I’m excited to share how our French teacher is using technology to conduct Authentic Assessment in her classes! She has had the kids use the super-simple Voice Recorder that comes with Windows operating systems to record themselves speaking in French. The end result is a file that they can name and save according to her directions.
We have a network where each student logs in and has file storage available to them once logged in. The teacher directed her students to create a folder on their directories labeled for her to find and then to save all the recording files into that folder. As a teacher, she can easily access each students directory to open and listen to their recorded files outside of class. The end result is that she can take one class period to have all students take part in a performance assessment, without having to give her attention to them one at a time while the rest of the class waits.
My job is to make the process easy for the teacher to accomplish and seemless to complete. I had positive feedback from the teacher, and we are ready to move forward with bigger and better ideas! The biggest limit to the Sound Recorder (which you access from Start > All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder in Windows) is that it doesn’t have unlimited recording time. Its 60 second limit is fine for simple projects, but to streamline this assessment, we hope to move to a more complex and less-limited free tool, Audacity.
By being able to export as an mp3, you have the option of burning cds that can be played in audio players, or put onto mp3 players of all types. I used this process to make a birthday present for my nephew this summer. I bought a couple of books on his favorite character, Thomas the Train Engine. I recorded myself reading the stories to him in Audacity and then exported the file as mp3 format. I burned a cd for him so that he could put into his cd player and listen to “Aunt Yeesa” read the stories over and over. I did a few more books for my him and his sister before his family took a big road trip and heard from my sister-in-law that the kids loved being able to have books read aloud whenever they wanted.
Classroom applications could be to make audio recordings of any book that you would use in your room, Centers could be set up as listening stations for younger students. Once students know how to use Audacity or Voice Recorder you could have them practice recording themselves and listening to it play back (maybe even without having the files saved) to practice Reading Fluency as well.
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.)
As in many districts around the world, the administration of our school district here in Kansas sees too great a risk in allowing students to have full access to the videos hosted at YouTube. Several teachers, however, have found value in using carefully selected videos to supplement their curriculum. The use of video is an illustration that the teacher is addressing multiple learning styles and that they are using all available means to motivate and instruct their students. But allowing teachers and students to have access to the educational content on YouTube also increases the risk that students will inadvertently (or purposefully) access inappropriate video content through the site.
So I’m please to suggest the use of two different alternatives to YouTube that are more closely controlled and (at least as of this posting) are currently “allowed” within our district. TeacherTube and SchoolTube are both alternatives that I would be comfortable using. I’m personally more familiar with SchoolTube, simply because I created an account there as a moderator. The process took about 24 – 48 hours for me to register and them to “approve” my status. I’ve uploaded three projects that I worked on with SES 1st graders this past year. The students read a Jan Bret book “The Mitten” back during the cold winter months. They brainstormed with their classroom teacher things that make them warm like the animals in the story. Then they planned and took digital pictures of one another with their “warm” items. I put the pictures together into PhotoStory 3, a free downloadable application. Then I went into their classrooms with my laptop and projector and we had a short lesson on writing interesting, descriptive sentences before they wrote captions for their movies. I added some copyright-free background music with the built-in PhotoStory 3 tools, and saved them as a Windows Media File movie. A quick upload to SchoolTube means that no files storage space on our district servers is required! I’ve embedded the videos below this post. This was my first attempt, and it was quick and painless, though I’m sure you experienced movie critics out there can find flaws and make suggestions for improvement!
The use of the “moderated” video sites will solve some of the problems teachers were running into with being “blocked” out of YouTube. However, the one problem YouTube causes for large networks that will NOT be resolved is the issue of bandwidth used when videos are shown from these sites. Even one single user allowing the video to stream in from SchoolTube, TeacherTube or any similar service, will use large amounts of bandwidth and thus, take resources away from other users on the network. If a whole lab of students is using a site like that, a sudden slow down of resources can be debilitating. So even though there are appropriate alternatives, teachers need to take caution to make sure only critical videos are being used during school hours when others are also needing bandwidth.
OK…here are the embedded videos our first-graders made this past year. Click on the black box to find the play button.
Once again Education World has come through with a motivational thought for me! I love this website! Today’s inspiration came from an article from Professor Joe Martin, The Educator Motivator. His article titled, “It’s Not About Us” discusses the importance of two ideas that help him make decisions and choose actions as a teacher: First, that he is dedicated to always do what is right no matter how hard it is. He does this NOT for the approval of others, but for the approval of God. Second, he tries to focus on the fact that he became an eductor to SERVE other people by doing what is in the best interest of his students. His whole article is worth the read, but here are some questions he posed to help us teachers evaluate our committment teaching:
Am I part of the problem or part of the solution?
Do I focus on the obstacles of my job or on the opportunities?
Do I make excuses or do I set a positive example for others?
Do colleagues and students see me as being full of enthusiasm or full of something else?
Do I brighten up my school when I enter it or when I leave it?
I’m going to print these off an post on my wall along with my current favorite quote: “The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They make the best of everything!”
Teaching web searching skills is an important part of supporting students. When the web was new and none of our students had access to it at home, we teachers would never dream of sending young people to the computer lab to do research without giving them instructions on using the Internet to search for resources. Today, our kids are 100 times more comfortable using the computer and the Internet, but they still waste a lot of time searching when they could be more efficient with 30 minutes of instruction on web-search strategies. Following how to “search” should come some direct instruction on how to “evaluate” what you find. There are getting to be more and more poor resources on the Internet all the time. Teaching kids to critically anaylze what they find is important, too. This video from Common Craft is a short, high-interest intro (about 3 minutes) to help kids focus their searching skills.
