SSR 2.0 continues...

SSR 2.0 continues...
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

Took this picture today of my little reading group at silent reading time. The only student not in the picture is at a computer. I have let them have free choice. It is interesting to see where they are drawn.... the majority, obviously, choosing blogs. The picture from yesterday would have had different students at desks/computers - but the ratio about the same.

Today in our library book checkout time, I asked one of my kids if he was checking out a book, and he proclaimed, to anyone listening, "I don't read books - I read BLOGS!" Librarian blood runs cold at the thought....

They are reading so differently. What strikes me the most are the reluctant readers who are not so reluctant to read online...

Beyond comments

A week ago Jeff Utecht posted A Problem With Blogs, talking about the connections made - and sought - in conversations, on blogs. He made an important point about the function of comments. Great post, wonderful follow up comments. I encourage people to read it and think about how their classroom blogging reflects - or even mirrors - their personal blogging habits.

A few weeks ago I made a concerted effort to get my third graders into the blogosphere beyond where they naturally went. They seemed stuck in writing mode only - as if writing were some narcotic they could not get enough of. Sound ridiculous? Not to me. I had kids staying in from recess, connecting from home, using every minute to put something out there for the worldwide audience. Too cool!!! But that's all many of them did. They rarely read the writing of others. It was all about their writing - and comments they got.

So I gave them time when they could read online ONLY. Silent reading, 2.0. After doing this for a while, and thinking about what Jeff said, I struck out in a new direction. A direction in which many adult bloggers move quite often. Writing about the blogs of others. Recommending other bloggers - as most bloggers do, a Blogrolling kind of thing...

This week I asked my third graders to write about 2 or more bloggers they enjoyed reading. Knowing some would see this as a "friendship" thing, and only mention their own classmates' blogs, I said they could only write about one classmate. The other(s) had to be from other places - and they could even be adult blogs. Pushing them out of the nest, if you will.......

And then, just to see how far the envelope would stretch, I showed them how to hyperlink to those blogs, using raw html. To be clear, the blogging tool they use does not have an html editor, so everything had to be hand coded. They got it. They are so totally amazing in this medium. They helped each other, and they taught me a lot in the process.

They chose their favorite bloggers thoughtfully, I thought. Granted, their experience and exposure to blogs is limited, in large part predetermined by links I preselected and made easy for them to get to.... but I thought they chose well. Here are their posts:

• The Blogs I like
• Blogs I Like
• Blogs That Are Really Cool
• Blogs I Like
• The Blog I Like
• BLOGS I LIKE TO READ
• Cool Blogs
• Blogs I like to read
• Cool Blogs
• The Things I Like About People's Blogs
• My Favorite Blogs
• Blogs I like to Read
• Blogs I like
• Blogs I Like
• Blogs I Like
• Blogs I Like To Read and Why I Like To Read Them
• Blogs I like to read
• These are the Blogs I Recommend you Reading (These are also my Favorite Blogs)

Now what does this have to do with Jeff's posting about conversations and connections? I believe it is about qualitatively different CONTENT. What my kids wrote about this week is different. It is exactly what their blogger teachers write about regularly - about their peers - and what they are thinking and saying. This is extending their writing in a different dimension, I believe. Comments are nice, polite, back patting, and sometimes informative. And indeed, a conversation can occur.

But writing about what others think and how they write is a major leap in a different direction, one in which we are not accustomed to taking our kids, at least I am not, with third graders. Not sure where it leads, but it feels absolutely right.

Doing report cards, 2.0

I don't know a single teacher who enjoys doing report cards. Matter of fact, most teachers dread doing them. It's one of the most unpleasant things I have to tackle, and of course I have left the task for the weekend before they are due to go home. Grrr...

Today I sat down to go through the motions of "providing feedback". Bailing me out of this cynical mood was the realization that I have a new way to evaluate my kids. A new way that just might be a little more meaningful- and definitely more fun - and undoubtedly more long-lasting. So I pulled out my laptop and jammed it in there with all the other papers, forms, gradebook, etc. On our little kitchen table that knows the drill...


I took great pleasure in writing in "blog" on the "Other" line for measures used to evaluate student progress. No more flipping through a big stack of manila file folders for the "choice" pieces of I had selected to save - to maybe send home at the end of the year (ultimately relegated to a box in an attic) - or to pass on to next year's teacher (to be buried, if lucky, in a file cabinet for who knows how long). I have student files from nearly ten years ago taking up space here and there in my classroom... really.

