Progress and struggles

There has been so much progress lately, but it's tough to remember sometimes.

First the progress. My class is doing an incredible job in their new blogging environment at roomtwelve.com. I've never seen so much enthusiasm for writing. We're talking kids wanting to come in at recess, read their writing and the writing of other kids - from Seattle to New York to New Zealand, write comments on the writing of others - or add new content to their own blogs. It is absolutely incredible. Many grownups are writing eloquently about this, and I try my best to stay current with a few, but it does take time. Still, every time I look at the blogs of David Warlick, Andy Carvin, Will Richardson, and Tim Lauer, I find something fantastic, some new tool, some great way of thinking about what's going on in tech right now in school, etc. Rss feeds to those guys' blogs are on the right of this page.

The struggle has been to fit all this in to the school day. Kids shouldn't have to come in at recess to write, for goodness sake. They ought to be able to do it right in class. So what are we doing in class that's so much more important than blogging? Gosh, I'm digging myself into a hole it will take way too long to get out of.

I will say the biggest impediment is to have to spend so much class time implementing a mandated (schoolwide) writing curriculum that has no tech component. Not a mention of a computer - ever. Kids are expected to write with pencil and paper for an hour a day, five days a week, much of it in those little Mead notebooks we all remember from our childhood. I feel like I'm back in 1956.

So I've tried to re-create, re-constitute, or whatever this curriculum into a classroom environment that has 17 multimedia computers with high speed Internet access, an LCD projector - and where the third graders, after two months, are extremely facile and fluid with a computer. They learn new things quickly. They share, they teach each other, and they enjoy it, take pride in their ownership and prowess.

Adapting this tech-less writing curriculum while starting the kids out blogging has been a challenge, to say the least. Sometimes it's too much. The kids want to spend more time writing on their blogs. They struggle gamely with the one story they have been working on for over a month in our writing curriculum. We'll finish the story up, but their hearts are not in it. It's a struggle.

Broken window

Broken window,
originally uploaded by mahlness.

How upsetting, for us to return to our car after a beautiful 45 minute walk in the woods (Lincoln Park)... aaargh. Was a good thing I had the trunk release locked. Nothing taken, but what a pain to get fixed, pay for, etc. - and Janeanne had to cancel a day of teaching at PLU.

Turkey escape stories

turkey escape,
originally uploaded by mahlness.

For the last several years I've had my kids write on the day before Thanksgiving, responding to "Pretend you are a turkey. How will you escape being served for Thanksgiving dinner?" Off the tops of their heads in about 20 minutes, these have always been fun. This year I introduced the idea a couple of days ago, to get the wheels turning - and also to give my kids a chance to publish their stories on their blogs.

If you are looking for some entertaining kid storytelling, head over to http://roomtwelve.com and read what they said. They will start appearing there by 1:00 Wed, and should all be there by Thanksgiving morning. You might even find a few good "leads" and "hot spots" :) Feel free to add comments! Several of my kids blog from home, and would be very excited to hear from folks. Happy Thanksgiving! - Mark

Barred owl loss in Lincoln Park

Barred owl in LIncoln Park,
originally uploaded by mahlness.

Sad news to report today. Janeanne and I were walking in Lincoln Park today, ran into park regular and friend Chris... who had sad news to tell. A couple of weeks ago he had told us that the barred owl (he called her Sophie) was sitting on the ground in a field, and he was able to walk right up to her. Turns out, later that day, someone else actually picked up the owl, took her to a shelter - but she died before she got there. They think maybe of internal injuries - might have been hit by a car.

Anyway, we are very sad today. We had seen her in the park for the last six years or so, hunting on at least three occasions, eating on a few more... We will still look at her roost atop a tree in the redwood grove, where we saw her dozens of times. That's where she sits in this picture, which I took about a month before she died.

Classroom bloggers doing well!

Sitting here in between parent conferences in an early evening. My third graders are doing an incredible job with their blogs! They are so motivated, I really can't believe it. This is at roomtwelve.com. I knew they would get into it, but some have really just taken off. I have kids blogging in wonderful articles from home, for goodness sake. What really gets me though, is being able to comment on their writing, and send it back to them for repairs. This is just truly amazing. Somebody just tonight sent in an article on "what it takes to be a champion". It'll be published when the author takes care of a few technical details, which I was able to give him on line. Much more exciting stuff to come....

chilly start

chilly start,
originally uploaded by mahlness.