A fun lesson that I’ve used in the past to emphasize the need for critical evaluation is to send students to some “fake” websites and pretend to be impressed by new information or new product that you “just heard about” on the web. Education World has a great comprehensive list of good sites here. (My personal favorites are the Endangered Tree Octopus and DiHydrogen Monoxide. After a few minutes of impressing the kids, explain that these are all fake sites that look great, but the information on them is totally bogus. I’ve had several teachers in workshops over the years who just can’t believe that they would “allow” such false information on the web!
However we go about it, it is important that we don’t assume that young people know everything about the Internet and how to use it efficiently just because they can navigate it easily. We can still improve their ability to work efficiently and to think critically if we spend a little time at it!
Image Chef is a great creativity site that allows you work with words and graphics to make your own images, remixes, even animated email greetings. You don’t have to register, but if you do, you can “keep” an album to share as well. Code for embedding into your blogs and/or Facebook is easy to copy and paste! This flower word picture is my first attempt using the tool called “Word Mosaic.” Very intuitive and easy to use! Visit there at www.imagechef.com and hit the “create” tab to get started. What ideas come to mind for using this with kids?
WordTalk is a resource I’ve just been reviewing that I feel is worth sharing for those that haven’t used it. The free download is an add-on toolbar to Microsoft Word that allows the user to read aloud the words in any Word document. Once the download is installed the Word toolbar looks something like this:
The various tools allow the user to have read aloud individual words, sentences or paragraphs while the word is highlighted with your choice of color. While it has the same downfall of all speech readers that the voice is a bit mechanical and it doesn’t recognize unusual names, I see great value in using this with students who have the need to have text read aloud. The other feature that is valuable in this tool is its ability to read back to students as they key text into Microsoft Word while they compose at the keyboard.
The WordTalk website is easy to use, and the download only took a few moments and a restart of my computer to complete. There was a great illustrated QuickGuide available on their website, too!
If you’re in my school district and would like to see how this program works or would like to have help installing on your machine, let me know!
On my Twitter network a few days back I read about a gaming site that I’ve now previewed and think is worth sharing:
Tutpup has gaming with lots of eductional value and an interactive aspect that allows students to interact with one another or other players via the web. If you use game sites to review math facts or spelling, this one may give your students some variety. Try it and stop back by to comment.
Brown v. Topeka, KC Monarchs, Exodusters and Nicodemus
Kansas has had a rich and interesting history in many ways, one of which was its role in the slavery issue during the 1800’s here in the US. Slavery was becoming a great controversy in the country with divisions of opinions on the ethics of the practice of slavery becoming more and more political to the point of new states being allowed to join the union only in pairs: one pro-slave state and one anti-slave state together to not greatly offset the delicate balance in the legislature. This was the time that the Kansas Territory was petitioning to join the union, so it is natural that our state would be rich in history related to black history on this issue. But, Kansas also historical stories tied to its African American soldiers, its Black-only baseball team, and of course, the Brown v. Topeka BOE court case during the Civil Rights era. Here are some links to some Black History resources on the web in which Kansas teachers may be especially interested:
Exodusters were the black slaves who fled the south following the Civil War to settle “out west” (Kansas Territory would have been part of this “out west” at that time).
Information on Nicodemus, a Kansas settlement that was planned to “draw” exodusters to Kansas is an interesting read. Now a ghost town and a National Historic Site, this town’s history can be used to show today’s students the challenges of settling “out west,” the way western settlements were marketed to others, and of course the pioneering spirit of African Americans of the time period.
The Kansas Museum of History has some great African American History resources, both web-based and in their collections. I especially like the “Cool Things” part of their web resources. Here is the Cool Thing link for and Exoduster flier that teaches about Pap Singleton, an ex-slave who promoted Kansas as a re-settlement option for other ex-slaves. If you’re a teacher in Kansas and you’ve never used the museum’s traveling resource trunks, be sure to inquire about them, too. They have artifacts, primary resources (or replicas of them) and are centered around several themes. A few years ago I checked out and used the African American Experience in Kansas trunk and it was a wealth of information and hands on activities. The trunks have a “target audience” but can be adapted to many different grade levels.
Lots of people today are familiar with Jackie Robinson’s story of integrating Major League Baseball in the 1920’s, but not as many can tell the story of the Negro National League, an all-black league active during the 1920-1930 era. Kansas City takes credit for starting the first successful all-black baseball league and eventually the all-black team, the Kansas City Monarchs. While technically this team was associated with the Missouri side of Kansas City, many of us native Kansans consider it another interesting part of Kansas history.
No listing of African American History in Kansas would be complete without information on the landmark court case, Brown v. Topeka BOE. Finding age-appropriate resources with which to teach this complicated, but important Civil Rights era event is a difficult task. Here is a Student Activity Book that can be printed off to use with our younger students. It comes from http://brownvboard.org/, which is a resource worth “searching through” in and of itself. You can also visit the National Parks Service website describing the site of the former Monroe Elementary School, one of four African-American only elementary schools in Topeka during the 1960s. If you’re close to Topeka, this newly renovated historic site is worth a visit in person, too.
In honor of Black History Month, I’ve posted a couple of possible resources for teachers. I’ve had some requests from some people for info on Martin Luther King, Jr. so I’ve put together this post as a starting place!
On my Twitter network a few days back I read about a gaming site that I’ve now previewed and think is worth sharing: