September 11, 2006

Way out here in Seattle, where thinking about the distance of 3,000 miles away from NYC is a grim, coincidental reminder to me of the lives lost that day, I woke up and flipped to MSNBC. They were replaying 9/11/01 coverage to the minute, from NBC. I was shocked and appalled, and had a hard time turning away. It was 6 AM Seattle time, 9/11/01, all over again. I dragged myself to school, having a hard time shaking off the memories. I had a big day ahead of me.

Today was the fourth day of school for my third graders. They were three years old on 9/11/01. I had spent a fair bit of time thinking about how to handle the fifth anniversary in the classroom. Doug Noon posted a very helpful and powerful piece, Teaching for Change on Sept. 11. I left a comment there with several others, mostly about that day in the classroom. So I was ready, decided I would let the kids bring it up, and if they didn't, I would.

With five minutes left in the day, I brought it up. Asked if they knew what was special about today, that "special" did not always mean happy and joyous, etc. Maybe five kids had anything to say. They were clearly waiting to hear from me, I could feel their eyes and ears tuning in. So I talked about being a teacher on that day, how I had a new class, like they are now. How everyone was scared that day - kids and grown-ups. How what happened made people feel so very sad - and angry. And I said more than once that they should ask their parents about it when they went home, that they should try and sit down with family and talk about it, that they should talk with their older siblings, ask them about it. It was a moment, with these young kids who barely know me, to tell them I was a regular person, that they have a place in my world, and that they will have a place in mine. All this took five minutes.

And then I raced home on my bicycle to drive my wife to the airport. To put her on a plane bound for London, then on to Vienna, and finally to Bratislava - to make a recording for Naxos.

Everything else that happened today paled in comparison to saying goodbye to her at the airport. The flight was delayed. Our hearts beat faster for a while. She is in the air as I write this.

It is just another day, after all... but it will never be the same, ever.

100K educational wikis?

Wikispaces has set a goal of setting up 100,000 educational wikis. The new icons on the right sidebar will take you to the site where they say:

Back in January, we decided to offer our Plus Plan to K-12 teachers for free. We didn't set out with a grand strategy, just an interest in helping teachers with our easy to use wiki technology.

Over 10,000 educational wikis later, we've heard countless stories of excited students and empowered teachers. They've told us about their collaborative essays, group study guides, online lesson plans, and classroom notice boards coming alive on Wikispaces.

Now we're taking the next step - we want to give away 100,000 free K-12 Plus wikis. That includes all the features and benefits that normally cost $50/year - for free. No fine print, no usage limits, no advertising, no catches.

We hope that you'll read on, try a wiki at your school, and help us spread the word.

- Adam, Dom, and James

We've got one set up for my school at arborheights.wikispaces.com. I really hope to have the kids and staff involved, but of course we first must get around the filter. It was blocked (all of wikispaces is). Right now it is visible, but you can't edit it - kinda defeats the purpose. This is one of the failures and hollow promises in whitelisting web sites. Hopefully they'll get it straightened out soon. I haven't really made much of this yet, but I hope to have this be the "year of the wiki" with my class. We'll be blogging again, of course, at roomtwelve.com - hopefully by early October.

i want my password back! i want more blogging

Quoted directly from a last year's student, a comment left on my "Adieu" post on roomtwelve.com:

"i want my password back! i want more blogging..."

This after three days in a new class, without a blog, without a VOICE ...and with so much to say

This student goes on in his comment to let me have it for not letting him post about - and leave a link in his blog article - to runescape.com. This went back an article he submitted for publication over the summer, after school was out. I left him feedback about the appropriateness (in my opinion) of that game being linked to from his blog. All this behind the scenes, thanks to Classblogmeister. So I continued to teach - a little - to offer a little guidance.

The learning goes on. He is writing, still learning the language. He is involved in putting forth a persuasive writing piece (ohmygod, there's a standard in there somewhere!), because he was given the opportunity - in third grade. He remembered how to hyperlink his blog url to his comment. He's probably sending comments all over the place. He's on his way.

Now to figure out a way to help him have a blog with his teacher this year. He's still in my school. That will be harder than teaching my kids this year. I could be wrong - I really hope so.

Blogs blocked in Alabama!

(update, Sept 7, 2006: as it turns out, blogs are not blocked in Alabama, see the comment from Sheryl on this post)

---

From Miguel Guhlin, via podcast with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach For those who think DOPA will never pass, for those who think their blogs on edublogs.org are safe, for anybody who believes passionately in the opportunities web 2.0 offer your kids, please listen:

Blog Banning

The noose is tightening, and it is not just in Seattle.

A very different start

Tomorrow I go in to school for the final day of set up. The next day the kids come. In Seattle, we start school with the last wave in the US.

Most of my kids will be eight years old. Blogging? Yikes, there is so much to get together before we even talk about blogging. But it is exciting to think about the possibilities....

Today Doug Noon posted Your Blog Ate My Comment which got me thinking about my own comments and how to keep track of them. He also talked about his del.icio.us network account, how useful it is and so on. His post is definitely worth a read.

Hours later I was using my network del.icio.us account, and I was planning to use Doug's strategy for keeping track of his own comments.... and thinking about how to help my eight year olds keep track of the comments they will be making on other blogs this year. Good golly, this is a heck of a lot more than making sure the pencils are sharpened and the bulletin boards look fresh.

The reason this is so important for me to get a handle on is that last year several of my kids spent as much time reading and commenting on the blogs of others as they did writing on their own blogs. Would they like to be able to track their comments? Would I like to track their comments? My goodness, yes!!!! Last year we spent a lot of time talking about commenting strategies. For all the obvious reasons, this would be an incredible tool to add to the belt of the classroom teacher, and a fantastic reflective/self-evaluative piece for my kids.

Two days before they come through the classroom door, a month before they log on to their blog for the first time, my planning starts. And everything is very different.

K12 Online 2006

This looks absolutely outstanding!
----------------------------------
Announcing the first annual "K12 Online 2006" convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year's conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme "Unleashing the Potential." A call for proposals is below.

There will be four "conference strands"-- two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in podcast or screencast format and released via the conference blog (URL: TBA) and archived for posterity.

THE FOUR STRANDS ARE:

Week 1
Strand A: A Week In The Classroom
These presentations will focus on the practical pedagogical uses of online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers are using the tools in their classes. They will also show how teachers plan for using these tools in the delivery of their curricular objectives.

Strand B: Basic/Advanced Training (one of each per day)
Basic training is "how to" information on tool use in an educational setting, especially for newcomers.
Advanced training is for teachers who have already started using Web 2.0 tools in their classes and are looking for: (a) advanced technology training (eg. how to write your own blog template or hack existing ones), (b) new tools they can make use of in their classes, (c) teaching ideas on how to mash tools together to create "something new," (d) a pedagogical understanding of how technologies such as Weblogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking sites, RSS feeds and others can deepen learning and increase student achievement, or (e) use of assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of Read/Write Web technologies in their personal practice and with their students.

Week 2
Strand A: Personal Professional Development
Tips, ideas and resources on how to orchestrate your own professional development online; the tools that support Professional Learning Environments (PLEs); how to create opportunities to bring these technologies to the larger school community; how to effectively incorporate the tools into your personal or professional practice; or how to create a supportive, reflective virtual professional community around school-based goals.

Strand B: Overcoming Obstacles
Tips, ideas and resources on how to deal with issues like: lack of access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for online safety, and other IT concerns while trying to focus on best practice in the use of Web 2.0 tools.

CONVENERS & KEYNOTES
For organization purposes, each strand is overseen by a conference convener who will assist and coordinate presenters in their strand. The first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a well known educator who has distinguished his/herself and is knowledgeable in the context of each topic. This year's conveners and keynote presenters are:

A Week In The Classroom
Convener: Darren Kuropatwa
Keynote: Bud Hunt

Bud Hunt teaches high school language arts and journalism at Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, Colorado. He is a teacher-consultant with and the Tech Liaison for the Colorado State University Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project, a group working to improve the teaching of writing in schools via regular and meaningful professional development. Bud is also the co-editor of the New Voices column of English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. A consumer of copious amounts of New Media, Bud blogs and podcasts about his practice and larger educational issues at http://www.budtheteacher.com.

Basic/Advanced Training
Convener: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Keynote: TBA

Personal Professional Development
Convener: Will Richardson
Keynote: Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh is an educational technologist and teacher of French and German. Based in the Edinburgh area of Scotland he frequently works around the UK and Europe, leading student and teacher workshops and conferences. He is an experienced workshop facilitator in the area of Web 2.0 technologies in education across stages and curricular areas. Ewan blogs at http://edu.blogs.com

Overcoming Obstacles
Convener: TBA
Keynote: Anne Davis

Anne is known for seeing the educational possibilities in the use of weblogs with students in classrooms, having implemented wonderful ideas and weblog projects with students and teachers in K-12 classrooms and at the university level. She currently works at Georgia State University in the Instructional Technology Center in the College of Education as an Information Systems Training Specialist. Her weblog, EduBlog Insights is a co-winner of the Best Teacher Blog in the second international Edublog Awards, a web based event that recognizes the many diverse and imaginative ways in which weblogs are being used within education.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
We'd like to invite you to submit a proposal to present at the conference. If you have something you'd like to share with the community, both people who are new to blogs and/or experienced bloggers please email the appropriate conference convener above with your ideas. The deadline to submit a proposal (just the proposal, not the finished product) is September 30, 2006. One of us will contact you to finalize the date of your presentation. Your presentation may be delivered in any web-based medium (including but not limited to...podcasts, PowerPoint files, blogs, websites, wikis, screencasts, etc.) and must be emailed to your assigned conference convener one week before it goes live, (see above strands) so that it can be uploaded to the server.

The conference organizers are:
Darren Kuropatwa

Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice and for "child safe" blogging practices. He has more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and 13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for the last 10 years. Darren's professional blog is called A Difference (http://adifference.blogspot.com).

Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach

Sheryl is a technology/education consultant for the National Education Association (NEA), the Center for Teaching Quality, SRI International, the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Department of Education, the Miami-Dade Public Schools, the Alabama Best Practices Center and adjunct instructor in the School of Education at The College of William and Mary. She has had several journal articles and book chapters published, been featured on public broadcasting television and radio shows, and is a regular presenter at local, state, and national conferences speaking on topics of homelessness, teacher leadership, virtual community building, and 21st Century learning initiatives. Sheryl blogs at 21st Century Collaborative (http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/).

Will Richardson

Will Richardson is known internationally for his work with educators and students to understand and implement instructional technologies and, more specifically, the tools of the Read/Write Web into their schools, classrooms and communities. A public school educator for 22 years, WillÂ’s own Weblog (Weblogg-ed.com) is a primary resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on the K-12 level and is a leading voice for school reform in the context of the fundamental changes these new technologies are bringing to all aspects of life. Will is the critically acclaimed authour of the best-selling book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms (March 2006, Corwin Press).

Conference Tags: k12online, K12online06

If you have any questions about any part of this, email one of us:
Darren Kuropatwa
Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach
Will Richardson

Please duplicate this post and distribute it far and wide across the blogosphere. Feel free to republish it on your own blog (actually, we'd really like people to do that ;-) ) or link back to this post (published simultaneously on all our blogs).

technorati tags

• k12online
• k12online06

A different kind of class

Steinway 1
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

It's not often, even at my age, when you say, "Well, this will be the last _______ we'll ever buy!" Two days ago we were lucky enough to find a Steinway we could afford, sort of - in sweet condition. Today we had it tuned, and our little house sings.... until I sit down just to see if the organ solo from "Light My Fire" is still in my muscle memory (it is - the neighborhood groans - yes, I was a rock and roll keyoard guy in the late sixties).

Fighting filtering

I just posted this response on tictech, a list I moderate on my own for folks interested in technology in the Seattle Public Schools:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Justin, Amen! Thank you for saying it so well.

The Seattle School District currently blocks Technorati. Interesting that Wikipedia makes a special note in its entry on Technorati - that it is blocked in China. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorati

Edublogs.org is blocked in the Seattle School District.

David Warlick is blocked in the Seattle School District.

Anyone who participates in and sees the potential in web 2.0 would shake their heads in disbelief hearing such things. I have mentioned it to a few people, and they thought I was joking. Why this has happened in Seattle is a mystery. If the above three examples do not mean anything, I would suggest a crash course on web 2.0 with one or more of the following. Will Richardson's book is amazing http://weblogg-ed.com/book-info/ There's a downloadable pdf pamphlet put together by some of the truly genius minds in educational technology: Coming of Age: an introduction to the new world wide web - http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2006/04/coming_of_age_a.html And people are probably tired of hearing this, but check the blogging of my third graders last year http://classblogmei ster.com/blog.php?blogger_id=5655 The latest edition of Interactive Educatorhttp://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Community/I.E.+Magazine/Current+issue.htm has two wonderful articles about web 2.0 stuff - and mentions my class and school.

Dozens of domains carrying millions of web sites, blogs, and wikis - with incredible educational potential - are blocked in Seattle Schools - whitelisted, as Justin says. Saying a site can be unblocked if you request it is not necessarily true. My school's wiki is blocked within the district, and with the current whitelist policy, it cannot be unblocked. What do I tell the parents who have put in tons of work on their school wiki over the summer? http://arborheights.wikispaces.com/

I second Justin's suggestion that educators be actively involved in decision making on district filtering. It is about education, after all. There are a few of us educators who also happen to know a few things about technical stuff.