My watch and my classroom thermostat this morning. Yes, it does say 50 degrees. It warmed up to a balmy 54 by 8:15.

Re: blogger's contract

my message to Classblogmeister, Nov 5

Re: blogger's contract

RE: [WWWEDU] Pew report on teen-age blogging

my post to wwwedu on Nov 5:

RE: [WWWEDU] Pew report on teen-age blogging

Getting all the writing together - reporting online

I've been posting a lot to discussion lists lately. So it seems the blog gets overlooked, and I've been trying to think of a way to bring it all together - easily and quickly.

Here's what I'll try. I'll post the title of the message, linked to the archived message, so if it looks interesting enough, somebody can go from this space to my list message.

Here's what I posted to tictech, the list I moderate, tonight:
reporting online

Bloggers' contract

Forgot to mention this in my previous post. Before going to their blogs, all the kids signed a "Blogger's Contract", which I adapted from David Warlick's on Blogmeister. We had a good discussion about all the points, I think. The kids only asked a few questions, but they were good ones. A link to my version is here, for a while. I'm happy to have this as a guide. We'll refer to it a lot.

Student bloggers, finally

Well, I finally bit the bullet and said the kids were ready to use their blog. The space has been there since August. It's taken this long for them to get to the point where they can actually use the space productively. On Wed and Thurs they each took a few minutes to type up a little "welcome" message, saving it, hopefully. Then, Friday was launch day. In a couple of hours, most everyone had their intial blog posting.

http://roomtwelve.com

Naturally, it was very chaotic, but a lot of fun at the same time. It didn't take long for somebody to figure out how to change their blog template, and pretty soon everybody had to give that a try. Then there were a few who got their message posted in their description field - but I think we managed to get everybody straightened out. A couple of kids were not there for this, and a couple more did not actually get theirs posted, so I will work with them individually on Monday.

At the end of the day, I mentioned making comments to blogs. In retrospect, I should not have done that - just too much to talk about before suggesting they try commenting on each others' writing. Anyway, several kids posted comments from home on Friday. A couple were ok, but most had several errors in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization - but the main reason I did not approve them was because they were simply not appropriate for our blog. Sounded more like chat room or IM stuff - which their blog will definitely not become. So I deleted all the comments. I'll have some explaining to do on Monday :)

But I am very proud of my kids. In their articles, they wrote well, and they wrote with purpose. I'm VERY excited to see where this will take us.

Beauty berry surprise

Beauty berry surprise,
originally uploaded by mahlness.

As I was framing the beauty berry shot, I heard a hummingbird zooming around. Sometimes you just sort of point, shoot, hope, and get very lucky. This male Anna's hummingbird was very interested in this bush at twilight in Seattle on October 29th.

Workshop going on

Well, we are sitting here in the lab exploring a little about blogs, rss, and whatever!. Unfortunately, my camera wouldn't get recognized right away by this student computer (always plan WAY ahead!), so there won't be a picture here (I'll add it from home). But trust me, everybody is really engaged and having a pretty good time :)

The web page we were working from is here.

Busy days

It's been an awfully busy time the last few days, and no let-up in sight. Janeanne and I see each other at strange times, as she is in the thick of preparing Costanza for Tacoma Opera. It's a very exciting time for her.

Tomorrow I'm doing a slap dash one hour tech inservice in our computer lab - all about the new stuff: rss, blogs, podcasts, etc. For a change, I'm going to try and focus on presenting information that staff may use first for themselves - and not even really worry about classroom implications. Oh sure, I'll show some classroom applications, but I figure if some of this sticks with a few folks, they'll get into it, and it will come into the classroom naturally - because they see the potential, the need, understand the application, and are ready to try it - rather than, "here's what you really ought to try in your classroom - it's not that hard!" There is no better way to turn off a teacher, no matter what the topic.

Tonight we went to the opening night of the brand new Barnes and Noble in West Seattle. It's really exciting to have such a great business so close to us. Ran into a couple of Arbor Heights folks, including one of my kids. But we really had fun talking with Darwin. He's having a great time working there (sort of, I think), and we've had lots to talk about lately, as he and Rebecca have been working hard on the art design for Janeanne's new CD, The Shining Place. It's going to be beautiful.

