0

0 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:    

Zero more days to be a teacher. Made it. Whew.
Thought this would be a good way to close this out.

 Joe, my third grade classroom mascot, said it best for me, at the end of my 31 year teaching career. He was the last to share at Show and Tell on the last day of school. He got a big round of applause.

1

1 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:   

One day left. My last day of teaching kids was Friday. Monday will be my last day under contract as a teacher.

At this moment on Sunday, I'm physically exhausted and emotionally numb. Hoping to get in to school today to finish cleaning out my room, because really, I need more than a day. It is amazing what a person can accumulate over the years.

The West Seattle Blog just ran a really nice story, with pics, about my retirement:
1 more teacher farewell: Arbor Heights Elementary’s Mark Ahlness Many thanks to the good friends there.

Here are a few pictures from the end of the school year:



I think this will not be the post where I thank everybody. That'll be "0". And then there are replies needed on Facebook, email, etc. I will do that Monday. Must get the physical work taken care of.

3

3 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:  

Three days left being a teacher.

After an incredibly intense day in the classroom, giving away just about everything but the kitchen sink to my kids, I settled in at the computer at home to work on the Jr. Seahawk Newsletter for the last time.

It's the student newsletter, something I inherited in my third year of teaching at Arbor Heights - which means I've done it for 18 years. It was started by another teacher, Gretchen Thompson, my first year there, so this year has been Volume 21.

I have billed it for many years as "The oldest continuously published elementary school student newspaper on the Internet!" Nobody has ever questioned that, because it's true. It first appeared online, on the school's website, in 1994.



Just for kicks and giggles I decided to count all the editions. 144. At an average of 4 hours production time per issue, that works out to 576 hours. Roughly 16 school weeks. Count the several from 2002 and 2004 I have on my computer, never got uploaded (but will this summer), and we're looking at 18 school weeks, easily.

Half a year's worth of work, sitting at my computer, getting student writing edited and online.

Tomorrow I have to get there extra early to run off 400 copies. For the last time.

4

4 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward: 

Four days left to be a teacher. So many things to write about, and so very little time.

I guess what struck me and stuck with me was connecting with my colleagues today. Not the people I work with every day, but my virtual colleagues. I let the news drop in  the Classblogmeister list that I was retiring, as I was letting David Warlick know about a sluggish response on my classroom blog. Several very nice responses followed, wishing me well, and thanking me for this or that over the years. From really, really fantastic teachers whom I admire greatly. So it meant a lot.

But it struck me that the people I work with every day really have no idea what I do online, what I have accomplished, have influenced, or have created with technology over the years. Goodness knows, I have tried. It is like I have this secret life that nobody I work with knows about.

This is a sadness for me, because I really have tried to be a positive influence in technology adoption and innovation in my own school and district. There are many reasons it did not happen, of course, but I'm not ready to start burning those bridges just yet....

6

6 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:

Six days left to be a teacher, and I'm wavering.

Not on retiring, no way.

But I AM reconsidering the decision I made in my third grade class and blogged about in 7: that they don't get to blog over the summer, as all my other classes have been able to do. The issue, I told them, is that I won't be an employee of the public school system anymore.

Why am I struggling with this? Well, there's fairness of course. Then I finished approving their short reflective blog posts about the end of their blog. Their writing got to me. Much of it was about my retirement. And I think I have a way for parent permission to work.

So, here it is - one more writing assignment for the year, and it HAS to be completed in school on Monday. They will need to compose and post persuasive writing pieces about why they should be able to keep on blogging over the summer. And um, more than just: it isn't fair!

I've assigned more writing pieces for this year's bloggers (24) than in any of the previous six years. I have a feeling their motivation will be right up there. We'll see how they do.

7

Cross-posted here, for a change, from my classroom blog today  Seven more days to be a teacher...

Well, we are finally nearing the end of the school year out here in Seattle. The last day of school is June 22nd. The students at roomtwelve.com know their blogging will end here, too. But it will be different this time, because I am retiring from teaching at the end of the school year.

In the past, students have been able to blog from home over the summer, or even continue from another classroom, with parent permission. But because I will no longer be an employee of the school district, I must close down the blog.

But wait! It's not going away!!

It will stay right here, with the thousands of articles written by the third graders in Room twelve. There just won't be any new writing going up.

One thing I will keep active over the summer though, is commenting. Visitors can leave comments on any student or teacher writing until September 1, 2012.

