Today, someone posted a question on a list serve I subscribe to. Being a longtime literacy teacher, it struck a cord with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts on both the question posed and my reply.
Her query:
We have a teacher who just started a literature circles blog where her 5th graders will discuss various novels. She mentioned that she is in the process of figuring out how to edit (correct) what they have written before she posts their comments. What do you all think about this? She has encouraged her students – and stated in the rules for the blog – that they are to use correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. If they do not, should the teacher make corrections before she publishes their comments? I’d appreciate any input that you can offer. Thanks.
My response:
Like Miguel, I’m a literacy teacher (but I’m not old ). I have extensive training in both New Jersey Writing and National Writing Project. I’ve studied just about every aspect of the writing process you can. While I can care less about state tests, I recall maybe one failure in the 7th grade writing test in my classes over a 10+ years at that the middle school.
All of that to say this: mistakes are an important part of the writing (learning) process. If we cannot let our kids make mistakes safely and learn from them, then we are not doing it correctly. Yes, spelling, grammar, and punctuation are important. No, they should not be the deciding factor between publishing or not. Mini lessons are meant to help in these such events. How do you fix the errors unless the kids recognize them themselves and buy-in to fixing them.
Consider that textbook companies publish and sell (with your tax dollars footing the bill) textbooks that are loaded with mistakes. They make it a multi-billion dollar industry. We teach our kids from mistake laden books.
So, remind your teacher that it is okay to let the “kids run with scissors” (credit to Gretchen Bernabei on the quote). Our students publish all of the time. The great thing about a blog is that it allows for editing. We all love to think we are perfect the first time, but we’re not. If it is a genuine effort to reach the publishing stage, then we publish. Anything less is cheating the child out of a learning experience.
Quick anecdote. One of the first collaborative literacy tools we used in class was a wiki. The kids grouped up and studied certain topics to present to the class via the wiki. I subscribed to the wiki so that I would know what was happening on it. One Saturday night, my email box begins loading up with “edit” emails. Someone was messing around on the wiki and changing things left and right. My first thought was a kid was thinking they could mess stuff up without getting caught. So, I went to the wiki to check it all out. It ended up being an Asian ESL student who was correcting spelling and such for my American students…ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. You cannot get them to do it on command, but they’ll do it if they OWN it. He owned it. He realized the errors in the group’s work. He edited it. We all learned from it (including the students who had their work corrected).
Earlier today we made two additions to the Google Docs settings page. The first, “Where items open,” lets you pick if you want items to open in a new window (how it works today) or in the same window.
A couple weeks ago, we launched “New!” and “Viewed/unviewed” indicators in the docs list which allow you to easily spot brand new and updated items. Since not everyone loves these — shocking, I know – we also added an “Update indicators” setting, which lets you turn these indicators off.
Posted by: Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager, Google Docs
I sent this email recently to some in my district. I thought I would post it here to gather feedback from my PLN if any of you see fit.
————————————-
Earlier this year we began in earnest a push toward integrating electronic portoflios (ePortfolios) with staff and students at the middle school level using blogs and the intermediate level using USB flash drives. There is an article in T.H.E. Journal that cites studies from Gartner supporting our choice in this.
While we are in the infant stages of ePortfolios, we are indeed headed in the right direction. I feel we should consider expanding this program into more grades to further enhance our goal of graduating 21st Century enabled students under the direction of 21st Century enabled staff.
The article states:
“And the holy grail is a personal digital portfolio, where you can store your accomplishments and have them verified by your mentors, teachers, or employers, and then take it all with you wherever you go. We’re nowhere near that at the moment.”
White Oak ISD is at that point now. We have the technologytools in place and the training available to implement this at all grade levels.
Please read the article if you have a chance. While it focuses on several software solutions, it also shares what others are doing and the possibilities. We are still fully capable of handing EVERY graduating senior from White Oak High School a flash drive with their entire eportfolio on it to be used anywhere they would like. Imagine the power of that if they are starting those in their earliest years in WOISD and maintaining it throughout.
I am always willing to discuss our ideas and goals with anyone at anytime.
