professional development – Page 15

Do You Want to Form an Alliance With Me? (Take 2)

May 3, 2010May 3, 2010Kelly Tenkely21 Comments5464 views

In March, I posed the following question: Do You Want to Form an Alliance With Me? I asked educators around the world to join me in an exercise of blogging, commenting, and encouraging other blogging educators. The response was amazing. 74 educators signed up to be a part of the alliance. We committed to commenting on each other’s posts, following each other on Twitter, and encouraging one another in teaching and learning. In the past two months I have grown immeasurably as a result of the alliance. I have been introduced to exceptional resources, forward thinking teachers, new friendships, an incredible support system, and had the opportunity to peek inside of classrooms around the world. I believe that those involved in the alliance have been equally inspired. I asked the members of the current alliance to weigh in with their impressions of the alliance. We compiled the answers on the following Wallwisher (click to enlarge).

I have had many requests for an expansion of the Educator Blogging Alliance, today I am opening the alliance to other interested educators. Before you fill out the form to join, I would ask that you read my original post about the alliance here.

Here is a snip from the original post:

“The Alliance…

After reading the alliance article an idea began to take shape. What if we, educational bloggers, were to form an alliance. No need for the secrecy. This alliance would be a group of educational bloggers who are committed to working together for the mutual benefit of all the members in the alliance. We all have something valuable to add to the conversation of education and learning. Each of us has a unique voice, outlook, approach, skills, strengths, and focuses.

The goal of the alliance is two fold:

1. To encourage educators in their blogging endeavors whether they be new, established, or otherwise. There are so many valuable additions to the conversation that are being overlooked.

2. To create a united network of educators working toward the larger goal of being heard by those not in education. It is time for the general public to see us for the highly qualified professionals that we are.

How the Alliance could work…

1. Commenting on each others blogs– in the Problogger article, those in the alliance committed to commenting on each others blogs at least once every week day. The comments should stimulate interesting discussions, and encourage those involved that someone, is indeed, reading their blog.

2. Linking to One Another- This could be linking to related posts on another educational bloggers website, adding them to your blog roll, or naturally as a result of subscribing to one another’s blogs.

3. Social Bookmarking and Tweeting- This is my personal favorite suggestion, Twitter has done wonders for iLearn Technology as my PLN passes on my posts to others. Promoting posts on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon increases awareness of what educators around the world are doing that works. It also connects those new to educational blogging.

4. Guest Posts- Guest posting could be an opt-in option for the alliance. I know that it isn’t always possible to find time to write a blog post for your blog, let alone polish it enough for someone else’s blog.

5. Thank You Page Promotions- When someone signs up to receive your RSS feed, they are generally taken to a page thanking them for subscribing. This Thank You Page could also be used to promote other education blogs. For example: “If you like iLearn Technology, you should also be sure to check out blog A, B, C, and D.”

I hope you will join us in this undertaking, I believe that when educators work together, we become an unstoppable force for change. I am putting a time limit on the enrollment so that we can get a good group together that is committed to supporting and encouraging one another. If you would like to join us, please do so before May 21, 2010. I will organize the group and have us up and running by May 28, 2010. So, do you want to form an alliance with me? If you are in, please fill out the following form (inactive after May 21st).

Web 2.0 & Connectivist Learning Open Course

April 29, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3808 views

One of my edublogger alliance friends, Carl Anderson, is starting a new venture that we can all benefit from, an open course through Hamline University that is set to begin May 28th title, Web 2.0 & Connectivist Learning. The idea behind the open course is to take all the great learning that happens online through personal learning networks (informally) and fitting them into the framework of schools, college and universities? This open course is the answer.

Last fall, Carl wrote a post that posed the following question:

“So, at the very least, here is the rub: Why is it that I can get 1 continuing ed credit for sitting in an hour-long presentation by an obviously biased corporately-employed presenter and not engage myself meaningfully in the topic at hand but for an hour of reading and meaningful career related reflection in my PLN I get nothing institutionally recognized?”

If you are interested in this amazing offer, please fill out this form so that Carl can estimate how many online seats are needed.

Venture into Student Blogging Risk Free!