Many, many thanks to Mr. David Warlick, who designed and maintains classblogmeister for thousands of bloggers! Teachers and students are grateful and forever in your debt, David!

If you'd like to read what some of the current blogging class has to say about having a blog here, click on the picture below, where the kids were tallying up the total blog articles they have posted as a group this year:


Mark Ahlness

8

8 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:

Today was the Jr. Seahawk News Reporter Party, a celebration and thank you to the kids who've participated as classroom reporters for our monthly school newsletter. It was a wild, noisy, loud music, junk food event that parents might shudder at, but kids will talk about for a long time. I've been doing this for many years. I have to enlist my own classroom reporters to serve as party helpers and to man the gates, checking kids' names off the invitation list before giving them a plate and letting them in the room. It was great fun. And a total mess.

As I was doing final cleanup, I came across this paper airplane on the floor:

The kids know I'm retiring, so some asked me about next year, and would there be a party? I told them I did not know, it will be up to the teacher who continues the newspaper.

I hope it continues and stays online, as it is "The oldest continuously published elementary school student newspaper on the Internet!" http://jrseahawk.com

Eight days left to be a teacher.

9

9 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:

This will be quick. Nine more days to be a teacher. No time to waste. Today, a little story from my third grade classroom:

I'm roaming around, seeing how everybody is doing on their self directed and paced spelling unit for the week (35!), when I come up on a student who looks up from his work and says to me,

"Mr. Ahlness, I'm really lucky. In second grade I had Ms. NXXX, and this year I have you." He looked up at me with a smile so genuine, I had difficulty speaking.

I gave him a shoulder hug.
I told him I was lucky to have HIM in my class.
I looked at his partner, who was listening, and said I was lucky to have her, too.
And the same to a neighboring student who happened to overhear this quiet conversation.

We all smiled. It felt good.
The kids resumed working on their spelling.
I had to walk away to regain my composure.

This is what I will miss about being a teacher.

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10 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:


XO laptops, a big part of my classroom for four and a half years...That's a long story, perhaps most completely told with this link.

Now that I'm retiring, I had to decide what to do with all those XOs. First off, nobody in the school - or district for that matter - knows very much at all about them. I'm the man in Seattle, when it comes to the XO laptop in education.

So I decided to take them with me, and to redeploy them in another country, most likely in Latin America. Fine.

All was going well with that plan until an email came out from http://olpcnews.com/. Among other things, the message linked to a blog post about donating unused/unwanted XOs to my classroom:

In the three days that followed that post, I have received offers of XO laptops from three individuals wanting to donate their XO laptops to my classroom. Sheesh! This is what I have told them:

Wow, thanks for the offer! You should know that I am retiring in 2 weeks, after being a teacher for 31 years. I am taking my classroom’s 30 XOs with me, and I will be redeploying them in a classroom somewhere in Latin America, where many schools are still using the XO. If you would like yours to be included in that redeployment, by all means send it my way. I am making sure all the XOs are operating and in good working order, and would be sure yours had the latest operating system on it.
 If you can get it here by June 25, the mailing address is:

One more thing to do, but this one is special. I hope they come. They'll be going South, to do good work.

11

11 - Cross-posted from Biking to School, where you can catch up on my retirement thoughts, starting in 20, and counting backward:


 The scene above from Lincoln Park in Seattle today was a welcome relief from the seemingly out of control nature of my life these past few days.

I have 11 days to go as a public schoolteacher. I've taught for 31 years. Way too many things to tie up, put a bow on, and kiss goodbye. Yeah, right. As I cross something off my year end list, I add two more. Or three.

There is the physical part of it all - totally emptying a classroom I have taught in for 19 years. The emotional part of things, well, I'm just not even going there yet....

Then there is this detail about actually teaching school for the last two weeks - definitely the hardest two weeks of ANY school year. It is so intense, nonstop and unstructured. This year it comes with the weight of my retirement hanging in the air.

Somebody mentioned they hoped I would be able to relax and enjoy the end of my last year as a teacher. Not likely. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.

New Tools for Exploration

New Tools for Exploration, a photo by mahlness on Flickr.

A WeDo Lego kit and a USB microscope are the latest to await my third graders in the 2011-12 school year... We shall see how much time these new tools and the bounty already there (13 PC's, 3 laptops, 29 XO's) get to strut their educational potential stuff....

Technorati Tags: olpc

Banjo upgrade: armrest

Banjo upgrade: armrest, a photo by mahlness on Flickr.