I can punch down a cat 5 cable with the best of them, break down and reassemble a computer, roam around in DOS, explain the difference between a switch, hub, and router - write in html, xml, javascript, and I know the difference between blacklisting and whitelisting...

... I also happen to know what a wiki is... and rss... and a blog (that it is NOT just a journal, for goodness sake)... and tagging... and a mobcast... and a Skypecast... and so on... - and I have seen what they can do in a classroom.

I would hope educators involved in decisions on district filtering be directly involved in the revolution that is sweeping through the education community worldwide, web 2.0. You know I am available if somebody asked. I bet Justin would be too. Anybody else? - Mark

Sail on!

I just posted this to the classroom blog for my third graders from last year:

Sail on! 09/1
Congratulations to the 2005-06 third graders in Room 12! You all did such an absolutely AMAZING job with your writing on your blogs! You made a difference not only for yourselves, but you also inspired many, many people all over the world!

Student writing on this blog has now come to an end (I just changed everyone's passwords).

Roomtwelve.com now goes to a new location, the third graders in Room 12 for the 2006-07 school year.

So goodbye, you great bunch of kids in room 12. You were an incredible group to have in the classroom. I feel very lucky to have been your teacher. Keep on blogging!

Your third grade teacher,
Mr. Ahlness

Caring too much

It is a dangerous thing when you allow yourself to get so involved, so invested in something you believe so very passionately in.

Nothing wrong with caring - but when others are in control of whether you get to share it, when promises are made, when hours are spent, when money and time comes out of your own pocket because you BELIEVE (and all the while you think that you have an incredible chance to make a difference, to influence thinking, to inspire people) in what you are doing, that you finally have a golden opportunity to really nail it... well, maybe you can see this coming...

I did not do my 12 minute tech presentation today. No time, sorry. The handouts went into a shockingly large pile of my presentations that have met the same fate. I was crushed.

Thank goodness the kids are coming next week, I've had enough of all the rest that goes with being a teacher.

I will get over this. My wife will kill me if I don't dump it quickly - it is Labor Day weekend, for goodness sake. By the time the kids walk through the door in 6 days, I will be ready to care again - and my caring will make a difference this time.

Back to school tech intro

Here’s what I hope to cover in 12 minutes of a staff meeting at Arbor Heights on Thursday:

1) hold up Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat”, suggest it is required reading for any teacher

2) pass out copies (for people to read on their own, later) of two articles from the Autumn 2006 edition of “Interactive Educator”:
- Building Online Learning Communities, by Diane Curtis
- To Blog or Not to Blog? You Decide, by Wesley Fryer

3) show Did you know, by Karl Fisch. I have mentioned this before here, but Karl has since updated the presentation and added sources

Salmon tank

Salmon tank 2006-4
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

Just one of the many special activities we take part in every year at Arbor Heights Elementary School - the raising and releasing of salmon into our local Fauntleroy Creek. I'll get this up on our Wikipedia entry asap.

The original artwork displayed below the tank is a gift from Wes Felty.

Worse than DOPA - the Whitelist

Yes, this is worse than DOPA being enacted into law, because it is already here, strangling the Internet pipe into our classrooms down to an infinitesimally thin strand of exclusive, hand picked sites. This major shift in approach to Internet filtering in our schools is effectively shutting down access to web 2.0 in our classrooms.

Whitelisting.

From Wikipedia:

A whitelist is a list of accepted items or persons in a set. This list is inclusionary, confirming that the item being analyzed is acceptable. It is the opposite of a blacklist which confirms that items are not acceptable.

For the last ten years or so of providing web access in schools in the US, school districts have relied on a blacklist, a list of identified inappropriate sites to which computers within a district were denied access. Districts commonly contracted with software vendors who constantly updated that list with inappropriate sites. Staff members in that district were asked to report inappropriate sites that they or their kids happened upon so that they could be added to the database.

An example of how a whitelist changes everything:
Say a district whitelists blogger.com (very common practice). All blogs that end in blogspot.com are then blocked from within the district, effectively blocking the .06% of inappropriate blogs from blogger (I made up this stat - just bear with me). This effectively shuts off access to 99.94% of the appropriate blogs on blogger. If anyone wants access to a blog on blogger they must request an "unblock", along with rationale for the unblock. One unblocked site still leaves 99.94% (the appropriate ones) blocked.

The onus is now on the teacher. There is no wide open door anymore. If you want to see what's out there, you have to go looking on your own time, from home, jump through hoops, and cross your fingers. Teachable moments? Forget it.

There are hundreds of companies out there with blacklists that school districts could plug into their filtering software. Why is blacklisting not used anymore? It costs more. It's more work. It's not perfect. Why are districts whitelisting? It's cheap. It's relatively easy. It's safe. No kids will ever see anything inappropriate.

Heck, kids won't see anything. This approach is so obviously unethical and plain out wrong, that I cannot believe nobody is saying anything about it. Maybe nobody realizes it is happening. I've been using the web as a part of my daily classroom instruction - with third graders - for the past twelve years, and I can say this is by far the most repressive and restrictive access to knowledge that I have ever seen. I guess what sticks in my craw the most is that those in charge of school Internet filters are giving teachers absolutely zero credit - or responsibility - for being able to watch, teach, and look out for the safety of their children on the Internet.

Worrying about DOPA at this point is ignoring the elephant in the living room.

Inspiration

I'm still a week and a half away from going back to school (with a week of meetings and planning time). But ideas to get staff inspired on web 2.0 are already being shared:

• Doug Noon, at an elementary school in Alaska, writes in The Community Writing Project about having an opportunity to get his staff on board, and maybe participating in something similar to his Tell the Raven student blog from last year. Interesting how the use of the term "blog" is shied away from - see the comments for an extension of a good conversation.
• Karl Fisch, from a high school in Colorado, shares in Did You Know? a powerful PowerPoint presentation he put together for his staff. He looked at making a difference with his staff in a totally different way. It's a serious, sit up and listen to this, big picture approach.

I'll be using Karl's presentation in my elementary school, with his permission. And I will also be having those sharing, this is how you do it, hands on kind of sessions that Doug talks about. Big picture, little picture - we have to remember put them both out there to really inspire our colleagues. Thanks to Doug and Karl for sharing.

Getting mentioned

When you are a third grade teacher in the public school system, you are a worker bee, a drone, even a flea (no, that's something else). Anyway, when you get noticed on the Internet, mentioned in big time blogs or publications, you stop and take notice.

If it's a good thing, you pour yourself another cup of coffee, maybe print out the post, read it over and over, underline the extra good stuff, send it on to folks... until you realize you have gone way beyond the acceptable limits of pride, and then you stop... and glow, but very quietly, in a corner...

If you get mentioned in a not so good way, or a way that makes you cringe, think whatever was I thinking when I let that one fly, I wish I could crank that time machine back a few days... well, you lose sleep, plain and simple.

...at least that's if you're a classroom teacher who grew up in MN, ND, and SD in the 50's. Garrison Keillor really does tell the story of my life (he's 8 years older, though)

Here are two mentions of stuff I've written, both come my way in the past couple weeks. See if you can figure out which is the good and bad mention:

Re: Arbor Heights - a dozen years on the web! - Stephen Downes
Photo-Sharing Web Sites - in District Administration (yikes, they've changed the online version - I have to get my hands on a hard copy)

never mind.

Arbor Heights - a dozen years on the web!

(I just posted this to several lists)

Today is an important anniversary. Twelve years ago today, August 14, 1994, the Arbor Heights Elementary School web site appeared on the Internet. Below are a dozen items to remember and celebrate:

1) Our first page looked like this: http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/ahold1.html

2) Ours was the 9th elementary school with a web site. It is the only one of those schools still at the same URL: http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/ - or these days, just head to www.arborheights.com

3) Take a virtual tour of the evolution of our home page at http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/history.html

4) The Arbor Heights Elementary School web site was featured via screenshot in Bill Gates' "The Road Ahead".

5) The site hosts the complete archive of The Random Thoughts of Louis Schmier, a collection of the writings of one of the Internet's visionary educational philosophers for more than a decade: http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html

6) The Arbor Heights web site originated, was the host for several years for, and is still the physical coordinating center for, the largest educational activity coordinated on the Internet, The Earth Day Groceries Project: http://www.earthdaybags.org/

Not resting on its laurels, the school is pushing out into the world of web2.0 with the last six:

7) a PTSA blog: http://ahptsa.blogspot.com/

8) six rss feeds on its home page at http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/

9) a PTSA listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ahptsa/

10) a school wiki, just starting out, at http://arborheights.wikispaces.com/

11) podcasts of and pdf versions of the Jr. Seahawk Newsletter, "The oldest continuously published elementary school student newspaper on the Internet" at http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/jrseahaw.html and http://nlcommunities.com/communities/mahlness/

12) home of http://roomtwelve.com - a classroom of third graders helping to redefine 21st century literacy.

It's been an exciting dozen years. - Mark

Telling our story, again

Spurred on by the thoughts of Brian Crosby in Where are the “Best Practices” Examples!???! and Ewan McIntosh in Does blogging affect attainment? Yes!, I've been thinking more about my blogging experience with my third graders this past year at roomtwelve.com. Brian wrote asking where the great stories are, why they are not shared, etc., and I started wondering just how often I had blogged about blogging with my class. So I'm going to go through my blog and list below the postings where I wrote about the experience. I have no idea what I will find, how many, etc. This may be interesting.

1. Planning for next year
2. Student bloggers, finally!
3. Bloggers' contract
4. Re: blogger's contract
5. Classroom bloggers doing well!
   
6. Turkey escape stories
7. Progress and struggles
8. What's good about blogging, part 1
9. Email flurry
10. Flickr, finally
11. End of the year tech thoughts
12. Struggling just to stay even
13. Nice comments
14. Amazing student bloggers
15. Small step
16. Plans for the week
17. Good news, bad news
18. A good week
19. Comment that got to me
20. Third grade tech problem solvers
21. Room 12 - in Texas!
22. Flurry of loose ends
23. Connecting with parents
24. Local connections
25. Family Internet Night
26. Blogging and report cards
27. Slowing down
28. Many things
29. One more blogging teacher
30. Blocking Flickr - can't get past it
31. Good reading, 4/02/06
32. The Real Tragedy of MySpace
33. Oh, the places you'll go...
34. The WASL
35. A day in the life
36. 21st Century Coffeehouse
37. Rugged days
38. Brighter spots
39. The Class of 2015
40. Just another day
41. Comments - Thanks to the teachers
42. Blogging Frenzy
43. Last Day's Eve
44. Blogging through the school year, part 1
45. Blogging through the school year, part 2
46. Blogging through the school year, part 3
47. Top 10 student blog posts
48. The Case for Classblogmeister
49. Hard to walk away
50. The case against classblogmeister - a response
51. Understanding the power of the blog

There it is, a list of all the posts on this blog where I wrote at least in part about blogging with my third graders this year. It was a good exercise, and I didn't cringe at my own writing as much as I thought I would. It also confirms my feeling that I have indeed put my voice out there, have at least tried to spread the good news. It was surprising to note the number. I had thought 15, maybe 20, before I started compiling. I also looked at total numbers - I had over 150 total posts during this period. I don't know where this goes or what it means, really. More later...

technorati tags

• classblogmeister
• roomtwelve

Understanding the power of the blog

Here's a little story of something I take very much for granted now, but I know simply must take the time to go through the whole thing again, to explain how it works and what it means.

It's midsummer here in the US, but for some of my last year's third graders and me, school is still in session. They are still writing. I'm no longer their teacher, but I am teaching them. I am still editing, offering them feedback and congratulations. They are also getting feedback from others all over the world. My kids from last year are still blogging. Seven of them, a third of my class, have posted articles on their own blogs.

We use Classblogmeister, a wonderful, free, safe tool for blogging. Every word that they write on their blogs is approved by me before it appears there. Every comment goes by me first as well. I am their safety net, their set of training wheels. But regardless of these safety precautions, we have also talked relentlessly about online safety and being a responsible Internet citizen. They have learned lessons that will keep them safe, give them a degree of understanding, and hopefully give them an edge towards success, that other 8 and 9 year olds do not have.

This is unprecidented, something I have not seen or experienced in 25 years of teaching. My kids still want to write - how wonderful is that?! The difference is that now they know they have a global audience, that their writing will not just be stuck up on the family refrigerator for a few days and then taken down or replaced with something else. We blogged this past school year, and I was constantly astounded at the effort that went into their writing. They were motivated to write like I have never seen before. And of course as their teacher I found I had this incredible tool to shape and hone their writing skills. The writing curriculum was rewritten. If you look at their blogs, look from the bottom up - from their first writing, in November of 2005, to August of 2006. I can make no stronger case for the power of the blog - as a teaching tool.

http://roomtwelve.com

Also check out the summer writing of Jackson, Danielle, Ming, Isobel, Jacqueline, Camden, and Gus. I have a feeling there will be more before the summer is over...

It is so easy, in this edtech blogging echo chamber, to forget that most people still do not know what is going on here, that a few educators and a few more students have tasted from the web 2.0 cup, and cannot turn back. We have seen the power, we have seen the results in our classrooms. Once you've been around the block in a Porshe, you do not want to get back in the family beater.

technorati tags

• classblogmeister
• roomtwelve

Feed2JS saves the day

I have not written anything here for a week. After daily posts about DOPA and filtering, I had had just about enough. Dead end. How can you shout any louder, anyway? I was exasperated, both with the national scene, and with the dead zone locally, in terms of acceptance of web 2.0 technologies. Not just acceptance, but just understanding. Not just understanding, but willingness to even have an open mind. Anyway, I certainly had plenty to say. But it was all so negative, so downhearted, in such a deep down funk. No way I could write about anything in that mood. Leave it to solving a problem to brighten the road ahead.