April 29, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3292 views

My edublogger alliance friend Christopher Rogers at EdTech Swami has made an incredible offer:

“If you have students interested in blogging but for whatever reason have not set one up, or perhaps the prospect of administering a student blog seemed over whelming I have a deal for you. I already have a blog set up and running. I have quit a bit of experience blogging personally and with students. I have hard core spam protection set up. I will administer, moderate and commentate on the posts. If you have students interested in blogging they are welcome to join my students (who are desperate for other writers to interact with). Registration is open. All high school students are welcome. Just direct your browser to this address and click register. http://www.rogersenglish9.com/studentvoice”

If you have high school students who are interested in blogging, but you aren’t ready or can’t go there on you own, take Christopher up on this incredibly generous offer. Give your students access to an incredible teacher and resource for growth in writing and higher-order thinking.

Webspiration Wednesday

April 14, 2010Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4337 views

I learned about Guy Doud in one of my education courses in college. We listened to a tape of a keynote speech he gave and read his book as part of the course. Guy Doud was the Teacher of the Year in 1986. He is an inspiration in education, even today. I had the privileged of presenting at a conference where Guy was the Keynote speaker. He is still an incredible voice in education.

Unfortunately I can’t offer you a full view of Guy’s speech (I have it on DVD only), but this clip should give you a look into this teacher of the year, and will, perhaps, encourage you to pick up his book: Guy Doud Molder of Dreams.

Guy Doud speaks about the focus of education: children. When we get right down to it, isn’t that what we are all in this for? He talks about the challenges that children face before they even step foot in a classroom. He speaks to fostering the heart of children before we try to foster learning. A child who is being abused, is hungry, is grieving the loss of a parent, has failed at life, really isn’t interested on your perfectly tuned lessons on superlative adjectives. Whether we like it or not, we are in the heart business. Teachers are called to be all things to the hurting kids who walk through our door. Sometimes we play nurse, other times counselor, and sometimes even social worker. Guy has an incredible rapport with his students and each of them leave his classroom knowing that they are important, that they matter, that they aren’t failures. Watching Guy renews my spirit and gives me the inspiration to love those students who are hard to love. To remember to get down on their level. Many of our students have already been convinced that they are failures. It is up to us to be their cheerleaders and let them know that they are uniquely gifted for a special purpose. Our job is not just to teach and grow learners, our job is to assure students that they matter.

Webspiration Wednesday

March 31, 2010April 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely9 Comments3452 views

I’ll be honest, today’s Webspiration Wednesday was a flop. I wanted to introduce teachers to Daniel Pink’s a Whole New Mind and did a quick video search to see what I could find. I came up with an interview that Oprah did with Daniel Pink about his book. It would have been great if Oprah wouldn’t have opened her mouth. I think she mentioned that she donated 4,500 books to Stanford grads no less than 50 times. The interview wasn’t great, Oprah didn’t focus enough on the book, she was leading the questions to get the answers that she wanted. A flop. On the upside, teachers got enough of a glimpse into the book that they were left wanting to read it. So even though the video was a flop, the inspiration was still there. Our local library offers digital downloads and A Whole New Mind is one of the audio books available for download. My hope is that the staff will listen to it and think about how it relates to our classrooms and education. Daniel Pink has a discussion guide for educators that is free to download on his website. In the next few weeks, I hope to show Daniel Pink’s TED Talk on his newest book Drive (also excellent).

In A Whole New Mind, Pink asks us to consider the world that we are living in. He calls the age we find ourselves in the Conceptual age. In this age, many left brain jobs are disappearing. If a computer can do it faster, someone overseas can do it cheaper, or what you are offering isn’t in demand in this age of abundance, the job will become obsolete. So then, creativity becomes the competitive difference that can differentiate commodities. Pink outlines six essential senses that need to be developed:

Design – Moving beyond function to engage the senses.
Story – Narrative added to products and services.
Symphony – Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
Empathy – Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
Play – Bringing humor and lightheartedness to business and products.
Meaning – the purpose is the journey, give meaning to life from inside yourself.

As an educator, I am interested in how we can help our students develop these senses so that they can be prepared for the world ahead of them. Here is a clue: it has nothing to do with standardized testing!

Have you read A Whole New Mind? What take aways do you have for us?

If you haven’t read A Whole New Mind, I highly recommend it.

Webspiration Wednesday: Stuart Brown says play is more fun

March 24, 2010March 24, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4350 views

A few weeks ago, I instituted Webspiration Wednesday at CHC. To find out what exactly Webspiration Wednesday is, check out my original post here.

Continuing the play theme from last week’s Webspiration Wednesday, this is Stuart Brown’s take on the importance of play.

TED Talk “Stuart Brown says play is more fun”

Stuart Brown suggests that play is much more than just being a fun and joyful experience, it is intricately connected with intelligence. So, why then, do we feel the need to strip it from education? If play is such an important piece of learning and intelligence, then we should be taking every opportunity to connect learning with play. Students should enter our classrooms every day, not with a sense of dread, but with a sense of adventure and excitement at what acts of play will happen there. Play doesn’t have to stop in the early childhood classroom, play can, and should, continue into adulthood. As Stuart rightly points out, play is necessary at every point in our lives. It offers opportunities to experiment, and grow, and find new solutions. Companies like Google and Pixar are keying into the necessity of play and if the work that comes out of those companies is any indication, play works.

How do you introduce opportunities for play into your classroom? If you have a great story of play, I would love to post it on my other blog, Stories of Learning.

Webspiration Wednesday

March 10, 2010Kelly Tenkely14 Comments5205 views

Today I instituted Webspiration Wednesday at my school. I have noticed over the years that second semester seems to be lacking motivation and morale January through March. Maybe it is because winter is STILL dragging on, maybe it is because it feels like a long stretch before spring break, or maybe it is because the complaints of the year are really settling in. I have noticed this phenomenon in all the schools I have been in. During last weeks #edchat on Twitter, I learned that low morale is a common problem that most schools face. As we talked about ways to boost morale, I thought about the ways that my amazing PLN boosts my morale every day. They encourage me, give me new ideas, and reignite my passion with the great links they share. I wanted to bring some of that to my school. I wanted teachers to have a chance to laugh together, and enjoy each others company, and get away from the teachers lounge which can end up being a place to gripe about everything that has gone wrong that morning.

Last night, in a moment of divine inspiration, I decided that it was high time for Webspiration Wednesday. So, this morning I sent out invitations to the entire staff to join me for Webspiration Wednesday lunch in the library. Teachers trickled into the library, lunches in toe, and we sat down and watched a TED Talk together. I chose “Sir Ken Robinson Says That Schools Kill Creativity”. It was a great Ted Talk to start Webspiration Wednesday with, not only is Sir Ken Robinson inspiring, he also has a great sense of humor. He had us laughing together (which as it turns out is a great stress reliever) and thinking about school and our students in new ways. After the video had ended a spontaneous and lively discussion ensued about those kids that we have in our classrooms that we are stifling. We offered each other ideas for giving them room to be creative. It was fantastic. We all left are short 25 min. lunch feeling refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day. I wonder if the students noticed a difference in teacher attitudes after lunch? I plan to hold Webspiration Wednesday every week and have asked my PLN on Twitter to join in using the hash tag #webspirationwednesday if they come across inspiring articles, videos, lessons, stories, etc.

Now a disclaimer, I did not ask permission to start Webspiration Wednesday. I just did it. Sometimes I think it is better to ask forgiveness (if need be) than to ask permission. In our #edchat discussion, we talked about who should have the responsibility to boost morale in a school. My answer was everyone has that responsibility. I decided to take my own challenge and be the one who tried something new, something different. Will you be that person at your school? What boosts your morale? What have you seen work well in the school setting?

Below is the TED Talk that we watched together, I believe you will find it inspiring.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, my PLN (Personal Learning Network) on Twitter has been a great source of joy, encouragement, and friendship. I have never met 98% of my PLN in person, and yet they are always there for me, cheering me on and offering suggestions when I fail. If you haven’t made the leap into the world of Twitter, I highly recommend it. If you are looking for a top notch group of educators to follow, may I suggest the Edublogger Alliance group? Once you are on Twitter, be sure to join in on #edchat. There are two #edchat conversations that take place every Tuesday. I can feel myself getting smarter as I learn from the BEST educators in the world every Tuesday. Just follow the hash tag #edchat and be sure to add it to the end of your Twitter messages to participate. I can promise that you won’t be disappointed.

If I am speaking Greek to you, take a look at @shellterrell’s posts about #edchat and PLN’s. She will have you joining in the conversation and fun in no time!

Amazing Race Staff Meeting

March 8, 2010Kelly Tenkely18 Comments6629 views

Staff meetings are generally very dry affairs. Often they become reiterations of the email memos that have been sent out. In an effort to make our staff meetings more worthwhile experiences, I suggested that we use our March staff meeting to show teachers a different way of learning. I didn’t just want to tell teachers about the benefits of constructivist learning, I wanted them to experience the benefits first hand. I proposed holding an Amazing Race competition with our staff. We would split the staff into teams, give them tasks, clues, detours, and road blocks. The first team to complete the tasks would receive a “sweet million” (a King sized Hershey bar with a Starbucks gift card attached).