Much as I'd like to believe I can be a bluegrass banjo picker, I am coming to realize I'll be a clawhammer-style banjo player. The old-timey stuff. Pete Seeger would be smiling upon hearing this. Today I installed an armrest, essential for playing in that style...

Summer repairs

You know, some teachers spend a ton of time in the summer taking classes, going to workshops (I've done some of that this summer), and planning for the upcoming school year. Lately, I'm spending a good deal of summer time on maintenance issues. Yesterday I was in repairing a badly torn window shade....

Now today - I went in hoping to swap out a power supply in one of my student computers. This computer was a back up anyway, and it had failed last April. No time to work on it during the school year. So I gave it a try today. Couple of notes to self: 1) good for you for keeping junkers around for spare parts and 2) do not forget to plug in the cable to the hard drive. That's a pretty important one. Success #1 for the day, the computer is up and running nicely.


While I was working on that somebody came in to take a look at my HP Color LaserJet - down with a real bad jam for almost a year. Well, she managed to clear the jam, but there was no lcd display, no ethernet/usb response, so she had to leave. A few minutes later I got an email from the school district saying the school would have to replace it. Ha. This was a gift from my classroom parents a few years ago. I despondently started looking online for replacements - nothing that I could really afford. As I was getting ready to leave I decided to take the printer apart as far as I could. What the heck, nothing to lose. I didn't have to go too far before I found a little ribbon cable dangling around inside, obviously looking for a connection. I plugged it in to a likely spot, put the thing back together, and bingo. Nice laser color printer again.

XO Lending Library in Seattle

XO laptops for American kids, yeah! Well, wait - that’s not exactly who they were meant for…So why would it be OK - and maybe even a really good thing - that I had a 1:1 XO laptop third grade classroom in Seattle last year? Here's my  answer.

A very brief history: I bought  an XO in 2007 in the first G1G1 (Give one Get one). I wasn’t exactly an evangelist for the XO program, far from it in fact. I just believed this was something that would be great for my third graders to try out. I tried to get funding from my school’s PTSA, but no dice. In the end, I just took a leap and went for it – a leap of faith that I would find myself repeating several times over the next few years. Fast forward to the end of the 2010-11 school year. There is now an XO Laptop Lending Library at my school. There are 29 XO’s in that library, including the one I bought way back when. The rest, every single one, have been donated to my classroom. If you’re interested in that part of the story, I’ve told it here.

I began the lending library with my own classroom, since they were already familiar with the XO. I offered the possibility of checking out an XO laptop for the weekend, something I had tried at the end of the previous school year. Next, I extended the invitation to the school’s other third grade classroom, which I already knew pretty well, seeing them for Art twice a week, and having a few in my reading group. To introduce them to the XO,  I devoted a couple of Art class times. The first session included the basics of button operation, the mouse, XO vocabulary, etc. - with time to explore of course. The second session briefly reviewed the previous session, and then quickly went into Gnome (ver. 10.1.3), and back - with time to explore  at the end. There was just never enough time for the exploration.... After those two sessions I figured the kids were ready to check out an XO for the weekend. Their class would be able to check out XO’s for the next two weekends, a maximum of 12 each weekend.

This then was the model that I held to for the three second grade classrooms which followed. The challenge with them was finding times when I could see them for the introductory lessons - when I was not teaching. We settled on my lunchtime :( My own class was at lunch/recess during this time, so the room and I were available. The kids would come in to my classroom, where I already had the XO’s out for them on desks. I should mention that I used an XO hooked up to a projector via a special adaptor, which made those lessons much more efficient and meaningful for the kids.

I established some parameters, just to make the program manageable. I set up a maximum of 12 checkouts per weekend, based on 12 being about half a classroom and being a number I I figured I could realistically prepare for checkout/check-in tracking. As it turned out, everybody got a chance to check one out during their classroom two weekend period. I came up with a rudimentary paper/pencil sheet. Each XO was named, of course, and that was how I tracked them. Simple - match a student name with an XO name,  and that was it. All on the mighty clipboard. Each XO had to be marked ahead of time (masking tape) with the name of the student who was checking it out...

If this seems like an awful lot futzing around and extra work - well, yes, it was. Pick up Friday afternoon and check in the following Monday morning were usually pretty hectic, especially as I was teaching my own classroom at the same time - XO’s, power adapters, kids, clipboard, final reminders, etc. But, thanks to the cooperation of my own third graders, we were able to muddle through. I started the Lending Library in February, and we ended in June, 2011. Each student from the 2-third and 3-second grades at my school had an opportunity to check out an XO for the weekend. XO laptops went home 117 times for the weekend, and 117 times they came back, just fine.

