Success?

I am in cadre that was given MacBook Pros to do podcasting and vodcasting this Summer and upcoming school year. Not too shabby, I downloaded Handbrake already in order to convert video from one format into another.  This was made essential because my Flip video camera only records in .AVI format, something the mac hates.  Downloaded Handbrake, change the .m4v extension to .mp4 and I am all set.

But today I am scanning blogs on Reader, and I discover this video on on one of the blogs.

Do me a favor though. Before you watch it, turn the volume DOWN to zero.  Don’t listen to it, just watch it. It is 6:02 minutes long.

Then watch it again but turn up the music and listen to the music along with the visuals.

Do you hate the music as much as I do?

Someone has spent enormous amounts of time getting the facts, the visuals, and then the orange / black/ white color scheme just right. It is an amazing video that is ruined by the cheap GarageBand audio tacked onto the video.

I think Dan said it best.   Don’t Let Your Students Use Music In Their Video Projects. Really.  Don’t do it. This video is every reason why not to allow music.

If the authors had spent one quarter of the time on audio as they did on the video, they would have an amazing video. Instead, they get something significantly less than they wanted.

When we were doing our training on Garageband, I spoke up and asked why we were being encouraged to spend 4 hours on a video and 5 minutes on slapping a cheap sounding soundtrack to our podcast.   The answer from the Mac trainer was dismissive and pointless. “The kids really get into finding something they like.”

Big deal.

The authors of the video above “really got into finding something they liked” and because they did that instead of finding something that fit with the story, the visuals, and the emotional impact of the pictures, they weakened their video.

Don’t do it. Don’t let yourself or your learners use music in their, or your, videos.

This post from Free Technology for Teachers made me think about the videos I use in my classroom.  In it, they go through over 30 different ways to get video for the classroom.  Some are better than others, but they annotate the sources to the quality and content.

From these sources, I use TED and YouTube and Vimeo the most.  Neither TED or Vimeo is blocked by my school district, so they are easy to use, but YouTube requires some … er … massaging to get the videos.  To get the videos from YouTube I have been using KeepVid. It works well for me, allowing me to save the videos in MP4 format and drop them into iTunes and play them on my iPod I have connected to my projector.

It has worked well, allowing me to have around 70 videos by the end of the year ready to go. This summer I am working on identifying another 70 or so and building my collection to use.

This is one of them. The Sixth Sense project. If you haven’t seen it. Do so. Now.  Don’t wait. It is short, and worth every second.

Free Technology for Teachers has a lot of links that I never knew about, so it will be fun to explore them and find more good math videos to use.

Here is one that will make your math class groan. I love it!

I have really been struggling this year with my electronic organization.

Firstly, I am in charge of web development using the Angel LMS for the group of teachers creating and teaching our Advanced Algebra Applications 5-6 course. It is a new course, and the only course in the US that teaches the math it does. 

What that means is that I am in charge of a small amount of content today (250 megs) that will blossom over the next few years. Assessments, worksheets, photos, videos, and more will be created by this course.

And then there is the 200 megs of my AP stats material, and the 400 megs of powerpoints I created for my Alg 2 courses last year.  They suck, but given they were my first year teaching it and my first attempt, they will get better.

All that material is on my laptop.  Yes, the same laptop that is strapped to my back on my way back and forth to school on my motorcycle. Yes the same laptop that can be dropped and all the material created is gone in a second.

EEEK.

I have dealt with backing up before and have been doing manual backups.  That is so yesterday. If you have not been introduced before, meet Dropbox! It is a wonderful system that will synchronize your files with any number of computers for FREE! (2 gig limit on the free accounts).

With the very small Dropbox app on my computers, I now have full access to every file on my laptop I want. Using a very small “junction” hack, I directed Dropbox to look three folders in my directory, AP stats, Alg 3 -4, and AAA files.

Now, on my Mac laptop, my Destop at school, my smart panel desktop at school, my desktop at home AND my laptop I have access to every single file.  Even more, if any file is added in ANY of those locations, it is added to ALL of the computers I use the next time I turn it on.

Even better! I can access those files anywhere I have web access.

But wait, there’s more!  It is FREE for 2 Gigs.  Now, I actually have 2.25 gigs, because I used a link to login from another blog. As a way of giving back (and perhaps getting more myself) I would like to invite you to use Dropbox as well.

All you need to do is follow this link here, enroll in the Dropbox service, and you get a free extra 250 megs and so do I. Many of your (and mine) file backing up and syncing problems go away using this service. Heck, I may not even need to take my laptop with me everywhere I go!

I have been rather silent in my blogging the last several months mainly because I was so overwhelmed that I had to not do something, and blogging was it.

You see, 5 years ago this month I ran for my local school board. (I know, I know, why do you care but there is a point to this).  It was for an open seat, the member who was retiring had been on the board for many years and was an amazing and powerful woman who demanded success of the schools and worked tirelessly to achieve that. Very large shoes to fill, but I was passionate about education and from the private sector I felt this was the best way I could be involved.

Short story. I lost.

I came in third behind two very strong women who had lived in the community for many years and had many thousands of contacts and involvements. I lost to two very good candidates.

