Patti's Projects: Create - Connect - Collaborate

A presentation summary of my projects for next year...

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Using Tools to Collaborate

It has been an amazing summer of learning... Thanks to my grad classes through UWOSH (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh), my Tweeps (Twitter friends), and the rest of my PLN, I've come up with 6 new projects for next year.

These include tools such as Skype, VoiceThread, Edmodo, Wordle, and Google Maps. I have already set up my class Edmodo page, and since I am looping with my class, I sent them the code. More than half of them have joined the group and are enjoying being able to chat over the summer! Since they had the opportunity to choose their own books for their summer reading assignment, I recently added a small group within the class group for the kids to post book reviews. I'm going to maintain this, so that when a student doesn't know what to read, they can look at the reviews of their classmates, and when they have read the book, they can comment on the reviews!

I'm looking at one more project now - to get my students blogging. I'll be teaching 4th grade next year, looping up with the kids I had last year. I remember the time we spent last year sharing journals. Many of the kids were hungry for an audience, and after journaling (spell check doesn't like this "word"), wanted to know if we could share. While I enjoyed having them read their blogs aloud for the class and answering any questions or comments, with 22 students, this can be a time consuming event!! With 1:1 netbooks in my classroom this year (finally!!), students can grab a netbook and respond to a journal prompt when they have free time. Students will be able to read and comment on each other's responses. Using this format, I could even post a YouTube video and ask students to post their reactions.

I'm currently working on my technology letter which will address the tools and procedures we will be using this year. Thanks to our PLP experience, we are adopting the CyberSmart curriculum for digital citizenship and are rewriting our RESPONSIBLE Use Policy (RUP). It's going to be an exciting year!!

My Big Tacky Presentation Project (as opposed to My Big Fat Greek Wedding!)

In an effort to complete the project objectives AND show off a new tool, I managed to create an incredibly tacky presentation... If I used this for PD with colleagues, I might have to "class it up" a bit... :) The presentation is done with Kizoa, a slide show generator. Lots of choices for music, transitions, backgrounds, effects, animations, text, and more!

A New Culture of Learning - slide show

Ways to Create, Connect, & Collaborate!

Looking for ways to connect yourself and your students to exciting learning opportunities? Here are just a handful of ways you can get connected, and connect your students to others!

How Being a Lifelong Learner Will Benefit My Students Next Year

Photo courtesy of Sean MacEntee

So I'm feeling pretty good about the way I've spent my summer... It's definitely NOT been a vacation! Thanks to my grad classes and the need to come up with some fresh material (since I've got the same kids this year), I've really been "out there" on Twitter, our class Edmodo, and have been reading blogs to find new tools and come up with some fun projects/activities for next year. My main goals are to get my kids connected, and to provide them with a wider audience for their work.

With only a few weeks worth of effort, I've come up with the following...

1. Mystery Skype for SS States & Regions Study - I posted a link on the Skype in the Classroom site with my project and have gotten several replies. The big turn around happened in a Twitter chat though, when I mentioned the project. Another teacher, Caren MacConnell, was also assembling a list of educators who wanted to participate, and suggested we combine forces. Both of us have been promoting the project, and as of today, have 59 classes who want to particpate! Never underestimate the power of a PLN...

2. My Maps - Thanks to the intro piece to my Learning in a Connected World class by my professor Eric Brunsell, I found out about the "My Maps" function of Google Maps. Instead of a standard report, I'm going to have my kids pick a state to learn about, and use the My Maps function to identify the capital, major points of interest, landforms, industry, and natural resources. They'll be able to write about each of these at a placemarker, as opposed to just typing a report. This will also enable them to share their project/learning with other students as they present their map in class.

3. "About Me" Wordle (or Tagxedo) and Blog Project - Thanks to Paula Naugle, I've found a fun project for the beginning of the year. Since we will have 1:1 netbooks this year, this is a great way for the kids to jump in right away. They'll create the word cloud and write a post in Kidblog.org about themselves to share with the class.

4. Poetry Unit with VoiceThread - In looking through examples on the VoiceThread site, I found a great project. Students wrote themed poetry, and illustrated their poems. The picture of the poem was uploaded to VoiceThread, and the student read the poem aloud. Feedback and comments were solicited from other teachers. It is a great way for students to "publish" their work, and practice reading with inflection and fluency.