So when I got to the Writing section of the report card, I simply went to my third graders' blogs. There is all kinds of writing there. Some assigned, some written because the spirit moved these young scholars. It's funny. When I started this process, I was thinking that I knew and remembered my kids' writing so well that I probably didn't really need to look. Big surprise. They have written so much, that I often had to shake my head as I went through their blogs. I had forgotten much of what they wrote, even though I had read oh so carefully every single word appearing there (publishing on the Internet makes you do that). What is also there for me is their work behind the scenes. I can browse through the database on my Classblogmeister account and look at many pending pieces, comments I had left for them in the publishing process, and so much more. It is a literal gold mine of information for following the development of the writing skills of these 8 and 9 year olds. Rather than being on the refigerator for a short time at home, buried in a teacher's file cabinet, or recycled immediately, these pieces of writing can be there forever. For the world to see.

Now if I can get us using the classroom wiki soon, I'll be able to look at math in a 2.0 way as well in the next round of report cards.

Documenting chaos

I don't know as I start out here where this post will end up. However, I feel somehow it's important for me to document the chaos (some good, some not so good) in my working life - and this is just the tech stuff - the past couple of weeks. In no particular order then, here goes:

• For the past week I've been setting up donated PIV's for my students to use in the classroom, from scratch, one at a time - while at the same time the kids continued to use the PIII's they are replacing. Over 20 cpu's in the classroom, some towers on top of others - yikes, good thing we didn't have an earthquake. Yesterday after school I moved them (all but one of six) into place. They are cool - and speedy! I am so grateful to the parent who donated them!
• I'm still constantly frustrated by the relentless taking away of student permissions on my classroom computers - and all the student computers in my school. The more permissions are taken away, the less the computers are being used in the classrooms. It's a real clear relationship. So far, the new computers I just set up are still working the way they need to, but I fear it's only a matter of time before they will be rendered nearly useless again. I have not found the time nor energy to defend and explain the educational justifications for every little permission I need (that we'd had for the past ten years) to non educators making the decisions. I try and chip away at things one at a time via email and whatever, but it's a big mountain to reclaim. And I am getting nowhere. Huge frustration.
• The parents in my classroom just came up with a large chunk of money so I could buy flat panel monitors for some of the 12 desktop student machines in my classroom! I had tried other funding sources, including our PTSA, and had got nowhere. Then I started asking for donations of used flat panels (15" ok). Next thing I knew, my parents were organizing donations to the cause, matching funds, and they came up with this amazing gift. I was, and still am, just blown away by this!!
• Then a couple of days later, I was awarded this pretty hefty technology grant for computer equipment in my classroom. Talk about an unexpected long shot coming through. I've never won competitive grant before (not like I've tried a ton, either), but holy crud, this is amazing. So now, with an embarrassment of riches, I am figuring out how to handle it all. For a guy who has scraped and created everything in his classroom on his own, out of his own pocket, well you could say it's about time - but it does feel a little - I don't know. It's so foreign , I can't even think of a word.
• The Earth Day Groceries Project is underway again. I've got the announcement out to several lists, and, as usual, lots of email is coming my way with questions and requests. I love coordinating this project, but it takes so much time. And I need to find corporate sponsorship for the project, or I won't have the bucks to pay for the database development for this year... I am always so far behind.
• Last is an event that almost didn't happen - and may not - but is still real exciting to think about and plan for. I was invited to present as part of a Preconference Institute (Using Technology to Develop and Extend the Boundaries of Literacy) at the IRA National Convention in Toronto this May. Just to be included in a group that includes Don Leu as a keynoter blows me away. Having found no local funding to finance the trip, I initially sent my regrets - and added a long shot ps about presenting virtually. Now it seems that may actually happen (via Skpe video). It's on a Sunday, so I'd luckily be at home (Skype is not allowed at school anymore). I'm in the process of preparing my piece and writing the abstract. Very exciting.

Looking back over what I just wrote, the chaos is mostly good stuff, for sure. It's just that it's all happening at once. This weekend I can relax and start in on report cards - ha.

Hard decisions

Nothing about technology here. This is about something harder than learning ANY new program, harder than any teaching ANY thing.

Deciding on the school budget for next year - with less money (positions cost more, schools get the same as they did before). Net effect: what position will not be there next year?

Trying to talk openly and honestly. Trying to pretend that the two individuals whose jobs are on the line are not present in the room nor in on the discussion - right.