I came up with a couple of forms to manage things. One was the previously mentioned checkout form, with cells for dates, student names, and XO names. The other was a permission form that had to be signed and returned two days prior to a checkout. I did not make a big deal out of possible loss or damage to the laptops on the form, going with a vague, “...so we promise to take all necessary precautions to keep it safe and secure.” A few came back a day or two late, which was not much of a problem. The only problem came in the form of frantic contacts via email over the weekend from parents concerned because their child had typed something inappropriate on the XO - and they did not know how to get rid of it. The permission form had this caution, “...all activities conducted on the XO can be tracked and seen later.” This actually happened three times. I reassured the parents that I would clean them up when the XO came back, that kids will be kids, and so on. I’m certain their kids definitely got a pretty severe talking to from Mom or Dad. This reassured me that people were at least reading the permission form carefully :)

That’s it. Next year I’ll start earlier and give opportunities to all the third, second and first graders. If there’s time at the end of the year, I’ll extend the opportunity to fourth and fifth grades - and maybe even kindergarten. I’ll also talk with staff about checking out our XO cart to roll into other classrooms for a week or so at a time. We shall see. To all those who donated their XO’s to my classroom, many, many thanks! Your XO’s are providing learning, exploration, and play opportunities for an entire school community.

Atlantis

This is a (well-worn) commemorative shirt I own, part of an effort many years ago to get our Names in Space (sponsored by Lockheed-Martin). Every kid and adult at my school signed a poster that was carried aboard this Atlantis mission(sts-86) in 1997 - and returned, of course. We have the poster.... 

Atlantis is currently in space, on the last Space Shuttle mission. Here's some info on the amazing Atlantis. Safe travels.

A Lending Library

I never imagined this happening. I never even thought about it until a couple of months ago. Here are 12 of my third graders about to pack up their XO laptops to take home for the weekend. I hope to make this a regular thing, and then expand it to the rest of the school this year, More to come...

Technorati tag: olpc

Learning the XO Way

Never, never would I have thought I'd ever have a 1:1 laptop classroom. I bought an XO laptop at the end of 2007. So cool. It was a part of the first "G1G1" - Give One, Get One. I paid for 2, and got one of them. The other was shipped to a child in Mongolia, I think.

I was not alone. Hundreds of thousands of Americans did the same. It was the great vision that Nicholas Negroponte had. Besides being a unique humanitarian gesture aimed at improving the education of the world's underprivileged,  the XO laptop was a unique piece of hardware that kick-started the competitive innovations leading to the netbook, the Kindle, and yes, even the iPad.

Here in Seattle, I went to local usergroup meetings in a warehouse kind of space and met with some very cool geeky folks who were so into the XO. I was over my head lost trying to understand how they worked. I mentioned to one of the organizers that I was a third grade teacher. Within 2 weeks I had 2 XO laptops donated to my classroom.  I was astounded and overwhelmingly grateful. XO's continued to trickle in from all over the place for the next two years.

When the 2010-11 school year started, I had 11 XO laptops. Three months into that school year I now have 28 XO laptops in my classroom. They have all been donated.

In December of 2010 OLPC News ran a piece about us. A couple of individuals sent us XO's as a result. Then Mid-Michigan XO Repair Center heard about us and began reconditioning and sending us cast-off XO's. The final step was going directly to OLPC with a proposal, asking them to donate XO's that had been unused, returned, or damaged. They said yes (unbelievable!), and the unimagined dream headed toward reality. OLPC sent 10 of them to the Mid-Michigan XO Repair Center, which fixed them up and sent them on to me. The last two arrived yesterday.

What makes this whole thing especially hard to imagine is that we are an affluent school. My classroom was loaded with technology already, tons of it. The XO was not designed for us, no way.

But so what, here we are. My kids love the XO's. We have experimented and explored some. Today I rolled them out, one on each desk. I told the kids that I hadn't even tried out 10 of them. Wasn't sure if they were all charged up enough. I reviewed the basics of operation. We talked about where they came from, who they were designed for, and why they were with us.

When I said, "Go", there were 25 "happy songs" and kids staring, waiting expectantly, for theirs to boot. The XO is definitely not fast, but nobody complained. I said they could explore, play. They knew a few of the "activities".