The rss feeds on the sidebar here had not been responding for some time, and as a result this page would take forever to load. I'd been using this incredible service developed and offered free by Alan Levine, called Feed2JS (Feed to Java Script). It is a remarkable javascript rss generator that can transform a boring, static web 1.0 web page into a dynamic web 2.0 place to be... it is an amazing tool. Plop the code on any web page, and you have rss content dispayed however you'd like it. I am surprised it is not used more.

The server that I had referenced had not answered for about a week. So tonight I did some digging and read something on Alan's blog about "leaving Maricopa", eventually finding the original server. I'm still not sure how this all works - there were mirror sites at one point....

Anyway, there are now six rss feeds on this blog, again delivering pretty much up to the minute updates from Doug Noon, Graham Wegner, Clarence Fisher, Brian Crosby (all classroom teachers), roomtwelve.com, and the Writer's Almanac. Nothing like solving a problem to bring the funk to an end. There's a little icon over on the side bar. Thanks Alan!

Fresh air

An incredible breath of fresh air blew in from Wesley Freyer today. Introspective and inspiring, it is the first of his seven (so far) posts for August 2, 2006. When you've had about as much as you can handle on DOPA, read If I had...

Food for thought, you can't help but read through his lists without mentally adding to them or making your own lists. It is important to dream, to keep all possibilities open. Thanks, Wesley.

DOPA Button

(update: if you put this applet on your site before July 31, please be aware that Internet Explorer on the pc - quite a few use this :) - will not display it. Get the revised code here)

The latest cool way to make it easy for folks to email their senators about DOPA comes from Brian Grenier at Bump on the Blog. Place a piece of code on your blog or web site and you get this Flash applet:

Get the code here.

After the user clicks on the icon he/she is prompted to fill in name, city, choose a state, and "Click to send". The computer's default email program then launches this message (I filled out Mark Ahlness, Seattle, and chose Washington). It can be customized before sending. It is of course addressed to the two senators from the selected state. Thanks Brian!

- click to enlarge -

DOPA - a six-pack strategy for change

I've been very much a part of the wild arm waving, hand wringing reaction to the passage of DOPA. Fine. Lots of energy expended by thousands like me, and, if you look at net results, who has heard? Well, nobody who will make a difference. Nobody who will directly influence a US Senator to vote nay on DOPA. Here's the question, in my mind, at least today: who will they listen to? I've come up with a six-pack:

1. lobbyists and unions

• NEA: National Education Association - not a word on DOPA, contact your local office
• AFT - American Federation of Teachers - not a word on DOPA, contact your local office

2. colleagues (of the senators)

• The fifteen US Representatives who voted against DOPA - write to them, thank them, ask them to contact senators...

3. state departments of education

• Listed by state - contact your state, ask about DOPA

4. Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education

• Her home page
• Teachers ask the secretary - fill out the form, ask about DOPA

5. large city school districts and school boards

• Listing of states - click on state > Education > School Districts > find your city!

6. library organizations

• The American Library Association
• ALA DOPA - the response so far from the American Library Association - they have it together - thank them, help them...

This of course runs counter to all the energy currently being expended at the grassroots level, to "tell everybody you know". This is real swell, but we are absolutely deluding ourselves if we think blogging about how bad it's going to be will change the mind of a US senator before a vote on DOPA - which could in theory happen within a week. The flat world is indeed here, but just because we can speak to everybody does not mean anyone will hear us, never mind listen to what we are saying. We are just an army of fleas trying to change the direction of a rampaging herd of elephants.

I think we ought to take another tack, encourage and support 1-6 above. This is not even web 1.0, it's more like 0.0, as Will Richardson pointed out. At least one library organization is already all over DOPA. I have not heard a single peep from any of the first five. They have the power and influence to change a US senator's mind. If senators start hearing from any/all of the above, they WILL notice. I'm putting my energy there, starting with my local school district and school board.

technorati tags

• DOPA

Melville in July

happy hops
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

So why in the world would I be outside on a beautiful summer afternoon in Seattle, admiring my incredibly prolific hops - reading Herman Melville? I mean what are the odds? The only thing of his I ever read was Moby Dick, eons ago. I wasn't an English major, I read exciting stuff like Freud and Jung as an undergrad... Why would I start reading Melville?

Well, because the world has changed, is changing, so very fast. And when politicians make decisions that punish and cripple the communities they are in theory trying to help, those communities know instantly, and respond with almost one voice in outrage. It has to do with DOPA.

I am part of the community affected by DOPA, just passed overwhelmingly by the US House of Representatives. I am a third grade teacher. This past school year I have seen and tasted the promise of what web 2.0 can bring to our classrooms - IS bringing to classrooms all over the world. The US already is woefully behind nations like Canada, the UK, and Australia in embracing these new technologies. DOPA will essentially shut the door on web 2.0 in US schools and libraries. The reaction of educators and librarians is resounding; the blogosphere is ringing with our anger and disgust.

Those who are in favor of DOPA seem to feel it is the job of parents to teach online safety. This is simply not going to happen. The ONLY place it will happen is in the classroom. I know. I teach, and I have eyes and ears. I have 25 years of experience teaching, working with kids and their families. It will happen at school, or it wll not happen at all.

Where should Internet tools be used on a daily basis, as part of regular instruction, integrated into everything that happens there? In every single classroom of the 21st century. I cannot believe the number of blog comments I've read in support of DOPA that question the very existence of computers in schools. Some folk would have our students using nothing but slates and wooden benches, giving kids a "good, solid, fundamental education".

Which brings me back to… Herman Melville. Writing back in the days of slates and benches in schools, he painted a tale of fear and panic. Count on an elementary school teacher to go all literate in the middle of the summer (well, he always is), and basically force me to read Melville’s "The Lightning Rod Man" to see the connection. Doug Noon posted Too Safe to remind us that the reaction which produced DOPA is nothing new. We need to use our common sense to see through the fear - and remind others to do so.

technorati tags

• DOPA

DOPA - kids get it, grown ups don't

Vicki coolcatteacher Davis posted a wonderful piece about DOPA. What I found the most compelling was the quote she included from one of her students. Here is what that student wrote, in its entirety:

I first heard about DOPA from my computer science teacher, who made us pick which side we were on and blog about it. Even intially I disagreed although I didn’t really know what DOPA was I knew it wasn’t a good thing. After digging a little deeper I found out that DOPA, which stands for Deleting Online Predators Act, esstenially is trying to ban the use of social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, etc. along with things like IM and blogs from schools and public libraries, because some lawmakers feel that by taking away these sites children will be safer from the horrors of the Internet. Children will still have access to these sites at home unless the parents’ take it into their own hands like they should and prevent their children from doing foolish things out of ignorance. The only way to protect children from online predators is to arm them with the information to protect themselves. In fact, probably the best place for kids to have access to these sites is in school where they can be monitored. Not to mention all the educational benefits that come from these sites these lawmakers are trying to ban. Wikis are the new way to do classroom collaboration. Blogs are the new way to do classroom discussion. So no, DOPA is not protecting the children, in fact, all it is doing is hurting them by continuing to promote the idea that ignorance is bliss. These kids are ignorant of how to protect themselves from Internet predators. These lawmakers need to ban ignorance not promote it.