I somehow ended up trying to organize this horror - to give folks choices, to moderate the discussion, to facilitate making a decision. It was agony. We made a decision, and I feel terrible. I would have felt this way no matter what the decision was.

If anybody wonders why a teacher might not have the perkiest smile every minute of every day, well it's hard to explain, but there is a bunch of stuff we deal with that the public will just never know about. There will be a smile tomorrow in the classroom, but it will be a shallow one, with a deep sadness underneath.

I can only hope that when I end up in a meeting where my colleagues are deciding the worthiness of me compared to somebody else - that I conduct myself with the grace and dignity that a couple of my colleages did today.

Audience and Body Blows

Audience

Lately I've been getting readership and comments here from students, elementary aged students. It has to do with my post about silent reading. It also has to do with posts from other adults to the blogs of my students. They are curious, of course, and it's pretty exciting to track down the URL of a commenter on their blog - and oh so very cool if it's a grown up with a slick looking blog. And some have tried to read - and even comment to - those grown up bloggers. Several adults have done this, and I expressed appreciation to them at the end of the school year last year. They are still there this year, and there are more of them. So kids are reading grown up blogs. And then eventually, they check out their teacher... not my intended audience, but it IS important to keep in mind.

Yesterday one of my kids got a comment from MV, a fifth grader. Following back the URL left in the comment, I was amazed to see MV had posted some thoughts about reading my blog, and (this is the really cool part) some thoughts about the blog of Logan, one of my most prolific third grade bloggers. Many readers here know the excitement of having yourself cited, quoted, hyperlinked. Imagine how this feels to an 8 or 9 year old. You just can't buy this. It is, as the ad says, priceless.

Body Blows

1. Early in the week I was showing my class some comments left for them by Wes Fryer - very exciting, motivational stuff. They all know how to click on the name of a commenter to get to a url (if it was left for them). On this day I was showing them how to deal with a malformed http... address - how to cut, extract the URL, etc... - to get to the blog of the writer. All ready for Moving at the Speed of Creativity to appear (ta da!), and it is BLOCKED by the district filter. Out of nowhere. Never had been blocked before. A lost moment in the education of a classroom of third graders in so many ways. Ugh.

2. Later in the week, Logan moved quickly to compose a comment in response to the post of MV. All the kids in my class know they must let me see any comments they write from our classroom before they are sent. He spent some time writing and revising this comment. It was a thoughtful piece. I gave him the go ahead to click "submit". BLOCKED by the district filter. What does a teacher say at this point? Ugh.

Body blows are meant to wear the fighter down. They are delivered repeatedly, the effect is cumulative, and eventually the fighter gives up from exhaustion. These would have been glancing blows if I had not worked so hard to create and craft this environment for my kids. They would not have even landed if I did not believe so desperately that what I am doing with my kids is absolutely right.

Audience and body blows - two unrelated topics, maybe. Perhaps my new found audience can deliver a more powerful counter-punch than I've been able to muster.

SSR 2.0 - a podcast

(3/5 update: I reposted the podcast - it was incomplete here for a while - sorry about that!)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my kids' experiences reading blogs during silent reading (SSR). I have continued to let them choose either blog reading or book reading. It has been interesting, to say the least. One day last week I asked them all about it, afterwards. Their perceptions and feelings were amazing. I told them I wished I had been able to record their thoughts - so, the next day I brought in my little mp3 player, put it on my stool in the middle of a circle of the 13 of us, and we talked about it. Here's the six minute podcast:

Going and coming home

Three Recoverees 1
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

What is home, anyway? When I go back east to visit my parents, I am clearly coming home, at least to them. From where I'm sitting right now in the airport in Connecticut, I'm clearly going home to Seattle.

Spent the last six days helping my folks recover from a vicious flu. Mom was in the hospital for three days, and I spent a horrific night in the ER with my dad, then they got better - and then I got it. Ouch. Bottom line, though, is that we are all well and leaning forward once again.

Home is where the heart is, and I guess it can be more than one place.

Why I teach

Valentine's Day Eve
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow. It does not get crazier nor more fun in third grade. Here are twenty-one reasons I'm still at it.

Is this SSR, 2.0?

(check the podcast that grew out of this post)

So here's silent reading (SSR - "sustained silent reading") in my reading group this afternoon. Tried this out yesterday, and today the kids were much more comfortable, started getting into it, maybe a little novelty had worn off. What were they reading? Blogs! Who wrote them? Kids!