5. Edmodo - Since I am looping with my class, after using Edmodo for my graduate class, I decided to create a group for my classroom. I've invited my students, and shared a "My Maps" of my summer travel spots, an example of my "WeeMee" avatar (thanks Allison Fitzwater!), a Glog of my vacation pictures,  messages using fodey.com and pageplugins.com (one telling them to check our Diigo page for new links), a link to wonderopolis.com, and a poll about the books we read aloud last year. I want them to see these and hope they will explore them over the summer. We'll continue to use Edmodo throughout the year to share.

6. Global Read Aloud - Organized by Pernille Ripp. There are currently 200 classes signed up for a Global Read Aloud of either Tuck Everlasting or Flat Stanley. https://spreadsheets1.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?hl=en_US&key=tXuBxoFw0ftLWB3SEW13SGw&hl=en_US#gid=0 I joined the Google Group for the planning of the Tuck read aloud http://groups.google.com/group/gra11-tuck-planning/topics and also the Edmodo group for the kids to discuss (code qd93ty). It starts on Sept. 14 and I am quite excited! They are still brainstorming for other ways to connect via Skype, blogs, VT, etc.

Photo courtesy of John LeMasney

So much to look forward to... thanks to my experience with Powerful Learning Practice - Which led to my graduate study at UWOSH, and the formation of my precious PLN! So I'm "paying it forward" and posting these for others to see as well. What fun projects have you discovered using technology or web 2.0 tools? How will you be connecting this year? Will your students have an audience for their work? Are you infusing creativity and exploration into your projects? Please share in the comments!!

Tagxedo

Ok, new word cloud program that does color schemes, shapes... Choose your font, your shape... SO COOL. You can even enter your twitter address or blog URL and it will create the tagxedo from your posts. This is one made from my blogs. http://www.tagxedo.com/

Why #hashtag?

When I first joined Twitter about a year ago, I joined in order to follow my teenage daughters (stalker mom extraordinaire). Among their group of friends, they frequently used hashtags (#) at the end of their tweets such as #justsayin or #awkward to express their feelings at the time. Some of them are quite amusing!

After I began using Twitter for professional reasons as I built my PLN (Personal Learning Network), I saw hashtags being used by people at conferences such as #NAIS, #ISTE, etc. By “marking” tweets in this way, people could send a message to everyone in the group. Followers of the conference didn’t have to follow every attendee, they could just create a search column in their TweetDeck that filtered tweets for that hashtag - Brilliant! I started keeping track of tweets related to Powerful Learning Practice by keeping a column filtered for #plpnetwork.

What I didn’t realize until this summer (#slowlearner), was the ENORMOUS group of educators that are finding folks to follow and collaborate with by following hashtags. If you are an elementary school teacher, and have something to share or want feedback, put #elemchat at the end of your tweet. There are even hashtags for grade levels such as #4thchat. The list is endless - #mathchat, #scichat, #dyslexia, #edreform, #esl… You get the idea. Cybrary Man (aka master creator of educational link lists) has a page of educational hashtags here.

But wait, there’s more! Hashtag “groups” are organizing and having weekly discussions on Twitter! So if you are a 4^th grade teacher, for example, you can log in to Twitter on Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. EST and join other 4^th grade teachers for #4thchat. You can even vote on the topic for the chat in advance! I have even “lurked” during #6thchat as they discussed uses for Skype in the classroom. Great ideas! There is a new Google Doc with a list of twitter chats here.

It drives me crazy that more educators don’t take advantage of these opportunities to learn and connect through social media tools like Twitter. Scott McLeod says it best:

In an era in which the possibilities for ongoing professional learning are numerous and significant, I wonder how long will it take us for us to start expecting educators to use these social media tools. It’s been 30 years since the advent of the personal computer and we’re still struggling to get teachers and administrators to integrate digital technologies into their daily work in ways that are substantive and meaningful. Meanwhile, we now have a bevy of powerful learning tools available to us that can advance our own professional learning (and, of course, make our technology integration and implementation efforts more efficient and effective).

It took me a year to figure out some of these #twittertips (another useful hashtag). I hope this helps more educators to connect more effectively and see the value of Twitter as PD. What have I missed? Please add helpful tips in the comments! *Tweet Tweet!*