Then I mentioned Chat. Well, the next 15 minutes was incredible excitement and chaos. Experimentation, sharing, and learning. Even mistakes, and a couple of errors in judgement. We talked about that. We talked about how you could use these to communicate even if you lived in a village without electricity. They got it. We talked about sharing information on the XO, understanding protocols, procedures, and options. Mesh networks, battery life, etc, etc.

We were talking about and grasping a new system. With 8 and 9 year olds. Their curiosity was exciting. Their ability to quickly grasp and explain parts of this to their classmates blew me away. They want to know more. I can't wait to learn with them.

Technorati Tags: xo olpc

1:1 XO's in a Seattle 3rd Grade? Asking OLPC

It's been nearly three years since I received my XO laptop. The scenario that has unfolded around that event is simply amazing. I remember talking with my wife about whether we could afford the $400. Turns out a gift from her dad actually financed it. I had asked my school's PTSA to buy one for the school, but got turned down. But I bought one anyway. Lincoln, my cat, loved it.

Jump forward three years, and I now have 14 XO laptops in my third grade classroom. Every single one has been donated. Here's a picture I took a couple of days ago of my kids using them. We have a 2:1 ratio, so they can share as partners.

I've written over 40 articles here about that journey. Search this blog for XO or OLPC, and you'll see them. I've always tried to stay leaning forward, willing to let developments and opportunities come our way. We even field tested and debuted an experimental software release.

So now I find myself in the very strange position of actually asking for more. I'm sending a request for 13 unusable and maybe damaged XO's to OLPC.

Part of the reason I'm in this position is that, at the end of the school year last year, I let some of my kids take them home for the weekend - kind of a lending library. I wrote about the experience, the idea was picked up, and several more XO's were donated. Now I'm going for the ultimate in computers in the classroom - 1:1. Unbelievable.

Here is part of what I'm asking for from OLPC:

Objectives

    1) To place XO laptops in the hands of third graders at 1:1 ratio for learning

    2) To have enough XO's to establish an XO lending library

 Plan of Action

    1) Continue integration of the XO's in daily instruction in classroom

    2) Get word out via PTSA and local blogs to increase interest in lending library.
Timeline:   
    1) Establish the use of XO's, 1:1, in the classroom on a daily basis by 1/31/12)
    2) Establish lending library for rest of school by spring vacation (April, 2011)
    3) Continue program during 2011-12 school year.
    4) Progress will be updated on personal blog, at http://www.ahlness.com    
    5) Updates will be posted to http://planet.laptop.org and http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects
Sharing:
   1) Main forum for posting updates: http://www.ahlness.com, Technorati-tagged olpc
  2) Updates will be cross posted to http://planet.laptop.org and http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects
  3) Updates will be cross posted to Twitter (mahlness, tagged #olpc)
   4) Updates will be cross posted Facebook http://www.facebook.com/mahlness 
  5) Pictures will be posted to http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahlness and tagged olpc

So here we go. The one recent development that has made this at all possible - from a tech support point of view - is that someone has been helping me by reconditioning donated computers and shipping them my way. He's also helped me repair a "bricked" XO. I would be sitting here with a 1:3 ratio otherwise.Thank you, Nathan.


The XO laptop is slow, by today's standards. It's underpowered. Yet it can do things other laptops have no chance at. Did I mention that two of ours are solar powered? Or that several of them can run an overclocked version of Linux that emulates a regular PC? Or that I hope to have a flash drive Sugar on a Stick OS in the hands of every one of my kids by the end of the year?

Technorati Tags: xo olpc

Trust Me

Let me teach.
I know how to teach..
I have a Masters degree.
I can do more than read from a script.
Trust me.

Let me teach.
I know how kids think.
I've been doing this for 30 years.
I know more than my supervisors.
Trust me.

Let me teach.
I know what's important.
I care about my kids as adults.
I know learning is not reflected in a test score.
Trust me.

Let me teach.
I have a passion for it.
I seek to improve my craft every day.
I know my #1 job is to help create responsible, caring individuals.
Trust me.

Repairing a Bricked XO

I now have 11 XO laptops in my third grade classroom. The latest arrived DOA, or "bricked", as in the RTC bug (real time clock failure). I mentioned this earlier in Remarkable Generosity

So tonight I took apart an XO, hooked up a custom cable from the motherboard of one, to the USB port of another. Once connected, I ran a program on one XO that would supposedly fix the other. This just sounds like hocus pocus, I know.

But it worked. Lazarus came back from the dead. I am still shaking my head in amazement and gratitude: