Haiku Picnik

We are going to take cameras and thesaurus outside tomorrow to write haikus.  When we get back to class we will use Picnik to put it all together on our blog.  I'll post tomorrow night with an update.  I'm pumped about this one.

Basho, I am not.

Edmodo and Current Events

I am teaching grade 8 current events this year and we started with a few discussions around edtech and items from the news.  We are also using monthly news booklets from Classroom Ready.  The bulk of our time was spent in discussions about current news stories.

We had two major problems:
1. The conversation was dominated by 5-6 students and myself.
2. I had no good way to give them a mark on their conversations.

Solution:
Edmodo.  Now, I can give them article, promote discussion and then make sure everyone has a chance to respond in a non threatening way.  Some of the students are even using it to post articles and questions after hours.  Cool.

KidBlog = Nice Compromise

I was trying to start a new blog for my class this year using Blogger.  I usually use this service but I came across KidBlog and decided to give it a try.  It is a real nice balance of easy and powerful.  It also provides a nice set of tools for balancing publicity/privacy.

We are starting with some posts about "Habitats and Communities" from the new grade 4 science curriculum.  They are creating a food web for randomly generated environment. So far so good.  Check it out.

Kids 'n Cameras

Xp10
Originally uploaded by markkow

My daughter in third grade saved up her money and bought a new camera today. We are heading to West Edmonton mall on Tuesday to combine some PD and a family get away so she decided to get a waterproof camera. I think it's time that she started a Flickr account.

IT Summit 2010

I forgot I have a blog.

IT Summit really pushed me to think about how to incorporate change. We have been floundering around trying to make different things happen at our school (Inquiry, UBD, PLC, Tech, Curr. renewal, Assessment For Learning). I think despite everyones best efforts we are not making a whole lot of forward motion.

During some downtime at the conference I slapped together a flow chart of how I think we can make these things happen. It's rough. Not all the dots are connected but I think from this we could design a planning document, a self assessment tool for the teachers, time for teachers to meet with local colleagues, and technology and PD to meet with colleagues further away.

Will Richardson really outlined the need for us to prepare students for collaborating with the world and Bernajean Porter provided the H.E.A.T. to make sure that we are directing our energy towards better outcomes for students.

Thank you again to the people who organized It Summit.