Go to Maine ASCD

Have you been to the Maine ASCD site? There is a wealth of resources and up-to-date information there. It is about time that I send in my dues for a membership! :)




For starters, check these out:

Cyber Resources for Maine Educators

Maine ASCD Weblog

21st Century High School MacBook Resources

I just found a site at Deer Isle - Stonington Schools that has a great compilation of information on the new MLTI initiative in Maine high schools.


21st Century High School Teacher Tools and Resources at the Deer Isle-Stonington School

Check out also the MacBook Resources in Resources for Maine Teachers


Do we have others that we could add to the list? Or perhaps suggestions for the DIS site?

Regional MLTI Meeting at UMaine Farmington

I'm at the Western Maine Regional Meeting for the high school 21st Century Skills initiative.

Play by play. . . .stream of consciousness review of the session:

Bette Manchester of MLTI starts off the day, giving an overview of the project, which is followed by introductions.

• The group is introduced to Noteshare, given a short lesson . . . and then Ruben Puentedura does an overview of the the agenda.

• Viewed "Did You Know?"

• Puentedura points: The world has changed. The jobs are different. Deep media skills are needed. Students need the intellectual tools to succeed. The world IS globalized today . . already . . . isn't something that is going just happen in the future.

• Doug Snow, Maine Apple Projector Manager, gives a short introduction to Apple OS X and the applications that are on the MLTI MacBook. How to add applications to dock. Globalization has happened. Chat being used daily in many schools. Introduces and demonstrates iChat. Question and discussion on acceptable uses and how AUPs are written. PhotoBooth demonstrated. Address Book demonstrated . . .how to import address files from other programs. Demonstrates Numbers, a new spreadsheet app in iWork. Intro and demonstrates Pages . . . which is in iWork. Help menu is available.

• Noteshare as spiral-bound notebook metaphor. Word Processor included . . .sections, pages, entries. Audio, quicktime movies, website links and embedded, and much more. Wow! Can share notebooks over local networks and over internet.

• Break

• The Roadmap. Transformation, Technology, and Education ~ Ruben R. Peuntedura

• Bette Manchester gives history of MLTI: First Five Years. Using computer and writing process makes a difference in student writing skills. Focus on Math . . . literacy . . .and digital literacy. Skowhegan an example of digital literacy. MLTI not a technology project . . . instead a teaching and learning project . . .leadership team important. . .crucial . . . technology supports the learning. Grand effort for what is happening in Maine high schools. Literacy is going to be a focus . . . a.k.a. Literacy Across the Curriculum.

• Lunch . . . quick trip to Reny's

• Ruben Puentedura introduces StudyWiz. Overview. A tool for collaboration. (aside: See also blogs, wikis, Ning, Google Tools for Educators and Moodle).

• Grouped as principals in one room. . . . teachers and techies in other room. Discussion on how to use tools and building capacity. Question: What is the role of the lead teacher? What is the process? Technical questions . . where do technical people get support/help? Importance of principal and building leadership team.

Closing:

Sir Ken Robinson and Creativity.

Richard Florida and the Rise of the Creative Class

Final Word: Have fun with the machines. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Ocean

According to Wikipedia, 71% of the earth's surface is ocean. Do you suppose that is accurate . . . or do I need to check another source?

Maine certainly has a close connection with the Atlantic Ocean.

Question: How do we share and investigate the salt-water connections with our kids?

One Example: Bill Caddigan, Telstar Regional Middle School science teacher, was able to connect to his students in a very novel way last Spring through his Teacher at Sea adventure.

What other examples can we add here?

More Resources:

Ocean Resources

Oceanography Resources

Maine Teacher at Sea

Oceanography Search Using Custom Content-Specific Engine

School Culture

Every Wednesday morning at Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico, Maine, is "late-arrival" teacher workshop time. This is a valuable time when everyone is fresh to work on ways to improve the school. One session a month is devoted to a literacy initiative with the Western Maine Educational Collaborative, as previously posted. Today was focused on school culture. MVMS has an enthusiastic committee called the MVMS Improvement Committee (formerly the Student Climate and Culture group). Not only have they created some areas to focus on each month, but they provide hands-on training for staff during the professional development time. In other words, there are some strong capacity-building activities that promote implementation, not just words alone.

Today we worked on team-building, cooperative learning activities and conflict resolution skills in small groups that could be used with students during flex-time. Congratulations to the team for excellent leadership. :) Good stuff that I'm sure will make a difference! You see. . . there is a double function here . . . teachers working as a team in order to promote teamwork with students.

Lindsay MacMillan, teacher at MVMS, created a Noteshare notebook called Flex Time with many great ideas. Here is the Web Notebook version. MVMS Librarian, Amy Ryder, added the library resources available to teachers and students.