I'd been thinking lately how my own reading habits had changed in the last couple of years, with the huge increase in blogs, online news, and so on. When was the last time I actually sat down and read a book? The last time I flew back east to see my family. Yikes! I used to feel guilty about this until I took a closer look at the net of my reading. I read so MUCH more now than I ever used to. But it's a different kind of reading.

In third grade it's a constant struggle with many kids to get them to sit down and cuddle up with a book. The "goal" is that they latch on to a chapter book, get hooked, and want to read, read, read. Read what? More chapter books, I guess.

So my kids were (many of them) struggling to have this type of reading be a major turn on, despite lots of encouragement, rewards, and modeling from me. And I noticed that my modeling had slipped lately. Silent reading time was one of the only times of the day when I could sit down at my desk, check my email, read through my Bloglines. Feeling guilty, and somehow feeling it was the right thing to do, I've turned them loose on blogs - to read. Now this is very different from our blogging time in class. Many wanted to know if they could comment on blogs, even work on their own posts. Nope, I said, this is reading time. OK, fine.

The classroom was the quietest and most focused I have seen in a long time during silent reading. Could have heard a pin drop, were it not for the new agey, light classical instrumental background music I always have going at this time. So, what did they gravitate to?

A few of the things I saw them reading: their own blogs, their classmates' blogs, Gordon Brune's kids, Doug Noon's kids, my blog (yes, this one), Wesley Fryer's blog, even. Those were easily reachable, via comment links or hyperlinks I had set up. And this was just day two. They are still exploring, seeing what is out there. It will be a while before they settle into favorites, and return to them on a regular basis. So much is made of young kids creating content, that I think it's real easy to overlook the positive aspects of young kids consuming content - created by their peers - and who knows who else?

I will likely not do this every day. There is still value in cuddling up with a book. But that is not they way I read anymore. By the time they grow up, I bet their reading preferences will be worlds away from where they and I are now. My hunch is it will not be cuddling up with a chapter book.

Tully's Laptop Readers

I'm sitting in a Tully's coffee shop writing on my laptop. Ethan is sitting next to me (along with his sister and Nathan) watching me write. Maybe next time he'll read from his blog...? Tonight I was very proud to hear Casey read from her blog about her mom, and Nathan read from his about his friend Allen. Big news this year is that it was free wi-fi! I hope to have the whole crew here at some point this year!

Heroes and Hopes

I have not written here for a while. My energies are with the (incredible) writings my third graders are producing. Trying to wrap a school-wide writing prompt idea around young minds that have not had the chance to experience a whole lot so far, I just posted this to our classroom blog:

The third grade scholars at roomtwelve.com have been writing a little this past week about people they admire. They’ve also been thinking a bit about what they’d like to be when they grow up. Some of their writings are about both. Visitors are invited to check in on their thoughts, leave comments, and let us know who your heroes are – and what your hopes for the future are…. Mr. A.

I hesitate to single out individuals, because all of my kids are very, very special. But for the benefit of those who are interested, but don't have the time to wade all of their writing (some are already, at 8 or 9, quite prolific writers), here are a few notables:

• My Dad
• I Want to be a Softball Player When I Grow up
• Allen, the person I admire
• Why I Admire My Mom
• Tom
• Become a Hip Hop dancer

My hopes for the future hang on the dreams of these youngsters. They will do well, and the world will benefit from their contributions.

4 Generations: How to Save a Life

Make it count, change your priorities. Stop and think about what REALLY matters....

Thank you, thank you, Tim Lauer in Portland, Oregon for this. Click on the water buffalo...

How much we have.

How little it takes to change - or save - a life.

Bloggers becoming gardeners

Konrad Glogowski recently expressed regrets about not hanging on to the blogs of his 8th graders for the last three years:

...However, I was never able to experience this sense of growing community because, like most teachers, I have been programmed to divide learning into yearly or monthly episodes. The blogging community begins in September, it grows until June, and then gets deleted because September will bring another batch of students and another community.

.....Last June, ten of my former students asked to remain part of the community. They had grown so attached to their class blogging community that they asked me not to shut it down and to give them access to the new community that they knew I would be building with my new grade eights in September. I was thrilled that they wanted to remain in the community. I knew that as grade nine students, having already gone through the grade eight programme, they would greatly enhance the experience for their younger friends.

...And yet, I chose to shut down the community and restrict access to the new one. For the past three years, in fact, I have been creating communities only to dismantle them every June.

I struggled with much the same crisis. And I am only now, halfway through the following school year, approaching a way to effectively and appropriately deal with this, as a teacher of third grade bloggers. I started by letting my kids from last year blog through the summer, with permission from their parents. When the new school year started I changed the passwords on their blogs, so they couldn't add content. We of course talked about this many times as the year was ending (there were pleas and tears), but I figured, as Konrad did, that it was time to move on to another group. One difference was that I left their blogs alone, and set up a new site for this year's class. So you could visit their old blogs, but it was kind of like reading a book - there was no life there, no heartbeat of writing...

Just last week I offered to let the kids from last year back on to roomtwelve.com - as alumni - and they can blog again. With parent permission, of course. I have heard from four, and they are now part of a new class, "Alumni". I still will approve every word they write on their blogs and every word in every comment sent to them - and edit, within reason, and offer behind the scenes feedback on writing that needs to be improved. The first thing I set up for them on their new blogs was a link to their blog from last year.

This was complicated. I'm not their teacher anymore, and I had to check with their teachers from this year to be sure it was OK with them. More issues will come up, I'm sure.

I am a saver, an archiver, especially with Internet stuff. For whatever reason, I save almost everything I have had a hand in. I have archived versions of my school's home page over the last dozen years. I've archived Louis Schmier's Random Thoughts, going back to 1993. The student newsletter (now a podcast available on iTunes - there is a blog of course) is archived back to 1994. I even have an email I posted to Ednet in 1994, encouraging teachers to create web pages for their schools (ohmygosh). I'll post it when I get the nerve - it's a little embarrassing to look at these days...

But the work I feel most protective of and will work the hardest to maintain is the writing of my students - on the Internet. This is real stuff, for a worldwide audience - and sometimes that worldwide audience is involved in that writing. The best writing I have ever seen in 24 years of teaching third graders is from the blog from the 2005-06 school year. I am happy to welcome those kids back.

Konrad closes I Will Be a Gardener with this:

I feel that like an architect or an engineer, I have been too preoccupied with the act of building communities and have not paid as much attention to sustaining them and giving them the nourishment they need to grow. Clay Shirky says that "To create an environment conducive to real community, you will have to operate more like a gardener than an architect." I have been an architect for too long. Now, I will be a gardener.

It's definitely worth a read.

Student Bloggers/Reporters

Dogwood 2
Originally uploaded by mahlness.

This pretty picture has nothing to do with this post, except for the fact that as a result of the big snow last night, we had no school today... and I finally had some time to work on the web 2.0 skin of our school newsletter.

The Junior Seahawk Newsletter is a student newspaper that I have worked on for over a dozen years. Kids send in reports and jokes/riddles. I add some graphics and distribute a copy to each kid at school, 10 months a year. Then I produce a pdf version and post it online.

For the last four months of school last year I started having the reporters read their reports, and produced a companion podcast. This has grown slowly, because it's just me working on this, but some sigificant strides have been made this year. I'm asking the kids to do the writing on their own - from their classrooms, our lab, even from home. They can always stop by my classroom anytime, as we will always have computers available for them. I've been using Alan November's Web site to host the blog. The reporters simply send in their reports as comments. They've taken to this really easily.

Today I was able to to two things, both of which made me feel great. I figured out how to link to their iTunes home - which I had set up months ago. Anyone can now subscribe to their monthly podcasts, via a link from their blog. And I redesigned the home page, incorporating the Newsletter logo into the blog - not so easy, given the limited accesibility to the November Learning "themes". Anyway, I found a couple of fields that would accept html....

Now I have to sit down with Publisher and their raw reports and produce Volume 16, Issue 5 of the Jr. Seahawk Newsletter.... and listen to the news to see if school is on for tomorrow - or if we have our fifth no-school day of the year.

Am I Nuts?

I have struggled with what to do with last year's third grade bloggers for a long time - nearly a year. I extended the school year, and let them keep blogging through the summer of 2006. This year I have done in-house inservices, offered individual assistance to their teachers, have encouraged those kids to ask their new teachers about getting a blog going for them (and volunteering to help other kids in class learn how to do it all).

It's January, 2007. I do not believe those kids will get a blog going this year. This is difficult to write, because it might seem like I'm being critical of my colleagues - like, why aren't they blogging with their kids? Truth is, I understand. Our teacher plates are way too full already. One more new thing with a steep initial learning curve.... not likely to happen, especially if it's optional.