I got an email during the day asking about how to embed a Google Calendar (from our Google Apps system) as a sticky post in his WordPress blog. Unfortunately, I was not near my laptop (oh the horror). Fortunately, the staff member CC’d another of our top notch staff member and TCEA’s Educator of the Year, Pam Cranford. The following is her reply. Yeah. It’s good to have awesome faculty.
You can also find MANY other great presentations she made here.
Got this message from TCEA that I thought I would share:
What’s your message? Many times educators may feel they’re alone on an island. If you could place a message in a bottle to share with the world, what would it say? Who would you hope to receive it? Let the bottle become your vehicle to deliver your message.
Come Tweet with us!
Beginning November 2, 2010, tweet your ‘message in a bottle’ to @tcea
Begin your tweet with “My message in a bottle is: “
Message in a bottle should pertain to education (not limited to technology), the classroom, students, administration, funding, assessment, community, or technology. Freely express yourself and send us your message in a bottle.
Messages will be narrowed down to the top picks and will be voted on by TCEA members.
Winner will be announced at the TCEA 2010 Convention & Exposition in February, 2010.
Contest ends January 8, 2010.
Grand prize $1,000
Contest is not limited to TCEA members. Re-tweet us and invite your followers to submit their message.
Note: TCEA board members and staff many not participate in contest. Voting will take place January 18-22. 2010, at www.tcea.org.
I know some people do not care about podcasting or Apple as much as others, but after sitting through over three hours of TCEA’s UStreaming of Apple Snow Leopard Update, I am now a very happy guy (as opposed to previously only being happy).
The first half of the video below will give you an update on Snow Leopard itself, but the second half gave me exactly what I needed for our Apple server. After seeing how much easier the Podcast Producer process has been made, I jumped right in and got it set up. While I am still playing with the set-up to make it custom to White Oak ISD, I have rejoiced in having created a dual source podcast (my video side by side with my desktop video) with intro video, title sequence, the content, and a closing video/title clip. Sounds really hard, but man was it so easy. Give me a week or so, and I will have all kinds of easiness to share with my staff.
You can see the VERY short video only clip I created on my podcast blog here. I purposely did a very short video due to the rendering time involved with video production. In other words, I was impatient and wanted to see the results quickly.
Thank you TCEA for making the video available for free online and thanks to Apple for providing the update.
Not because I sit on the board for TCEA, but because this is just pretty cool, I wanted to share this bit of information about the 2010 TCEA Convention to be held in Austin, TX, February 8-12, 2010. The biggest COOL factor for me is the iPhone/Touch App being developed for the conference. It is shaping up to be a really nice app available for free as the convention draws closer.
30th Annual Convention and ExpositionThe TCEA 30th annual Convention and Exposition “Charting New Waters” will be held at the Austin Convention Center Feb. 8-12, 2010. Nationally-known keynoters, more than 400 vendors in 900 booths, hundreds of concurrent sessions, Web 2.0 lounges, gaming playgrounds (Second Life and geocaching), Bring Your Own Laptop sessions, Model Classroom demonstrations, and so much more will be available to attendees. Early registration will open Sept. 9 on the TCEA website and will be $165. Starting Nov. 1, registration will go to $180. Onsite registration will be $190.
Participants for the first time will be offered the “I Touch Learning” convention experience.
Educators who select this option will receive all conference benefits plus an iPod touch loaded with convention information and teaching resources. Exact pricing of this option will be available when registration opens.
Registration for the convention includes a free membership to TCEA. Housing information will be included in your registration confirmation.
New this year, you will find an Opensource Cafe (blogger’s cafe style), Blogger’s Cafe with its own room for noise reduction, Twitter, an EduBloggerCon (Lonestar EBC), an iPhone/Touch app loaded with all of the convention information you will need, and more. These are big steps to take all at the same time, so it will be a cool thing for TCEA to try this all out at once.
For additional information, check out these resources:
I have had an idea for a post mulling around in my mind since May. I had even gotten some research from a friend to help me figure out the advice I need to give to our curriculum department.
I asked Gary Stager via Twitter his thoughts on keyboarding:
“What priority do you place on keyboarding skills with kids today?”