Process Skills Resources
Student Aspirations: Eight Conditions

FOSSED Attendee/Presenter now writing about education in Maine!

by David Trask

Deborah White of the Asa Adams School in Orono, Maine is now a columnist with the Bangor Daily News! She has been asked to write about issues and trends in education and how they apply to all of us. Not only that, Deb is also FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) user! Deb has been using FOSS in her own classroom for a couple years now. She wrote an excellent column on Software Freedom Day. Check out her articles....click below.

Deborah White, Bangor Daily News Columnist

Customized Search Engine

Ever want a search engine that will only search the sites you are interested in? No problem . . . just create a Google Custom Search Engine.

The search engine below was created to search just the following sites to gather content specific listings for teachers:

• eThemes
• K12 Station
• 42eXplore
• Resources for Maine Teachers
• Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

Check it out. For example, try doing a search for "simple machines." Note that the results are from the five sites listed above.

See any advantages?

Taming Email

Ever feel overwhelmed with the proliferation of email and other demands? Check this video out from Google Central. Merlin Mann of 43 Folders shares his observations and strategies on the issue.


How do you tame email?

Telstar eMINTS Groups

I just returned from Bethel where year 2 of the 1st eMINTS group has started up with our first gathering at the Crescent Park School. This group is made up of 15 diverse educators who are enthusiastic and most definitely life-long learners. I love the mix of levels and perspectives as it tends to keep us all more honest. Here's this evening's agenda. In creating web pages we stuck with free, open source Nvu . . . much to my delight. There is a "portable" version as well, which can be operated off a flash drive. Nifty. Find Nvu tutorials here.

We came up with a schedule that we could all live with for the school year and finished the evening with a little Chinese cuisine. It's a pleasure working with this delightful group of people. I'm looking forward to Telstar's 2nd group which will be starting year 1 of eMINTS Custom soon.

Twenty-First Century Skills

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” ~ Alvin Toffler

Twenty-First Century Skills seems to be all the buzz these days . . . but is anything really changing?

Maine Launches Statewide 21st Century Skills' Education Initiative
Twenty-First Century Skills Resources

Eight Conditions

The Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations has a list of 8 conditions that it argues is important in the lives of students.

"• Belonging means that a student is a valued member of a community while still maintaining his or her uniqueness.

• Heroes are people with whom a student can connect. They have a positive influence and listen to and value students’ ideas.

• Sense of Accomplishment is based on being recognized for different types of success, including hard work and being a good person.

• Fun and Excitement as a condition means students are inspired. Students are actively engaged and emotionally involved in their schoolwork.

• Curiosity and Creativity become evident when students ask “why” or “why not” about the world around them.

• Spirit of Adventure is experienced when students tackle something new without the fear of failure or pressure of success.

• Leadership and Responsibility as a condition happens when students can make decisions and accept responsibility for their actions.

• Confidence to Take Action is the extent to which students believe in themselves and are encouraged to dream about their future, while being motivated to set goals in the present." ~ Russell Quaglia

What do you think? How important are these conditions in our lives? How do these conditions relate to character education and expeditionary education?

Also check out the September 2007 issue of American Association of School Superintendents on Personalizing Schools.

Also NAESP

Operating System Debate

by Martha Thibodeau

Here I am at the Leadership Meeting for the High School deployment of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Although I should have expected it, I was surprised at the fervor with which one person broached the PC vs. Mac OS divide. Although Doug Snow tried to be diplomatic, the rest of the room lit up with tension.

Several folks talked about the fact that this is "not about the technology." Other ideas:

*Leadership will play an intregal role in setting the tone for faculty and students.
*Jigsawing the applications is a good way to introduce the different applications to staff.
*Mechanics don't use mac or windows.
*Our teachers are in such a flux now going between windows and linux that it's a good time to throw other stuff at them, too.
*There will always be Mac bigots and PC bigots.
*We have to model the ability to change.
*The students will not have a problem with the platform.
*I wish people would get over that.

For myself, I started out as a PC person, in college, doing programming. Then I started working at Lawrence, and through the help of Brian Barrows, I learned about Macs. To be honest, I am bi-platform. I will use whatever I have on hand. If I want to make a movie...I will only use my mac. Although I would rather use iWeb, now that I've discovered it, I can manage with DreamWeaver on my PC. If I want to do anything else, it doesn't really matter to me, I can adapt to the machine in front of me.

Isn't that what we really want our students to be able to do...adapt?

How

I love libraries. Always have. Today the eMINTS mentors had our monthly meeting in the ATM room at the Bangor Public Library. Both Olga LaPlante and the Bangor Public Library Blog suggested VideoJug as a place to find video How-To's. Here's How to Make Creme Brulee.

Other How-To Sites:

How Things Work
How Stuff Works
eHOW
WikiHow
RefDesk: Do-It-Yourself
ExpertVillage

Skype as a Tech Tool (or more Joys of Skype)

by David Trask

Following up on the recent post on Skype, today I had a Skype experience that was worth sharing. One of my colleagues at another school was having difficulty with getting something to work correctly with ARD. At first we tried the cellphone route, but holding on to the cellphone (even with a headset)...typing...and problems with a weak signal forced us to try another means of communication. I have a SkypeOut account with unlimited calling in the US and Canada...so I simply called his classroom phone. This worked well for a bit when we realized that it would be even easier to do a direct Skype to Skype call to his laptop. (a Macbook Pro) Talk about the ultimate speakerphone! I was able to talk him through the issue and even send some screenshots through the chat feature while we talked. Skype allowed us to bridge the miles and get some quality work done troubleshooting a computer problem. Imagine the ramifications for kids working collaboratively on a project from afar. If you haven't checked out Skype...you should! Skype.com

Character Series: Courage

"Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character." ~ Margaret Chase Smith

Question: What place does courage have in schooling?

Courage Resources

Moving On

by Olga LaPlante

I had a workshop today with middle school teachers. Two of them were from King Middle School which is an expeditionary learning school. I haven't been in it, or observed lessons, but one thing is very obvious - they are enthused. They are talking passionately about their classes - expeditions - and are quite creative. It's also possible that I was lucky to meet this particular kind of teachers by pure coincidence, but it was very encouraging anyway. You hear so many controversial things about Portland Schools. However, working with adults has proved that there are great teachers, and great things continue to happen.

So, as I said, that was middle school - with all the buzz around the high school piece, middle school initiative has lost a great deal of its novelty, and has gone to the background. Which actually may be a blessing in disguise - don't I know about that phenomenon!!! - and now middle schools who are savvy in many cases, may go on focusing on their local smaller scale professional development, and this is where the MLTI/eMINTS mentors are invaluable.

Well, thanks to Jim for sending me an invite to write here - I guess I needed a special note to start contributing! :)

Expeditionary Learning Resources

King Middle School - Kelly Fitz Science Blog

Who

“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family” ~ Virginia Satir

How do we learn to appreciate other people?

Who Resources

Diversity Resources

Resources for Writing Biographies

Biography Resources

Character Series: Responsibility

"If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders." - Abigail Van Buren

How do we develop a sense of responsibility in our children?

Responsibility Resources

ACTEM

I'm attending the ACTEM meeting this morning. For those who might for some reason know nothing about this wonderful organization, let me say that the Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine has had a powerful impact on the use of technology as a learning tool in our state. Just a couple of their services to check out:

MaineEducation Technology Conference 2007 - "Learning in a 2.0 World"
Great Deals on Software from ACTEM

Technorati Tags: ACTEM MAINEd07

From Noob to Leet

by Kern Kelley

For those follow the Learning 2.0 conference, a new Web 2.0 toy that's making the rounds is called Animoto. Basically it's a template driven video producer, you provide images and select music, then click finalize. It does this rest. The following video took me about 3 minutes from creating an account to completion. Here's a quick look.





When showing this to one of my Video Production students, he commented:

"It makes a Noob look like a Leet."

My Immigrant to Native language dictionary tells me this roughly translates to,

"A inexperienced user, (a Newbie) can quickly and easily

produce something that looks like a power user (an Elite) made it."

Some edu-bloggers like David Warlick and Wes Fyer are pretty excited about it, while others like Gary Stager lament on his blog: "Animoto lets you create meaningless PowerPoint-like slideshows without all of that pesky, editing, creativity or thinking. I won't even mention the discipline, knowledge and sense of history required of artistic expression. "

I have to agree with Gary's description, EXCEPT that it does have educational value. It raises the bar.

To recreate the effects that effortlessly appear in one of these productions in any flavor of video editor you'd like would take a substantial amount of time, but because they are so easy to create, it makes those production values into vanilla. It's like the first time you play with GarageBand. You create a song, that really sounded like a song you'd actually want to listen to in a few minutes - wow. There was magic there. Then you play it for others and they start nodding their heads and tapping feet. More magic. But soon, the more you listened to what other made, using the program, all those loop diven tracks start sounding the same. To the point where, it's cliche, and boring.

What this has done, for students is that they have to produce better stuff. Don't get me wrong, I think that GarageBand is a fantastic tool and fun way to create quick songs, but if everyone's sounds the same - it begs you to be different.

As students create content and productions like Animoto become the baseline. It makes the quality of work of those trying to stand out have to be that much better. Our expectations increase, and educationally that's not a bad thing.