Yes: Sean, Ryan, Brenden and Connor, there is a Santa

Boy have things changed since I was little, and I'm only 25. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for my grandparents to convince my parents that Santa was real...I spent much of Christmas Eve sitting by the computer, with my four younger cousins (because Patrick's just too old to care) tracking Santa. They were fascinated that they could see where Santa was, and where he had been.

I suppose the concept and the technology behind Norad Tracks Santa is pretty simple. Norad uses Google Maps, and instead of placing thumbtacks for locations, they use little gifts. When you click on the gift, a little picture of that location will pop up on your screen. In some locations, NYC for example, they even show a little animated movie of Santa's sleigh flying through the sky. This is what amazed the boys the most (my mother too!).

Being that their older brother is of the age that he just doesn't care, he goes around telling them that Santa's not real. Norad worked in our favor because we were able to 'prove' that he is real. When you have kids of various ages living in one house I guess it's going to be hard to keep them all believing, but I think Norad's a cute way to keep them believing for a little bit longer.

Schools That Learn - Community

Last week I had a great conversation with Diana, Melissa and Bette about Schools That Learn. Our conversation focused in on the Community section of the book. Each of us come from vastly different schools; however, what we saw was that we each have problems in our school that could be addressed by the community.

My school is by far the worst of the three, so a great deal of the conversation focused on my school. One of the biggest problems that we pointed out was that my school doesn't have a any established community to speak of. Diana spoke about how she had an abundance of community members come to her school...that could never happen in my school. Who would they ask? The crack dealer on the corner? When we have guests in my school, unfortunately they're usually very poorly received, and they often do not return. I can't say that I blame them.

I remember back to my first year there. I had one kid that was so different than the rest. I wanted to call his parents and tell them to move to a new community, because I was afraid that this community was going to ultimately destroy their son.

Who am I?

Just last week I turned 25; I am now a quarter of a century. Now I know I'm not old, in fact I'm one of the youngest members of the Herrick's TEAM. But this birthday (compounded with my mounds of grad work) have left me wondering, "Who Am I?", in a digital sense?

I was one of the first people I knew to have a computer. Does that make me a digital native?

As a kid, I found it easier to complete my assignments on the computer than by hand. Does that make me a digital native?

As an adult, I spend a majority of my day on the computer. Does that make me a digital native?

Who am I?

Or am I a digital immigrant? According to Will Richardson's definition in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools For the Classroom, a Digital Immigrant is somone who was not surrounded by technology growing up. So I guess I'm not a digital immigrant. But there are times that I don't really feel like a digital native either...I find it very difficult to be away from technology. Does that make me a digital native...or just an addict?

Dude I Got 16 Dells!

About three weeks ago I concocted this idea to have my students poetry anthologies on a wiki, so I went to work. I started up the site and then emailed one of my better APs asking if there was any possibility of my getting a few laptops in my room just for a few days so that they could type them. I explained that taking the whole class to the library wasn't practical because we only have 7 computers there, and if I couldn't get some in my room I was going to have to type them all myself . . .

Today I received a laptop car with 16 laptops for me to use with my class until June . . . saying I'm psyched is an understatement!

Learner Differences Module Response – Part I

Who am I is a question that is asked by many well educated individuals. I could answer this question many ways. I could say: “My name’s Keri,” or I could say “I am a linguistic learner that enjoys learning by myself outdoors.” After first learning about Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences as a freshman in college I immediately found myself categorized as a linguistic learner, but who decided this? Was it me? Was it my mom or my dad? Was it the website that Dr. Dornish gave us? Or was it Howard Gardner?

Personally, I agree with Gardner’s theory that there are multiple intelligences. I teach fifty students, each of them is an individual, each learns in a distinctly different way. As a teacher there are times that I hit a proverbial wall, and cannot figure out how to get a point through to them. It is at times like those that I find myself thinking about Gardner. I start to analyze the concept that I’m teaching and attempt to look at it from varying points of view. We are told by our administrators that we must “differentiate instruction” to address this issue. We’re told that we must have a “DI” center, where the students can take worksheets that address their needs, a worksheet that focuses on their skill weaknesses. I want to stand on a desk and scream, “That’s not differentiated instruction!” Differentiated instruction is when I target my students learning needs and focus my instruction in a way that they can understand. For example teaching my sister mathematically would not be successful for any educator, they would need to target her linguistic and interpersonal skills and teach her a mathematical concept through those channels.

Unfortunately it’s 2008 and I teach in New York and that translates to “teaching to tests”. I spend countless hours planning my lessons; unfortunately a lot of the things that I’ve thought of are impossible to do because of the many standardized tests that my students must take. I spend a great deal of time preparing them for these exams. I know of many great educators that have retired from the field solely because of the excessive tests that are forced upon the students.

Sadly, I feel that Dr. Gardner’s statement is correct. Too much emphasis is placed on categorizing the students. (And I don’t mean categorizing them based on Gardner’s Theory; I mean who needs help with main idea, which students need help with sequencing, etc.) No longer is there time for teachable moments or cross-curricular learning. No longer is there time for students to have fun and actually enjoy what they’re doing. I went into teaching because I love what I do. I love the feeling that I get inside when the light bulb turns on and my student finally grasps what I’m trying to teach them. Unfortunately because of NCLB’s excessive testing I rarely have the opportunity to experience that feeling. Maybe that’s why so many first-rate educators have left this field.

Who lives in an Easter Island Moai under the sea?