Better tool off and grade a few papers - busy day again tomorrow.

In-house digital divide

So much is made of the digital divide between countries, social and economic classes. Today I witnessed another one, smaller scale, but just as real.

In my daily reading group, there are kids from all three third grade classrooms. Today, for the first time, I put them each (15) on a computer for a writing assignment. The content was not hard - the challenging part was the medium. As I assigned computers, I put kids from my own classroom in places where they could help the others, who I knew would have problems - and I explained this to the kids, too. Naturally, my kids felt pleased I was counting on them to help teach - and they did a great job helping the others.

My kids write on a computer at least twice a day. After six weeks of third grade, their word processing skills are getting pretty good. In contrast, the other third graders who came in were stumped at times, with questions like, "how do I get down to the next line?" or "how do I erase that?" Truly, there were kids from my class who quietly shook their heads in disbelief.

I figure my school is pretty typical. My classroom is not, in terms of tech usage and integration. The gap I saw today, after just the beginning of the school year, will widen as the school year goes on.

I don't know what to make of this exactly, except to feel bad that others are being left in tech dust. I truly believe this early prep will make my kids not only stronger masters of technology as they go through school - but better learners of systems - more adaptable, flexible, and curious - and stonger, more confident learners in general.

Quick learners

Back to the classroom. The kids are learning prerequisite tech skills, having a good time, and learning at the same time. Great at teaching and helping each other. The last two days during an LA block we hit stuff like basic browser operation, program minimizing/maximizing, printing to a non-default printer - and reinforcing the saving to and opening from their own directories. Not to mention playing audio files, getting comfortable with headphones, speaker operation, etc. A web assignment about owls (http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/rm12/99oct11.pdf) and a look at some paintings of Rousseau during art made the tech learning happen pretty naturally, although content acquisition is slowed at this stage... Still doing writing daily on a computer (and paper/pencil of course). My eyes are on their first blog posting - trying to see if I can possibly tie it in to the new writing program.

I am concerned over the drastic reduction of computer use in our school so far this year. The lab is used rarely. Some classrooms still don't even have their computers plugged in. Way too many demands incompatible with computer use are on the plates of teachers. We still have no budget for technology or tech support.

But on the bright side, the PTSA has approved the use of a blog I set up (http://ahptsa.blogspot.com). This should be a great way to get out timely news, meeting minutes, etc. I wonder how many will tak advantage of an rss feed? I have a feeling quite a few - if content is added regularly. Plus, a couple of officers may become blog members and join in on the posting process. This is very encouraging!

Making a deposit

Making a deposit,
originally uploaded by mahlness.

Dave, at Bank of America on Friday afternoon, getting some of our $1,243 in coins ready for deposit. Result of our school coin drive sending $ to the Humane Society to help with the animals impacted by hurricane Katrina. More pictures at Flickr...

Addition to the classroom

Addition to the classroom,
originally uploaded by mahlness.

Friday I brought in an item for "Show and Tell", but we ran out of time, so mine will have to wait until next week. This bentwood box was a very special gift - it has my twin orca design on two sides. I kinda like where it sits right now in my classroom - on top of an air intake vent, between a couple of big plants.

Classroom progress

The kids are behind where I usually expect them to be at this time of the year. Not their fault, just not as much time to spend on the basics this year. They are, though, doing very well navigating through the My Docs folder on the server to create and save work to their own directories. Haven't been able to touch on much more than writing. I think I'm going back to the "pull out" model for individual web assignments that I used for so many years. I had discarded it the last couple of years because the whole class could go on at once, with so many computers. But now, the problem is not having enough computers, it's finding the time to use them. Have tried charting a little with Excel - actually had them create a chart, copy and paste it into Word, and write a little (1-2 sentence) evaluation of the graph results. They did really well! Smart kids, lots of potential. Can't wait to do more. Have lots of ideas for an initial PowerPoint presentation (and to teach the program). Just have to find the time.

Chief Seattle audio

I finally got up the audio file of Wes Felty's interpretation of Chief Seattle's speech on the school web site. This is just part of a multimedia piece Wes did, but it was much too large for web distribution as video. Wish I know how to reduce video file sizes. Anyway, Wes' words and music are truly moving, and haunting. Just a small part of the CD he is sending out to anyone who asks.