His quick reply was: “Huge waste of scarce resources – focus on mechanics rather than anything meaningful”
Then he sent me this link: http://stager.org/keyboarding.html (notice the date of the research he quotes and then his commentary at the top of the page). In the research found there, Steve Shuller points out a very interesting and important observation:
Keyboarding is seen as a way to input information into a computer so that it can be manipulated. Thus, initial accuracy is less important than speed, ability to manipulate text is more important than formatting skills for specific types of documents, and composing is more important than transcribing (so it does not matter so much if the typist looks at the keys).
These distinctions recognize important changes in the purposes for which people type on Industrial Age typewriters and on Information Age computer keyboards. Yet, if we look closely at the keyboarding programs proposed by business educators, we find a methodology geared to the Industrial Age purpose of transcribing rather than the Information Age purpose of composing (Freyd and Kahn 1989).
Now, both of these are valid points to consider in today’s course offerings for students. Yet, Freyd and Kahn made those points in 1989. If it was valid in 1989, is it not more valid in today’s times when most kids walking the halls have more computing power in their pockets than we had in buildings in 1989?
I then shared my position on the subject in a conversation with another colleague:
I know your concerns about student keyboarding skills are serious. While blogging in and of itself will not cure the keyboarding woes, it is one method of allowing students to become more familiar with the keyboard and its functionality as it pertains to their uses of the technology. When you add in email, productivity software, and many online tools our students are now using, their skill set should be increasing in quality. I do know that others have worked hard to get the students more computer time on other campuses through authentic learning situations such as problem/project based learning.
I do not pretend to know all I need to know about how kids are learning these days. They are changing so quickly. I most assuredly do not know what they need for every class we teach in WOISD. I just wanted to provide you with some support of what I was saying earlier about how the shift is occurring away from direct instruction of keyboarding to a more functional approach as it pertains to authentic use AND integration into the normal instruction whether core area or elective.
As usual with my PLN, somebody has also been pondering the same topic and blogged about it recently. Thanks to Jeff Utecht for doing the dirty work for me this time with his post “When or do we teach typing?” As I read through, all I could say was, “Yep. That’s what I was thinking.” He even believes, as do I, that we are wasting time teaching cursive during writing time. His idea of replacing cursive writing time with keyboard seat time is dead-on, but his idea of putting cursive writing into an arts course is a new one to me. I think it is as good a place as any, if it has to be taught. Jeff shares his beliefs:
So here’s what I believe:
We should expose students to the keyboard as much as possible!
Every student starting in Kindergarten should be exposed to a keyboard as often as possible. 15 minutes three times a week would be preferred.
In 1st grade the focus would be to have student use two hands on the keyboard.
By 3rd grade typing should be part of the writing curriculum. The time spent on cursive writing should be replaces with keyboard time (cursive writing is an art form and should be part of art…..my opinion and my opinion only!).
By 5th grade students should be required to turn in at least one type written assignment a week and spend no less then 120 minutes a week exposed to a computer keyboard.
I talked to a couple 6th grade teachers last week who both told me that they only have students type assignments to be handed in. That they have not accepted hand-written work for two years now.
I currently have three staff members at the middle school level building curriculum to go paperless next year. I know they will find the skills of their students increase as the year progresses. I also believe that our high school teachers will notice an increase in student keyboarding skills as those kids move on to that campus. That is, unless they force them to use the home row and industrial Age-style keyboarding requirements.
Now where can I buy a USB/bluetooth keyboard the size of a cell phone keypad with built-in predictive text?
Once again, we had another fabulous day in Texarkana ISD. Today we spent time discussing blogs with the elementary teachers. It looks as if this district is going to light up with WWW with elementary bloggers in the very near future. I look forward to having the kids in White Oak collaborating with the students here.
Below you will find the list of resources we discussed. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section.
). I have extensive training in both New Jersey Writing and National Writing Project. I’ve studied just about every aspect of the writing process you can. While I can care less about state tests, I recall maybe one failure in the 7th grade writing test in my classes over a 10+ years at that the middle school.
– we also added an “Update indicators” setting, which lets you turn these indicators off.
Photo Credit: Me.
Entries (RSS)