I've checked into getting their blogs automatically switched over to their new teachers. I'm getting nowhere with that. Here's what I have decided to do:

1. ask their new teachers if it's ok for me to set up new blogs for them - on my current classroom blog (in an alumni area)
2. if that's ok, ask their parents (I have all their emails) if they will give their permission for their blogs to be open, with me as their moderator/teacher
3. set up an alumni section on my classroom blog for last year's students.
4. write an initial post for each of them with a hyperlink to their last year's blog

This is more work, for sure. I am certain a dozen or so (some even now at different schools) will jump at the chance to blog again.

Am I nuts? Naw, I just see those kids, I still hear their (online) voices, and I want to give it back to them. Wish me luck.

The Kids Are Alright

As 2007 starts, there is a lot of talk about the future of web 2.0 in education: listing the best posts of the year, wringing hands over continued obstacles, nodding of heads in agreement , and many, many predictions of what will happen this year...

My 8 and 9 year old third graders are ready now, they are alright with web 2.0. Many of them take it for granted. A third of my classroom has blogged from home over Christmas Vacation:

Casey: The Lucky Soup 1/1/07
Nathan: Things I got for Christmas - 12/31/06
AnaLisa: Winter Vacation - 12/30/06
Logan: My Christmas - 12/27/06
Nicole: The Accident - 12/26/06
Riley1: Hockey is a sport - 12/24/06
Kyra: Over The Week - 12/19/06
Logan: The Play Date - 12/19/06

These kids are comfortable in the medium. My job is simply to give it to them. My resolution for 2007 is to give them more. They will not waste the opportunity.

Good news to end the year

Two pieces of good news from Andy Carvin this morning:

1. DOPA Dies on the Vine
2. Updates on Seymour Papert

Believing that DOPA might die and hoping that Mr. Papert might continue to recover - these are good ways to end 2006.

Thinking positive thoughts, this morning I removed the "Revise DOPA" widget on the sidebar of this blog. Thanks to Brian Grenier for developing and sharing it with everyone!

Family Internet Night

On December 5, 2006, I hosted a Family Internet Night in my third grade classroom at Arbor Heights Elementary in Seattle. Families were encouraged to come and learn about the classroom blog at roomtwelve.com – and to talk about online safety for the kids.

Turnout was great, I thought. Eight families came, a total of 25-30 people filled the room. We turned out the classroom lights, turned on the holiday lights that encircle the room, fired up the laptop and projector on the PowerPoint presentation, and we were off, for about an hour.

I recorded the audio on a little mp3 player/recorder strapped to my arm. The audio is 41 minutes long. It is NOT a professional presentation by any means, but it IS a genuine conversation with a third grade teacher, his kids, and their parents – all struggling together to learn and understand what this all means…

The podcast (4.8 MB) runs 41 minutes.

The PowerPoint presentation (1.5 MB) guided the conversation.

Listening suggestion: Follow along with the PowerPoint presentation while listening to the audio. On the other hand, the audio stands on its own pretty well, I think.

Five things

It's taken me too long to respond to Doug Noon's tagging me to write about five things that people might not know about me. Honestly, what has held me up the most was figuring out what five people I should, tag, or send this on to. Now that I've figured that out (see below), here is my list:

1. I ride my bicycle to school every day. Rain, shine, snow, sleet, whatever. It's only a mile and a half, but there are some BIG hills.
2. I am a voting member of the Recording Academy (the Grammy's). For several years I sang with the Seattle Symphony Chorale, participated in a few recordings, sang on a couple of film scores, and even performed as "whistler 2" on my wife's recent recording.
3. I am one quarter Icelandic. Twenty-three thirty-seconds Norwegian. One thirty-second German. I hope that all adds up to one.
4. I'm an alumnus of two Husky Universities: University of Connecticut, BA in psychology and University of Washington, MEd.
5. I can touch my nose with my tongue.

There. Not quite as elegant a list as some others I've read, but it will have to do for now. This was a fun excercise. I now pass this on to the students in my third grade classroom. This is breaking the rules of just naming five, and I really hope to hear from more than five of them on this. It is not a required writing assignment, but I know many of them will find this interesting and challenging.

My kids each have their own blogs. Look for "Five Things" blog entries along the left side of roomtwelve.com in the next couple of weeks. I'll be cross-posting this entry there shortly. Who knows how many other student bloggers will get tagged with this?

Tags:
AnaLisa, Bailey, Casey, Chelsea, Christopher, Delaney, Elyjah, Ethan, Jaylynn, Jonathan, Keean, Kyra, Lakota, Lindsay, Logan, Maribeth, Nathan, Nicole, Riley1, Riley2, Ryan