How far have I come?

Attitude is Everything

Prior to this class I had a moderate to negative view to technology in education, for a two reasons. First, we don’t have the resources. We have even less resources with all of the computer-based assessments going on.

My 2nd graders on tables purchased with a Donors Choose grant.

Second, some people think that technology, like Kahn Academy, Moby Max, YouTube, etc. can replace teachers or that technology can make the profession “idiot proof.” Our school is considering purchasing yet another technology tool for reading instruction. Isn’t teaching reading my job?

After this class my attitude has softened towards technology in the classroom.

To address my first issue, we have limited resources. That said I like to look for solutions. After my class worked on thinglink I realized it was better to work with technology with small groups of students as opposed to the whole class at once. That means I only need four or five netbooks and not an entire cart. It is much easier for me to get some resources than all of them. It’s a win-win situation.

I also took matters into my own hands last year when I wrote a Donors Choose grant for five Google Nexus 7 tablets. While tablets have their limits, we definitely put them to good use.

And a computer will never replace well-trained, compassionate teachers. It is up to us to make sure we are always innovating and reaching our students; and technology can help us. If we are replaced by machines we have messed up.

To Infinity…

I still consider myself to be a fairly early adopter of technology for myself (I had a PalmPilot before wireless was a thing). This class has challenged me to do the same with use of technology with my students. I am looking forward to working on the webquest Francesco and I created so they can investigate the causes of the American Revolution. They have had so few opportunities to work with technology, but when they do they rise to the challenge.

Bag of Tricks

This class has introduced me to a bunch of new tools that I will add to my bag of tricks, including Blabberize (I am in love with that alpaca!) I also would like to use Adobe Voice, which we used with Dr. Silvers in Reading and Writing Improvement. These are great supplements or alternatives to written assignments. I also have Geocaching on my end of year bucket list; I want my students to see a real-world application of their weekly geography lessons. I am already thinking towards next year and how I can ease the students into technology in the classroom right out of the gate.

Digital Tattoos

Data mining is the politically correct word for creeping. My partner and I spent about 40 minutes looking for information on one G.W. from Silicon Valley. While we did not finding anything salacious, I feel better about keeping my Facebook profile restricted to “only friends.”  Our search did unearth interesting information, however it is all publicly available: teacher salaries, real estate records, land line numbers. It would be very very difficult for someone to remove all of this information from the web. This is also information that was always public record pre-internet, you just had to look for it at the various public offices or the White Pages. But in the immortal words of Kimberly Borwn, “ain’t nobody got time for that!”

Even if you decide to fork over cash to a site like Spokeo or Instant Checkmate they are still only mining public records. You would get much better results if you were able to search with a social security number, but none of them give you the option.

TIP: If you decide to pay one of these sites for their public records before you buy hit the back button on your browser. You will be offered a much lower trial rate.

What the internet has done is made it easier to find the information. Now you have no excuse not to check out your neighbor or love interest. 

Comic by Jelly Vampire

Unfortunately all of this information can lead us down a slippery slope. Imagine you are going to go out with someone for the first time. You decide to “Google” them first. You find out everything you need to know about them. Then you spend the great getting to know you part of the relationship pretending to be surprised and interested by everything they tell you, even though you know how they spend their vacations and that they have 35 cousins that they hang out with. I want to encourage you to take it easy on the Googling and let things unfold in the real world.

That being said, you would be silly not to check someone out, say prior to making a big commitment. I would kick myself in the behind if I had all of this information available and did not access it only to find skeletons in the closet.

Tech Tac Toe-Wordle

Wordle is so easy to use for both teachers and students and I am really excited to let my students experience it. And did I mention it is easy to use? I mean legitimately easy to use.

Take head: the best way to avoid frustration with Wordle if you are using original text is to first put your text in a word processing or notepad program and paste it into the Wordle text box. Once you create your Wordle if you decide you want to change your text you will have to enter it all again. Having it somewhere outside Wordle will alleviate a lot of frustration caused by having to reenter your text.