Tasks: These were things that the team had to do together. For example one of our tasks was to count all of the biographies in the library, and subtract the sum of biographies that were less than 100 pages. (Our 3rd grade students are required to read biographies that are more than 100 pages, the idea was to get teachers looking through the biographies, realizing the small number of appropriate biographies that meet their requirements). Some of our other tasks included, stopping somewhere in the building and taking a silly team picture with a camera stationed there, searching United Streaming for an Animal Cracker (idioms) video, filling out a Google Form that asked questions about previous tasks, and using search tricks in Google.

Clues: These pointed the teams to the next task. We had route markers throughout the rooms and halls to point the way.

Detour Clue: These are random tasks. Example: Find a maintenance form, substitute form, and reimbursement form and write who should receive each at the top of the form.

Road Block: These are completed by only one member of the team. For example: jump rope and have a teammate take a picture.

We started our Amazing Race Staff Meeting by giving each team colored bandannas, a school map, a bottle of water, pen, and notebook. Before the race began, we watched a CHC Amazing Race video. Our teams were off, teachers were running down the hallway and shouting directions to each other. They were working, learning, and having fun together.

You can see our Amazing Race video and Google form here.

The meeting was a huge success. Morale was boosted, staff bonds were strengthened, and teachers participated in a different kind of learning. It was fun! I had NO idea how competitive our staff is.

What creative staff meetings have you been a part of? What kinds of staff meetings do you find most useful?

Crocodoc

March 8, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3598 views

What it is: Crocodoc is a new online tool that is quickly becoming a go-to application in my technology toolbox. Crocodoc lets you easily share and review documents online including pdfs, Word documents, and PowerPoint slides.

It is as easy as 1-2-3

1. Upload the document from your computer or a URL (no registration required!).

2. Mark up the document using the built in highlighter, sticky notes, strike out, and text.

3. Share the unique URL of your Crocodoc with others.

This is an easy way to collaborate on projects, edit student work, and critique written works. Since Crocodoc was released last week, I have used it to share numerous documents with my students, edit a technology grant, send a lesson plans to teachers with notes about how to use them, and added my suggestions to a PowerPoint presentation. It is SO easy to use, and since it doesn’t require registration, it is perfect for the classroom.

How to integrate Crocodoc into the classroom: Crocodoc is sure to become a favorite in the classroom setting. Students can submit their work to you using Crocodoc. You can add notes, highlight, and edit the document and “send” the revisions back to the students. Share documents with your colleagues using Crocodoc, this is an easy way to collaborate on lesson plans, educational articles, and presentations. Students can use Crocodoc to collaborate on group projects. It is simple to go back and forth on a document adding notes, text suggestions, highlight, and strikeout. Many free e-books can be viewed as PDF files, upload the e-book to Crocodoc and share the URL with students. Students can highlight and add virtual sticky notes to the text as they read. If you teach using PowerPoint slides, upload the presenations to Crocodoc to share with students who were absent. The absent student can review the presentation, add notes, and type questions that they may have about the learning.

Tips: Crocodoc is free to use, there is no registration or sign up required. Each document is stored securely and given a unique URL that you choose to share. Crocodoc also offers premium pro accounts for documents that need to be password protected, priority tech support, and searchable document histories. The paid option has some nice features, but the free option should handle everything that students and teachers need it to.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Crocodoc in your classroom.

Blogging Alliance-Essential Educational Blogs

February 1, 2010February 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely42 Comments6095 views

Just about a month ago, I proposed the idea of a blogging alliance between educational bloggers. The response has been incredible. To date there are 73 educators involved from around the world. In this month of reading and commenting I have learned a great deal from these amazing men and women, I have built new friendships, and started new conversations. It has truly been an incredible experience to have educators, passionate about learning, coming together to support each other. If you are looking for some excellent educational blogs, may I recommend those in our alliance? By clicking this link, you will be offered the opportunity to subscribe to the “bundle” of blogs in Google Reader. All of the work has been done, all you have to do is subscribe! Join us in this journey of learning, exploring, and sharing. The blogs range in topics and focus from k-12 and higher ed. Even though I teach in the elementary school, I have found the blogs geared toward middle, high school and higher ed to be fantastic. I learn something new every day.

A few of the blogs are in Spanish or Portuguese, don’t let this stop you from reading them. Google Reader makes it simple to translate a blog to your language with the click of a button. As you are reading the blog, simply click on the “Feed Settings” button above the post and choose “translate to my language”. That is it! Even if you view the original blog to add a comment, Google Translate keeps the blog translated for you. How cool is that?! There really are no boundaries to learning any more.