Week 6: Thing 15
I got a little irritated by a post that I read in a 2009 conference. The discussion was centered around the "creative" excuses that teachers use for not using technology in the classroom. The following comment was made:
"good grief, how twisted has the education world gotten when we place more value on learning to write cursive than we do on meaningful, collaborative learning about actual subject matter?"
Cursive instruction is "meaningful" instruction in my eyes. The writer sounds like she's a little too arrogant for my liking and is in need of an attitude adjustment. I'd like her to write me a letter - in her best cursive handwriting please. Well, her post was written in 2008. It's possible that she's come to her senses by now.
Comment on three teacher's blogs: I will comment when teachers have added posts on which to comment!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Officially a Member!
I received my acceptance into the Independent School Educator's Network. I must admit I was a bit surprised - the checkers must not have looked very deeply into my past. I uploaded my photo to my profile, noted that I'm looking more and more like my mother, and saw that Sarah Thomas was also a member. Then I looked around to get the lay of the land. I ended up in the second grade room, checked to see what discussions might be going on, and observed that this site doesn't have very many recent posts. Could it be that its members are too busy teaching to hang out in the network? I'll check back later for signs of life . . .
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Independent School Educator's Network
Week 6: Thing 14
I joined this site and made sure that I wrote down my password. My gosh, I've joined so many different sites, and I've tweaked my password on occasion in order to increase its security strength - I'm a confused person! I don't know how everyone keeps all of his passwords straight! The Independent School Educator's Network appears to be a site that I will visit on occasion. I went to the second-grade area and tried to reply to a thread written in January of last year. It was the only second-grade question available. Who knows whether the writer is still in education. Maybe she withered away while awaiting a reply to her question! No one had responded. I couldn't reply, though. It takes as long as twenty-four hours to have your application to the site evaluated and accepted. I'm wondering what the evaluation process entails? How do they know whether I'm fit to be on this site? Just wonderin' . . . I will continue this post after I get my pedigree papers.
I joined this site and made sure that I wrote down my password. My gosh, I've joined so many different sites, and I've tweaked my password on occasion in order to increase its security strength - I'm a confused person! I don't know how everyone keeps all of his passwords straight! The Independent School Educator's Network appears to be a site that I will visit on occasion. I went to the second-grade area and tried to reply to a thread written in January of last year. It was the only second-grade question available. Who knows whether the writer is still in education. Maybe she withered away while awaiting a reply to her question! No one had responded. I couldn't reply, though. It takes as long as twenty-four hours to have your application to the site evaluated and accepted. I'm wondering what the evaluation process entails? How do they know whether I'm fit to be on this site? Just wonderin' . . . I will continue this post after I get my pedigree papers.
Personal Learning Networks
Week 6: Thing 13
PLNs, I thought, were new to me; but after reading about them, they weren't. For this exercise, I joined Ed Tech Talk and read Dave Cormier's blog. He mentioned the term, "critical friends," and their importance to a person's overall growth professionally. I think, I would add, that having a critical friend is also important personally.
What is a critical friend?
This from John MacBeath; Professor of Education Leadership, Cambridge University:
The Critical Friend is a powerful idea, perhaps because it contains an inherent tension. Friends bring a high degree of unconditional positive regard. Critics are, at first sight at least, conditional, negative and intolerant of failure. Perhaps the critical friend comes closest to what might be regarded as 'true friendship' - a successful marrying of unconditional support and unconditional critique
Why do we need one?
When we are creating projects, it is helpful to have a trusted person whose role is to ask probing questions to enable those involved to gain fresh insights into their work. The strategy may be used in individual or group settings. The main benefits of using critical friends are that they provide
Wouldn't it be lovely for everyone to have such a person in their work life? Many of us, I think, have critical friends in our personal lives, but it requires a great deal of trust in a work colleague in order to be able to give and receive criticism. It has been my experience that the work environment is a dangerous place - one in which people derive a great deal of pleasure from fault finding. Real honesty on topics is a rare gem. To build real community, and to know that your opinion is valued and accepted - even if it differs from that of the herd - takes courage. It also requires the mindset that results are better when collaboration has occurred.
The following are links to further reading on this topic:
The missing Critical Friends' voices: An angel's heart or a beautiful mind?
This paper explores the identity of critical friends in research study using an action research approach. The paper begins with the observation that in a common sense, critical friendship seems to be ambiguous in both its conception and practice. A person is a friend but does not need to be critical; a person is critical but may not position himself/herself to be a friend any more.
PLNs, I thought, were new to me; but after reading about them, they weren't. For this exercise, I joined Ed Tech Talk and read Dave Cormier's blog. He mentioned the term, "critical friends," and their importance to a person's overall growth professionally. I think, I would add, that having a critical friend is also important personally.
What is a critical friend?
This from John MacBeath; Professor of Education Leadership, Cambridge University:
The Critical Friend is a powerful idea, perhaps because it contains an inherent tension. Friends bring a high degree of unconditional positive regard. Critics are, at first sight at least, conditional, negative and intolerant of failure. Perhaps the critical friend comes closest to what might be regarded as 'true friendship' - a successful marrying of unconditional support and unconditional critique
AND
A critical friend can be defined as a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens, and offers critiques of a person’s work as a friend. A critical friend takes the time to fully understand the context of the work presented and the outcomes that the person or group is working toward. The friend is an advocate for the success of that work.