Vicki has since been picked up by CNN and Techcrunch - fantastic! However, at this writing, some of the comments left on the Money site display well, not as much understanding as I would hope. There is so much more work to do. As always, it's about education - but it's not the kids this time - they get it. It's the grown ups who need to go back to school.

Vicki has just posted What's Wrong with DOPA, an in depth look at the bill, with plenty of commentary, of course.

technorati tags

• DOPA
• coolcatteacher
• Congress
• legislation

DOPA - the battle begins now

OK, so DOPA passed the House of Reps. and it's now on to the Senate. A couple of ideas for fighting back have surfaced in the last couple of hours:

1. Andy Carvin has set up an aggregator for reults on DOPA drawing from Technorati and Google News: Dopa Watch. Andy also has a more public forum, a blog on PBS, where he is trying to get the word out. Send him comments there - he has a big readership, more mainstream than the edtech blogosphere.
   
2. Will Richardson has posted a bit of a rant about this. For now, anybody should read and circulate this. Does he have anything organized? Not yet, but stay tuned. I think the best bet is for Will and Andy to get themselves on Oprah. Maybe then public opinion (which is how our legislators vote anyway) might experience a slight shift.
3. My thought is to contact the folks who opposed DOPA. Ask for their support. Tell them how important it is and how grateful you are that they opposed it. The fifteen smartest members of the House of Representatives are listed at the top of this page. Start with people who think like you, and ask THEM to change their colleagues' minds. They stand a much better chance than you or I. I am very proud to say my representative, Jim McDermott, is among those 15. Not that it was a tipping point for him, but it personally makes me feel better that I emailed him an impassioned plea last night...

technorati tags

• DOPA

good grief - House overwhelmingly passes DOPA!

This just in, from Andy Carvin, on wwwedu:

Last night the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the
Deleting Online Predators Act, 410 to 15. It would seem that educators
had little to no impact on the outcome. Perhaps this is by lack of
numbers, or because the MySpace panic that's overtaken this country is
so overwhelming that no amount of rational pleas from educators would
have stopped it.

The battle moves on to the Senate. I'm not hopeful. Thoughts, anyone?

technorati tags

• DOPA
• carvin

FWD: Call Your Representative Today…

Just in case you have not aleady read this incredibly important piece of news, here is David Warlick with some good advice:

just got this through Dave Farber’s Interesting People:

ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 15, Number 73
July 25, 2006

In This Issue: URGENT ACTION ALERT: Call Representatives TODAY and ask them to oppose DOPA

URGENT Action Needed:

The Washington Office has learned that the House may try to expedite passage of H.R. 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), TOMORROW, July 26th.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY and ask that they oppose HR 5319. Capitol Switchboard number is: 202-224-3121.

Background:

DOPA is sponsored by Rep. Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and supported by the House Republican Suburban Caucus. It would require that, as a condition of receiving E-Rate support, all schools and libraries block access to social networking websites and chat rooms.

The bill raises a number of issues:

1) Local school districts and libraries should determine what content should flow into schools and libraries. Federal mandate over content control is very problematic.
2) Districts and libraries already have the power to block access to social networking sites and chat rooms and a number of them have already done so.
3) DOPA imposes yet another burden on schools and libraries participating in the E-rate and may deter many from continuing to participate.
4) This bill paints an unflattering and distorted view of the Internet as a whole, serving to scare away parents, students, teachers and librarians from making use of all its resources.

Last week, YALSA Executive Director Beth Yoke testified on DOPA before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on DOPA. You can read her testimony here: http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/
techinttele/DOPA_testimony

And also from Andy Carvin:

The American Library Association's Washington office is reporting that the House of Representatives will likely vote on the so-called DOPA Act tomorrow. DOPA, the Deleting Online Predators Act, would force schools and libraries receiving federal Internet subsidies to block all interactive websites, including blogs, bulletin boards, email lists and online social network. It's an absurd reaction to the anti-MySpace hype that's been dominating the media in recent months, and threatens to make the Internet completely useless as an educational tool. Schools already have the ability to block inappropriate websites, and they should be the ones determining which sites are educationally relevant.

Please call your congressional representative today and tell them that you are against HR 5319, as it's officially known. The House switchboard is 202-224-3121 - just give them the name of your representative. If you don't know your representative, you can contact them online - just supply your address and it will be directed to your representative. -andy

SPACE replaces PLACE

In the not too distant future...

The PLACE of edtech conferences is replaced by the SPACE of edtech conferences.

For attendees, no more gathering in central locations, paying registration fees, paying for plane tickets and hotel rooms.

That model is outdated, slow, expensive, wasteful, and unnecessary.

Space replaces place.

We meet in a space online. Virtually. A Skypecast broadcast live. Possible? Sure. Other ways? Of course. We need to let go of our antiquated notions of how ideas are shared, of how we "teach" others, of how we spread the word.

The technologies we are all so excited about are there for us to use - not just in our classrooms, but in the way we teach each other.

Warm day rant on NCLB

How hot is it?
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

Not to obsess about the heat too much, but it is getting a bit on the unbearable side around here, with our fourth day in a row of mid nineties, no AC, and very little breeze.... we are warm weather wimps out here in Seattle.

This has been bugging me for some time. It is about testing, NCLB, students, and teachers. It is about the basic assumptions behind testing and raising the bar of achievement.

Background point 1: states are mandated to test, and then increase test scores.
Background point 2: there is no funding for any of this to happen - for testing or for increasing achievement.

Assumption point 1: teachers are not teaching as hard as they should be.
Assumption point 2: students are not trying as hard as they should.
Assumption point 3: in order to make test scores go up, teachers and students just need to try harder.

This IS the plan. For those of us who leave a portion of our souls in the classroom every day, this is an incredible, demoralizing insult. For our kids who give it their all every day, this cuts the legs out from under their motivation.

If there were new instructional techniques being promoted, if there were new training being provided, if there were assistance from somebody for students and their families - and if there were any money to pay for ANY of this, then my Assumption points above would not hold water.

However, there is absolutely no plan for how to increase academic achievement. Wait, I take that back. Here is the plan: raise the bar! If you do that, achievement will go up!

How? Well, there is no plan for how. Just try harder, I guess.