When you generate your Wordle it presents a random layout and color scheme. If you don’t like what it generated, it is very easy to customize your Wordle: colors, direction of the words, and fonts. You can even eliminate common words in your selected language. Just make the selections from the dropdown menus.

For my Wordle project I selected a passage about Native Americans from the unit on colonial America, copied and pasted it into Wordle and viola, students had a visual of the important vocabulary words in the text. We can then discuss the words, make a Frayer model, add them to our word wall, etcetera.

The uses for Wordle are endless! You can use it to identify important vocabulary in a text, as I did here. Students could also make a world for different parts of speech or the different types of figurative language. They could also create a Wordle that tells about them or as a gift for someone. This tool is very user friendly and could easily be used by my students independently. I actually might add a “Make a Wordle” coupon to the prize bin because Wordle is so easy to use and would require little help from me after they have been introduced to it. I can’t wait to turn my students loose with Wordle!

Tech Tac Toe-thinglink

I was easily able to set up all of my students with a free thinglink account. All I had to do was enter their names in a text box and the tool generated a list of user names (faux email addresses) and passwords. It warns you that this list will only be presented once; it gives you option to make a PDF, so I chose that option and saved it. I then printed out the list and cut it apart so I could give the information to the students.

I like to think of myself as tech savvy, but I have learned that applies exclusively to my personal use. When it comes to having my students using technology I tend to forget all about my motto “persistence” and give up. To better facilitate the students making their thinglink I worked with them in small groups of four during Daily 5 rotations. I also had a student who helped the other students log in and answer questions. The students were excited to try something new and were eager to help each other out. This proved to be a great way to work. The next time we do this I will break the students up into groups and have a trusted student work as a leader in each group.

The biggest challenge that thinglink posed for me was changing the size of the image, as you can see below. I know there must be a way to change the image size, however despite searching the thinglink FAQs I have not found it. Perhaps the image will need to be resized in another program before importing it, which would be an inconvenience, but not a deal breaker. As a teacher I can follow all of my students and make a Remix of the thinglinks they created, but I could not find a way to edit their images. I also have to have the students change their thinglinks to private, so only people with the link can view their thinglinks.

This is a great assessment tool for students, a way to introduce or summarize material, or as beginning of the year introduction activity or end of year reflection activity. The thinglinks we created were “All about me” and we will go back and edit them before the end of the year to get the students thinking about their biggest accomplishment and what they are most proud of from this year. I am excited to continue using this tool in class!

*Through our school district all students have a signed an image release.

Tech Tac Toe-Blabberize

When I saw Blabberize demoed in class I almost lost it. That talking lama/emu cracked me up! The next day I showed every teacher that stopped by my classroom Blabberize. I tried it out on my fifth grade class and they got a good chuckle too.

I used Katie the Cat to introduce the morning’s activity to the students. I wanted to try the famous following directions activity with my students, the one where there are 23 directions but if you follow the instructions and read them all first all you have to do is put your name on it. In the Blabber Katie the Cat asked the students to follow the directions on the paper on their desk-meow.

Overall the tool was easy to use. You simply have to upload a photo, draw the mouth, and record your blurb. You can record directly from your computers microphone, call it in through your cell phone or upload previously recorded audio. I wanted to disguise my voice, so I pinched my nose while I spoke. The most difficult part was drawing the mouth. I would draw the mouth, and then test it out to see how it moved and ended up getting it right after five or six tries. Part of the problem was I wanted to use an image of my Mom’s cat Katie and she did not cooperate when I tried to take her photo. She would not hold her head up, which made it hard to locate her mouth on the image.

I could see myself using Blabberize a lot in my classroom, in a funny or serious manner. It would be a good way to introduce a unit or topic or historical figures. I could also use it as an assessment tool for the students. They could record a character summary from a fiction text, information about a historical figure, a summary of a battle in the Revolutionary or Civil Wars, or even talk about themselves as a beginning of the year introduction. I am excited to try it out with them later this year.

Media Literacy in the Modern Age

I am a skeptic. If an advertisement claims to the best I immediately look for something better.