Losing was the best thing that happened to me!  Losing got my name out there as someone who was interested in contributing and helping, not tearing down. I became a board member of what was then the Education Collaborative. I served on committees and worked my fanny off.

Until one day I realized that I did not want to be a committee member, I really wanted to be a teacher. “Self,” I said, “it is time to either poo or get off the pot.”  So I did. Three years ago this month I quit my job, that I loved and enjoyed, and went back to school at UNR’s department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning to get my teaching credentials.  [I loved the department and the courses, and had a tremendous time learning. Probably one of the few people who won't bash the education department it seems.]

This May, I graduated with my Masters in Education. That is the reason I was so behind in my blogging, because I was fulfilling what was in the end a 5 year plan. To become a teacher was a journey that lasted 5 years, and it was worth every second of the pain and agony of the trip.

Granted, I have been teaching now for 2 years with the Washoe County School District and am still on many committees (LOL) but the trip is over with the M.Ed.

Where do I go from here?  Time for a new 5 year plan.

In another case of “working together benefits all”.  Dan Meyer posted a picture of himself throwing a ball into a trash can.  Except, he only posted the first half of the flight.  (See the original here.) This picture is one in his series of “What can you do with this?”, that challenges educators to think outside of their comfort zone and think inside of relevant, challenging, and interesting lessons.

David Cox then takes that lesson, and explodes it into a terrific lesson on quadratics, measurement and all around engaging math.  Oh, except it really wasn’t David.  IT WAS HIS LEARNERS who exploded it and created a fabulous lesson out of it.  Crazy what learners can do when we stop spoon feeding them and give them tools and interesting problems.

Well, ColleenK had to one up everyone and create an applet that would allow for anyone to do the same problem with different initial conditions.

I can see starting with Dan’s picture. Throwing that on the screen and asking the question that Dan asked. Will he hit the can?  Leave it at that.   Let the learners decide what they need to know in order to answer the question.  Having Geogebra handy would be a great idea.  Allowing the learners to answer the question on their own, with support and guidance when legitimately asked for (meaning “i don’t get it” is not legitimate) and the encouragement to TRY.

Summing up with something like David did, allowing each group to show how their solution is different or the same, and then putting Colleen’s app on the screen and giving each group a completely different set of initial conditions.  Or better yet, out to the lawn with a digital camera and MAKE sets of initial conditions.

Now that is successful teaching at it’s finest.

Why don’t more teachers communicate like this to see the really innovative and creative stuff we can do? (sorry, not the purpose of this post, but still a question that must be asked.)

From 15 April to 6 May, ASCD is offering a free ebook, no subscription or membership required. The title is: “EBOOK Engaging the Whole Child: Reflections on Best Practices in Learning, Teaching, and Leadership” and the link to it is here.

I downloaded it yesterday to both of my computers. It looks to be a good book.  367 pages, covering everything from violence and safety, to “empowering students” (not a phrase I would ever use, but whatever) to Instilling the desire to learn (easier said than done, but if there is one tip that helps me in those 50 pages than the time is well worth it.)

I have not read it yet, just the table of contents. But all it takes is one thing I can take away and use to make it a worthwhile use of my time.

This seems like a seemingly simple question for teachers:

Could you identify 10 excellent web sites for your grade level / subject area?  

via dangerously irrelevant

Scott posted this a couple of weeks ago, and got a lot of people thinking about what web usage really is and really means. He ended it with a follow up post that included the following statement.

I’ll take them at their word and say that perhaps I overestimated the quality, if not quantity, of the online resources available to K-12 teachers. If so, this paucity of high quality online resources for educators is pretty sad given the longevity and history of the Internet as well as the ability of any educator to now easily have an online presence.  via

Hmm. Dan and others don’t agree that there are 10 sites that are worth using regularly for pedagogical purposes.  In the couple of weeks since this posting by Scott, I have been tracking my web usage to see if I have 10 that I have used regularly.  Here they are.

Google Reader.  I use it every day.  I follow about 145 blogs currently on Reader, and read about 20% of the articles. Indexed, and Graphjam are daily, as well as Dan’s and many many more.  That counts as FOUR.  Have you seen Indexed?  Amazing graphs that really, when selectively used, gets learners interested  in the content of the graphs.  Same with GraphJam.  Those learners who say, “I hate graphs” don’t say it any more after a little graphjam action.

Google Docs.  I use google docs in one of my courses. Learners are required to share their assignments with me, not turn them in on paper. Love it. Full tracking for accountability purposes, and very well done.

Google Maps.   Hmm, I see a pattern. Have you used Google maps to do problems?  I have. Thanks to Dan.

Stats Monkey.  If it wasn’t for this website, I would not have made it through my first year of AP Stats.

College Board’s AP Central: Same reason. Very important for me.

Qipit: Every teacher has been there. Some profound thing written on a whiteboard, a fellow teacher with eraser in hand to erase and move on.  One click of the camera on your cell phone, text the picture to Qipit’s number, either the black and white number or the color number, and BOOM, you have a PDF in your email within a couple of minutes.  Yes, I use this regularly.   Even with the technology in my classroom, the board still gets used.