(my personal core temperature just went up five degrees, not helping much with the need for cooling, but I feel better having pointed out the obvious)

technorati tags

• NCLB
• testing

Warm day baby steps

So what do you do when you live in Seattle and the temperature hits the mid/upper nineties? Not much. I know mid nineties may not sound like much to many across the US who have been withering away in the heat wave of the last few days, but when it happens out here, things just kind of stop. Sort of like when it snows. AC is not a common feature around here, especially in older homes, and many homes don't have a single screen. Our little home has neither. Bugs you say? What are those? So it's not all bad, but it is tough to be productive at anything physical. Thank goodness there is Internet stuff to work on :)

I've been developing a wiki for my school the past couple of weeks. I fully expect it (or something like it) to eventually replace the Arbor Heights Elementary School website, something I began twelve years ago. While I'm feeling my way around the wiki world, I am trying to involve a few parents in the initial building stage. If there's enough vested interest in the next month, with a core group watching and contributing to it, I will make it public at the opening of school in the fall. I hope to have staff, parents, and students all contributing to the wiki. We'll see...

Then for something totally different, I set up a podcast feed for the Jr. Seahawk Newsletter, the student newsletter I edit and produce with the kids from all the classes at school. We managed to crank out four podcasts at the end of year, so it's not much, but at least it's a start. I used the November Learning site I set up for reporters to comment on, set up a "category" for podcasts, and... tada!!... that category has an rss feed. Had no idea if this would work when starting out. Have tried the feed through Bloglines and Netvibes and the podcasts play just fine. Very cool. Two things I hope for in the fall:

1. that the site remains free
2. that my district does not block it
   

Then just to push in an area I know absolutely nothing about, I got the news reporter feed listed (pending approval) on iTunes. Yikes, I had to sign up, and all this business, just to have them list it. But now I can download all kinds of great music for my iPod. Right.

Now to find a shady spot with a bit of a breeze....

Free City Wi-Fi

I remember reading about Philadelphia going with free wi-fi, and I must confess to being ignorant on how it's going. Here is sister city Portland's latest, from Tim Lauer in Portland Citywide Wi-Fi Gets Started:

Oregon Public Broadcasting has a report about the build out of Portland's citywide wireless Internet grid. (Dailywireless also has a report with a few more details.)

Starting later this year in the downtown and inner southeast sections of Portland, and later throughout the city, residents will be able to pick up an advertising based connection free of charge. Advertisement free service will cost $20 a month. The builders of the system indicate that when finished, 95% of the city will be covered. The bandwidth is expect to be 1 Mbps. In addition to providing access to residents, the city will use the system to connect to devices such as traffic beacons, parking meters, and other such city infrastructure that can take advantage of a wireless network connection.

It will be interesting to see how the local school systems interact with this system (According to the RFP, Portland Public Schools is a partner with the city...)

This is so very exciting to see. It will be interesting to note where Seattle - or anybody else - goes with this.

The case against classblogmeister - a response

Below is a comment I left in response to The case against classblogmeister, written by Dean Shareski, filling in for Wesley Freyer on Moving at the Speed of Creativity:

Well I suppose I better say something :) First, I think it is testimony to the power of Classblogmeister that its strengths and weaknesses are being openly debated out here. It is also testimony to its influence and success. Dean, I know you would never have brought up a wimpy, worthless tool that nobody saw much use for except for a few, that nobody could defend...

Next, if the primary "case" against Classblogmeister is that it just doesn't ring the chimes of high school students - well, I think that's a pretty weak case. I doubt David Warlick had his eyes on high school students as the primary beneficiaries of the tool when he was developing it.

On customization, I agree kids love it, that it sucks them into things. As an elementary school teacher however, I will also point out it's one of the biggest dangers lurking out there in introducing new technologies. I don't know how many times I said, as my kids had just been shown (or discovered) some new bell or whistle in PowerPoint and were obsessing over it, "frankly, I don't care how it looks, I care about what you have to SAY". Sound familiar, teachers?

Last, on the issue of longevity of blogs. I might be misunderstanding, but I'm assuming we're talking here about how long student blogs last, not how long Classblogmeister lasts - right? Anyway, having spent a school year blogging successfully with third graders, here are a couple of thoughts on longevity:

1) my kids and I want their blogs to continue. I do because it will be a record of their progress as writers (it's all about writing). They want their blogs to continue because they are proud of them, because they simply want to KEEP DOING THIS. They love being contributors, having a global audience, all that good stuff.

2) will I continue to monitor and publish their writing after they leave my class? Well, I am right now. I've told them 'til the end of the summer. Then who knows? There are a couple of possibilities - actually transferring their blog to another teacher's classroom blog, or I could even continue to monitor and publish. Maybe there is a new tool right around the corner that allows the importing of a Classblogmeister blog. This is totally uncharted territory, and I am not pulling off the road now...

The obvious ps to all of this is that the kids I am talking about are young. Technology will change (duh) in the course of their education. I am going to give them every opportunity to spread their wings and fly as far as is safe - right now. As far as I am concerned, Classblogmeister is the clear tool of choice.

As for the perfect blogging tool for high school students, I'll leave that for somebody else. I can tell you, though, there will be fewer choices in the US than in many other places... but that's another conversation.

Well, Dean, this has gotten to be a mighty long comment, so I guess it now becomes a post on my own blog, too :) Thanks for continuing and pushing the conversation. - Mark

technorati tags

• classblogmeister

Hard to walk away

american bittern 2
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

I've not had such a difficult time before leaving school and classroom work behind. Even when I go out and find an incredible bird like this American Bittern today, I come home anxious to finish up this or that bit of blogging, work on a wiki, see what somebody else has written about NECC 2006, send a comment to somebody, check my classroom blog.... the school year is not ending like it used to.

Tuesday brought the exciting Skypecast, and worries about further blocking in my school district. Wednesday brought digesting all this, writing about the conversation, listening to it again, finding more and more exciting edtechblogs, and learning more about wikis, including editing one. Today has brought birds, more great blog reading and now I need to find out about mashups, something I was just reading about.

Spongemode. Here I am on summer vacation, and my kids are still blogging. I'm offering them feedback, approving their work, making a few corrections like I am still their teacher. I'm spending hours learning and planning - on the web, blogs, wikis - and not getting a credit or a dime for it.

Am I complaining? No way, I love it. I just find it remarkable right now how hard it is to walk away.

technorati tags

• necc
• necc2006
• roomtwelve
• classblogmeister

Pros and Cons of Educational Blogging...

Skypecast instant messaging (1)
Originally uploaded by Wesley Fryer.

Just plain amazing. Here's a screenshot Wesley Fryer posted of his computer while hosting the Skypecast last night, Podcast72: Pros and Cons of Educational Blogging Options. How in the world he managed to do this while simultaneously turning mikes on and off, responding to instant messages and emails from several of us, deciding who should go next, guiding the conversation, and occasionally having a good idea of his own :) - is beyond me. He must have been a teacher at one point in his life! Why bless my soul, I do believe he was. Fantastic job, Wesley, and everybody else involved in this conversation!

