugh, sometimes even scoff, when I tell them of the things I’ve seen:  I remember our first microwave, the changes in music (reel-to-reels, 8 track, cassettes, cds, and now mp3 players), and yes, I had to talk to my friends on the telephone that was in the kitchen ATTACHED  to the WALL when they called!  If I needed a ride home from school, I knew how to use the payphone on the wall at school!  Computers are another whole area:  my first home computer was a Commodore 64 we hooked to the tv and I used TRS-80s by Radio Shack (we called them Trash-80s) at school for my first computer programming class (taught by one Mr. Hall at Sabetha High School!)  At home, my first computer was purchased WITHOUT the newly invented CD-drives because I thought certainly software would always be sold on floppy disks . . . and yes I had both the 5 1/4 and 3.5 inch drives! I was later thrilled to upgrade my home computer to one with a whole GIG of memory!!  Why would anyone ever need more than than that?

So the changes I’ve seen in a mere 40 years are phenomenal! It overwhelms me to think of what the future is going to be like for the students in our schools today.  I wonder, are we preparing students for today’s world or for the world they’ll be living in  when they finish school in 10 or so years?  Are we thinking forward to the skills they’ll need to compete in a global world that is expanding exponentially?  If you haven’t watched the movie Did You Know?, I highly recommend it. It might make you re-think the importance of what we do as teachers.  Another short, thought-provoking video I saw this week is I Need My Teachers To Learn, performed by a Kansas guy.  Listen close to its words and see if you’re not challenged to rethink how we use and allow the use of technology.  Could it be that today’s generation of students approach the use of technology in a different way than we 40-somethings do?  Or differently even than the 20- and 30-something people beginning their teaching careers today? What would it look like in our schools and classrooms if we embraced the way the kids use technology as our own ways?  (If  you’re reading my blog inside my district’s firewalls, these YouTube versions will be blocked for you and you’ll have to view them somewhere else.  Interesting, ironic coincidence, huh?)

So as you start this 2009-2010 school year my challenge to you is to open your mind to what is really important.   What are the timeless skills that kids will need no matter how the world changes?  Focus on them.  What are the creative and innovative ways that technology can change the way you teach?  Pick one and experiment with it.  And most importantly, how can you make a difference in your school?  Do it. (Here’s a refresher from an earlier post on this theme.)

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