Forums like the Physics Forum and My Math Forum. You know, sometimes you just need to ask someone anonymous your stupid question about some advanced math topic.

And how about YouTube (another google product, blocked at school, but I download things to my iPod), Vimeo (not blocked, used at school), TED.com, Annenberg Media, Geogebra (used for math, similar to Geometers Sketchpad, but FREE and easier to use), Tracker (used for analyzing the math in videos, FREE).

I have used every single one of these in my classroom over the last year. That is more than 10, and I still didn’t really go into my Reader list. Art, Design, Finance, Statistics, Technology, Science, Physics, Education, Mathematics, Political, News, Lifestyle, Comics, and Presentation are all folders in my Reader.  Blogs count. Some of the best ideas I have gotten over the last year have been posts by other bloggers. Tag them with something relevant.   Share them through Google Reader. Subscribe to each other’s sharings.

I was taking an online course on how to create online courses, and one of the assignments was to suggest pedagogical websites and sources. (That 6 week online course is one reason I have not posted in so long, but that is a totally different story.)

I suggested dy/dan, Dan Meyer’s terrific site. One of the other people taking the course did not understand why I suggested Dan’s site as source of pedagogy.  The following several links will explain that choice.

Dan begins with this posting, on editing a single slide from Darren Kuropatwa.  Dan takes the slide donated from Darren, and reinvents from traditional, “here is the info, find the answer” to “Find the question, interpret the information, and defend your answer”.

Hmm, higher levels of thinking anyone?  Using digital media and digital tools to force thinking and challenge learners to push beyond the school room walls?  Pure Pedagogical Mastery. 

The story did not end with Dan’s pedagogical tour de force.  Jason Dyer takes Dan’s take on Darren’s take on statistics and pushes it even more! Now Jason has taken the  data, changed it so the range and the mean is identical, while leaving the question alone.

What is a learner to do now?  Anyway, Dan posts a follow up to the entire conversation here, allowing anyone  to follow the entire course of the thinking in one post.

Does anyone else marvel at the power in this kind of collaboration? Dan says, “This is the culture of criticism we need.” I agree. The collaboration involved in this series of posts is tremendous.

I need to do more of this.

I used to use Google Notebook for research, but since they have discontinued development on it I became a little skittish about continuing to rely on it.  And then I discovered Zotero.

I am in heaven. Seriously.  All of my pdf’s of journal articles now have a home, with full bibliographic information pulled from the University’s library system.  Do a search, click an icon, full bibliography is downloaded and stored in Zotero right in my browser.  Download the PDF, create a link in zotero, and now I have all the information in one spot, easy access.  Have a note or thought to add?  Add it in Zotero. It will forever be there.

Does the article apply in more than one research area? Create separate libraries within your catalogue of data. Now the same article is present in multiple places.

Prefer to work with tags?  Not only will zotero download the tags from Eric or Ebsco, it allows you to edit them and create new tags.

Related artices?  Yup, you can forge relations outside of the libraries.

The only thing zotero does not do (yet) is allow sharing and syncing. That is in the beta 1.5 which has been released.

But the real benefit comes when you have to use the papers you collected and actually write something. Download the Word module or the Openoffice module (depending on what you use) and you can have the program pull sourcing information directly from your zotero database into your paper. Then, when you need the bibliography, click one button and bibliography shows up preformatted to whatever format you prefer.

Truly this program makes most of the research class I am taking at UNR irrelevant. We spent so much time wasting effort while talking about formatting in APA format. Yawn. The software does 95% of it for you, all you need to do is check errors in your database (like capitolized letters in the title. MLA wants, APA does not, that is a manual check you need to do).

Why can’t professors and teachers get with the times and actually USE the technology that is out there? Why are we wasting time, even at the college level, talking about formatting when the software does it?  This brings up the whole digital native / digital immigrant thing for me, and I am really tired of it.

The digital rollover occured 30 YEARS ago. If we all aren’t digital natives by now, we need to pull our collective head out of our bums and get with the 21st century.

Download Zotero (it’s free) and use Zotero.  Totally worth it.

Nora Ramirez said this at a training I went to this weekend. She is President of Todos, www.todos-math.org, a group dedicated to improving mathematics education for English Language Learners (ELL) specifically, but their programs, ideas, and methods help all learners, not just ELL.

The title of this post is something she told the group to think about. It is not remediation that most of the learners need, it is acceleration with support. It is not about “dumbing down” the language used in the classroom, it is about using the language more clearly, better and WITH MEANING.

We spent a lot of time learning how to not use pronouns in the classroom, and instead use and SAY what we mean. Instead of saying, “it rises on the left” say, “the curve, the graph is rising on the left.” See how that is clearer and more understandable? The second sentence has meaning, while the first one the meaning has to be supplied by the listener, they have to translate the “it” for themselves.

Why do we leave that to chance? Some may understand the “it” some learners may not.

I am not a member of TODOS, but I have been to a couple of their trainings. I need to go to more to improve on this use of language with meaning. I think most of us teachers do.