Squidward J. Tentacles of course!

Last week when I went to Will Richardson's conference, I left work for my students to complete. They had a reading comprehension packet titled "Ancient Visitors?". The article focused on the strange buildings/drawings of ancient civilizations. I figured this tied in nicely with last month's study of science fiction and this week's focus of distinguishing between facts and opinions. I didn't think much about it and planned to go over it as a class today.

Fast forward to this morning . . .

We are going over the passage, and I am reading it aloud. I'm reading the part about the Easter Island Giants, when a student stops me.

"Ms. Willis, have you ever watched Spongebob Squarepants?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, those pictures of those statue things, they look a lot like Squidward's house."

I told him that he was right and that it did look like Squidward's house.

Then the assistant principal came in to talk about a fashion show that she's planning. While she was talking I did a Google Image search for a picture to compare it to. I wound up at I actually found a website that talked all about how his house is designed to look like an Easter Island Moai. I couldn't believe that someone did this research and posted it on answers.com but I'm sure glad they did. As silly as it is, because of this person's research I was able to facilitate a connection for my kids.




Will my kids remember where Easter Island is? Probably not.
Will my kids remember what a Moai is? Probably not.
Will my kids remember that Squidward's house is supposed to look like an ancient statue?
DEFINITELY!

Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?

When I first read the title of this article, I thought it said "Will Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?" . . . my reaction was: YES! Of course the technology will influence the state of education! Then I realized that I read the title wrong . . . silly me!

I am only one and a half semesters into my work with TEAM and I'm already seeing the way technology has affected my life. I don't really use the bookmarking tool on my computer anymore, why bother when I can tag it and then it'll be saved for me on the web whenever I need it. And when I have a question there is no need for it to bother me, I can contact anyone in my network in a matter of seconds via plain old email or Skype. Instead of "my network" consisting of my colleagues in my building, it now consists of just about any alphageek or educator regardless of where there are located. I can collaborate with just about anyone, anywhere.

So which technologies do I think are going to have the biggest impact on education in 2008?
I don't know exactly, but I think that any technology that makes collaboration easier and faster are pretty good bets!

The Right Kind of Professional Development

I know I complain a lot about the various meetings that my supervisors make us attend because most of them are pointless and just waste our valuable time. Back in January I was sent an email from one of my supervisors asking me if I wanted to attend a slew of technology PDs; however, many of them were very similar to the workshops that we have for TEAM, so I politely declined. A few days later I received another email from her asking me if I wanted to attend The New York City Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. I thought it sounded interesting, so I read on . . . the featured speaker was going to be Will Richardson. I figured that this was not an opportunity that I could pass up, so I got permission to go and have been anxiously awaiting my March 5th, trip to St. John's University to hear him speak.

He was simply amazing!

Of all the meetings I've attended over my three years of teaching this on was by far the best. I felt like I truly was learning and discussing things that were relevant and important. He even made a few references to his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, which I have been reading (and I highly recommend). He also gave us a link to his wiki that contains all of the information that he spoke about. If you ever get the opportunity to see him speak, take it! I know I will again!

Metacognition

KLW Metacognition

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"The Fun They Had"

Two weeks ago in class someone mentioned that Karen had once read a story about how when Rip Van Winkle woke up he did not recognize anything but the school, for the school had not changed at all during his one-hundred year nap.

That got me thinking . . . I knew that at some point I had read a story where just the opposite was true. This has been irking me since last week, because I knew it was a story that I enjoyed that I had used with my students one year . . . but for the life of me I could not think of the name. Then today while I was planning it hit me . . . "The Fun They Had" by Isaac Asimov!

If you've never read it, it's a pretty good story that illustrates how books and school will change from present day to 2157. Asimov is one of my favorite authors because he was so ahead of his time. Actually it's inaccurate for me to say "from present day to 2157", since he wrote this story in 1951, long before PCs, the Internet and Web 2.0!

If you'd like to read the story you can find it here: "The Fun They Had" by Isaac Asimov.

Shift Happens!

While I found the video on Youtube to be a little on the long side, I found the message to be quite profound. No matter what I do as a teacher, "Shift Happens!"

About six and a half minutes in, the video said: "We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist…in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet." I had to pause the video to think about the meaning of this statement. No matter what I do as a teacher, "Shift Happens!"

A few minutes later they quoted Einstein . . . “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” I wonder what the world will be like for my 7th and 8th graders when they're in high school, or college, or beyond . . . I wonder what the world will be like in ten years, when China is the number one English speaking country? But I guess what it comes down to is no matter what I do, "Shift Happens!"

What is Education?

Last week in class during PG & S Dr. Weston asked us this question: "What is education"? It's a pretty straightforward and simple question.

I was fairly quiet and just listened to what my TEAMmates said.
What they said bothered me . . . then it dawned on me, their answer wasn't what bothered me, it was my answer that bothered me . . . Education = Data.

I work in a school where data is force fed. Every time we turn around they're giving us more data. They're constantly handing us forms to fill out and scores to analyze. We're now required to fill out a Student at a Glance form for each child that we teach. These forms have a category for each of the citywide tests they take, in each subject. We also have to fill out an IIP for each child. An Individual Improvement Plan is our Assistant Principal's way of identifying each child's strengths and weaknesses.

Do I think data is great? Of course!
Do I think that I'm lucky to teach now, at a time when we have access to this data? Of course!
Do I think that data = education? NO!

I do not want to see anymore data!