It's an hour and a half long discussion, wide ranging, but still focused. There are more of these in the works, and not just from Wesley. Brett Moller has one set up for next week...

In the afterglow of NECC, I hope people can begin to wrap their heads around what this may mean for spreading and sharing information. A point was made by many at NECC that F2F meeting was one of the biggest justifications for everybody getting together in San Diego. How about V2V? This Skypecast was a pretty powerful and rewarding way to meet people and exchange ideas, too. How we (are able to) do all this is changing so incredibly fast!

Anyway, head to Wesley's post for links to the podcast, show notes, the wiki, etc.

Birding getaway

Black backed woodpecker
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

Today Janeanne and I went to Eastern Washington in search of the black-backed woodpecker. We found these (parents and fledglings) by 8:30 AM. My other two "Birds of the Day" were also lifers: a pair of Lewis' Woodpeckers feeding young at a nest, and a family of five red naped sapsuckers. Absolutely breathtaking. It is so good to remember the beauty of the natural world. Here's Janeanne's summary of our day, posted to Tweeters.

The Case for Classblogmeister

I've been following NECC blogs and presentations pretty carefully over the past three days. With my Bloglines Notifier going off pretty regularly, it's been real easy to stay on top of much of the action, thanks to Technorati and those who tagged their posts.

I must say I'm disappointed and stumped not to have heard a single mention of Classblogmeister. I feel like I should have been there - I would have put out a great sales pitch. David Warlick, the genius behind this incredible tool, is moving right on, and rightly so, with those who are pushing the tech envelope in daring ways. And I think he may be a little shy about pushing hard on something he has personally developed.

I see people at NECC setting up free personal blogs, student blogs, and staff collaboration blogs - on Blogger and Wordpress. It will be interesting to see the expressions on faces of all these new bloggers when they get back to their school districts and find access to those sites are blocked. Lots are trying out Edublogs, but frankly, this system is not as stable as it should be, and I worry about the huge load being put on its server(s) - and it does not offer a controlled environment in which students can learn.

So here's my testimonial, my sales pitch for Classblogmeister. First, it's not blocked. Next, it offers TOTAL teacher approval before any student post or comment on a student post (take that, MySpace fear mongers). Teachers can leave online feedback for students to improve their writing (like if they want to get it published) that is hidden from public view. Next, it's free (thanks to David W's generosity). It also has a very active list on Yahoo! Groups for sharing and problem solving. Last, I have never, in 25 years of teaching, seen a more powerful classroom tool for motivating students to write. Nothing else even comes close. It is the perfect blogging tool for teachers.

So it absolutely stuns me that I hear so little mention of it. I should have put up a presentation at NECC. I've been asked to present regionally on this, but there is no money, either in my wallet or my school's to make that happen. So I'll continue to preach from this little corner. Maybe this would make a good topic for my first personal podcast - I'll have to think more about that one!

Anyone reading here who is looking for a safe blog for students, look no farther than Classblogmeister. It is especially suited for elementary and middle school aged children. Please be clear about this, students EACH HAVE THEIR OWN BLOGS. In my opinion, having students leave comments on a teacher's blog is NOT blogging, nor does that practice empower students to deal in any way with the reality they face when they go home and go online - which is part of the reason to start young, and at school. More importantly, it does not present a learning opportunity for writing.

My own experience using Classblogmeister with my third graders this year has been absolutely phenomenal. I'll close by leaving pointers to a few posts I have left on my year with them. I encourage the reading of all their blogs (oh, and they are still blogging this summer, even though school is out) at roomtwelve.com:

• Top 10 student blog posts
• The Class of 2015
• Just another day
• Blogging through the school year, part 1
• Blogging through the school year, part 2
• Blogging through the school year, part 3

technorati tags

• classblogmeister
• necc
• necc2006
• roomtwelve

NECC - tracking blogs, any teachers?

At the right, for a few days at least, are the up to the minute rss results for the hitchhikr page set up by David Warlick for tracking the bloggers at NECC in San Diego. A mouse over titles will give you the beginnings of the posts. (7-16-06 edit)

The blogging is fast and furious, some really exciting things are happening there. If anyone is collecting links to classroom teachers who are blogging/presenting at NECC, please let me know via email or comment. Thanks - Mark

technorati tags

• necc
• necc2006

Top 10 student blog posts

There was a suggestion by Vicki Davis for edubloggers to list what they considered their top 10 posts on their own blogs during the 2005-06 school year. Well, I don't have much to offer personally, but there was some pretty amazing writing coming out of my classroom. So I thought I'd offer the Top Ten Posts from my students this year. They are not all great pieces of writing, but they are meaningful and important for the authors and their teacher. Here they are, the top 10 posts from my classroom of third graders, in no particular order:

• My Weekend - Logan was the first to start the practice (on his own initiative) of blogging his "morning journal" at the end of the week.
• Changing Desks - Jose came a long way as a writer this year. Distinct paragraphs, the addition of personal reflections within a descriptive piece, describing a classroom routine, was nice work.
• THE WASL - Joey, working on this every day for a few minutes, began to develop a sense that others were reading his blog, so he asked questions of the readers - and got several comments.
• K.E.T's Escape - Jacqueline wrote this fantasy in two 15 minute periods as Thanksgiving approached. The class was responding to this prompt; "Pretend you are a turkey. How will you escape being served for Thanksgiving dinner?"
• About My Blog - Jackson, probably the most prolific blogger in the class, had some well thought out reasons for having a blog and included what made it work for him.
• my golf ball named Larry! - Hannah wrote this one morning, off the top of her head, in about 20 minutes. She does have a gift...
• THe Last Gift! - Danielle wrote this from home over Christmas Vacation, in response to a prompt I put on the class blog a couple of days before. Wesley Fryer has shared this piece a few times in presentations and podcasts...
• No presents allowed - Camden wrote this wonderful freeform list in respose to "Besides presents, what do you look forward to most over Winter Vacation?"
• Don't keep it totally secret - August wrote some very nice pieces, and several longer ones during the year, but this short blurb of wisdom just popped out right before Valentine's Day.
• Comments - Abigail responded to her readers, letting them know she was doing her best - the life of a third grader can get pretty hectic!

The danger in doing something like this, of course, is that you might hurt somebody's feelings by not including them on the list of your favorites - or that you might overlook pieces that were more worthy of a mention. Elementary school teachers know all too well the importance of fairness in the classroom, and the dangers inherent in singling out a few for special praise...

Well, I'm willing to take the chance here, because the much bigger danger, no - shame - would be if these kids did not get heard at all. They all should have their writing celebrated, so I encourage readers to browse through ALL the authors at roomtwelve.com

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• mytop10eduposts