~ Desmond Nuttall ~
Why do we need one?
When we are creating projects, it is helpful to have a trusted person whose role is to ask probing questions to enable those involved to gain fresh insights into their work. The strategy may be used in individual or group settings. The main benefits of using critical friends are that they provide
- an outsider's view of the project/task/issue
- independent questioning to ensure that the focus is maintained
- alternate sources of information or expertise.
Wouldn't it be lovely for everyone to have such a person in their work life? Many of us, I think, have critical friends in our personal lives, but it requires a great deal of trust in a work colleague in order to be able to give and receive criticism. It has been my experience that the work environment is a dangerous place - one in which people derive a great deal of pleasure from fault finding. Real honesty on topics is a rare gem. To build real community, and to know that your opinion is valued and accepted - even if it differs from that of the herd - takes courage. It also requires the mindset that results are better when collaboration has occurred.
The following are links to further reading on this topic:
The missing Critical Friends' voices: An angel's heart or a beautiful mind?
This paper explores the identity of critical friends in research study using an action research approach. The paper begins with the observation that in a common sense, critical friendship seems to be ambiguous in both its conception and practice. A person is a friend but does not need to be critical; a person is critical but may not position himself/herself to be a friend any more.
Critical Friends: A Process Built on Reflection
This paper outlines the formalised use of critical friends at Brown University (USA). It gives insight into how a structured approach can be successfully adopted by a larger educational institution.Developing a Teacher Identity: The Impact of Critical Friends Practice on the Student Teacher
The collaborative inquiry model presented by CFGs is grounded in the belief that teachers at all levels can mentor and support one another. It offers a wealth of potential as a means of inducting new teachers into the practice and exposing them to the essence of professional development by inviting them to join with teachers examining their own evolving practice.Standards need 'critical friends'
This is a short document however, it provides a good overview of critical friends, their value and some hints for taking on the role. Well worth the five minutes needed to read it.Fun 'n' Games
Week 5: Number 12
Because I have used Wordle with my students and for my own enjoyment, I investigated Rollyo. This is a tool that allows the user to create personalized mini-search engines. It allows the user to aggregrate all sites about a particular topic, and then to find them instantly. I, for example, made a reference site of dictionaries, thesauruses, and all sites having to do with word finding. Now, when I want to access a reference site, I just have to use "Reference" as my key word, and all of the sites that I enjoy using appear on a page of links. It's a great organizational tool! Someone's always thinkin' out there!
Because I have used Wordle with my students and for my own enjoyment, I investigated Rollyo. This is a tool that allows the user to create personalized mini-search engines. It allows the user to aggregrate all sites about a particular topic, and then to find them instantly. I, for example, made a reference site of dictionaries, thesauruses, and all sites having to do with word finding. Now, when I want to access a reference site, I just have to use "Reference" as my key word, and all of the sites that I enjoy using appear on a page of links. It's a great organizational tool! Someone's always thinkin' out there!
Web 2.0 Awards List
Week 5: Number 11
I was surprised to see that many of the 2.0 tools on this list were familiar to me, and that I had used many of them on numerous occasions. Pandora radio has long been a fav as has PayPal and Skype. So, in looking for something to try out, I decided to go with Vimeo. This was recently recommended to me by Alecia for uploading classroom videos easily for sharing purposes. Of course, this required me to create an account, and when doing so, I accidentally typed an extra letter at the end of my e-mail address. This normally is quite fixable, but for Vimeo, there was no way to delete my mistake and to correct it. Vimeo, upon creation of your account, sends out a confirmation e-mail to the e-mail account that you have listed. Until you actually go to your e-mail account, open the confirmation e-mail and confirm, you are unable to use the Vimeo services. Worse still, there is no live help desk. So, I created a new e-mail address, made it my primary account, and waited for the confirmation e-mail to my actual account. Still didn't work! Vimeo would not allow me to use their services until I had also confirmed the incorrect e-mail - which was impossible since there was no such web address. Very frustrating. I read pages of posts from others who had also typed in their e-mail address incorrectly, and who were experiencing the same problem. Since Vimeo support is only open M-F, I will have to remember to contact them to get this straightened out. Until then, I can't upload videos or get a good feel for the site. It looks like it will be a great tool for sharing the videos I make, and since Alecia recommended it, I'm sure that it will be something that I use again and again. Someday . . .
Saturday, October 2, 2010
On Line Image Generator
Week 5: Thing 10
These were fun tools to play around with, and after trying out several different image generators, I settled on
Image Chef:
These were fun tools to play around with, and after trying out several different image generators, I settled on
Image Chef:
This is my lovely creation that I made in the Visual Poetry section of the web site. The neat thing about working with art on-line is that you can delete it and tweak it so easily. With paper, you'd have to crumple it up and throw it away.
I also tried READ WRITE THINK and Comic Strip Generator, but out of the three, I liked ImageChef the best. This reminds me of the fun I have with Wordle, but is a little different because I can add symbols along with the letters. It's a neat little gadget.
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