Micellar Water (Image Maire Claire)

There is a prevalent type of "journalism" called the publireportaje or publicity report. Essentially it is a paid advertisement disguised as an article. You see them here int he U.S., but it is identified by the word advertisement somewhere near the top. In Mexico this designation is rarely noted on the article. You can usually smell a publireportaje, but some folks interpret as objective journalism.

Students need to be taught to be skeptics and critical consumers of information of all types, including digital media. They must be able to identify credible sources of information from the garbage that is out there. Here is an example of critically thinking about information, about one of the industries most prone to over promising on what their products delivers, the cosmetics.

I recently read an article in Marie Claire about micellar water from France. I read it and almost immediately ran out to buy some, This was going to fix all of my skin flaws and it must work because its FRENCH! I was in the store with it in my hand. Then my inner skeptic turned on telling me to wait and do my research. A quick Google search lead me to several manufactures of the product and several recent magazine articles. The frequency of the magazine articles made me think there must be a big push by the cosmetic companies to move this stuff. It was difficult to find an objective review source. I found an article from a publication of Readers Digest Canada. Page two of the search results yielded probably the best source of information Amazon product reviews. I know that all of these people at least actually purchased the product. Although I would not encourage citing Amazon reviews as sources for expository writing, they were perfectly valid for this purpose.

This has got me thinking about ways to teach media literacy to my fifth grade students. I could show them paid advertisement disguised as article and have them research the facts and identify persuasive language used.

I would also like them to think about how consuming information makes them feel, and relate that to the creators purpose. This video from the Urban Alliance on Race Relations made me feel angry when I first watched it. I wanted to believe that you could have put a picture of a white grandma there and I would have thought she was the perp the way the video was designed. But them I thought I probably would have thought she was the victim. Your original feelings will probably change after you have had time to internalize your thinking. That's what I want for my students, for them to be critical consumers of media.

Tell me a Digital Story

I was at a loss for my digital story. I thought about sharing the story of student who lost his tooth while taking a standardized test that starts with P, but there was a lack of images and I was not up to illustrating a story. (Short version: he lost his tooth, minor bleeding, KEPT ON TAKING THE TEST. That is persistence! Winning!)I am not sure where the idea to tell my SCUBA story, but it turned out to be a great trip down memory lane, and get me fired up for my upcoming trip.

Easy Peasy

I am an avid PC user, so I opted for what was installed on my machine: Windows Movie Maker. I was surprised at how easy was to upload the images and video and even music. The tricky part was the narration. My laptop runs Windows 7, and the installed version of Movie Maker did not allow music and narration. I had to download Windows Essentials, then viola, I was back in business. Editing the narration proved to be difficult. I couldn’t figure out how to start the narration after the intro slide or how to fix mistakes in the middle of the recording. I must have re-recorded the audio ten times before being pleased with the end result.A teacher I really admire has her students 2^nd graders record readers theatre on iPads and she edits them all together to make a full length feature film. I would like to try something like that in my class, with the students doing the editing. I had no prior knowledge of Movie Maker and was able to make quick work of figuring it out (for the most part). Today’s generation should have no trouble picking it up and would probably end up teaching me how to edit the narration.

#onthefenceabouttwitterchats

I have always believed on sitting next to the smartest person in the room. When I first started taking classes at Dominican there were a couple graduates from U of C and one of Harvard. You would always find me sitting next to them. There is always someone to learn from. I wondered how I could increase my PLN to include people that are not in the physical room with me. Twitter Education Chats allow educators from around the world to interact and discuss a certain topic. I recently participated in one and am on the fence about them.

Introduce yourself. (Screen shot)

When I started using “The Twitter” for professional purposes I followed @mrkemp from #whatisschool. He has a lively network of followers and seems to share my views on education so I was interested to see what his Twitter Chat was all about, and, bonus, the topic was interesting: future classrooms.

Getting Ready

I am glad I prepared for my first chat. Turns out that the moderator of the chat I wanted to participate in posted the questions ahead of time on his blog. He also had a handy article about services you can use services to help you manage the speed of the chat. The #whatisschool chat usually has over 100 participants, so it can be tough to keep up.

Like the physical world, introduce yourself with hello and a little something about yourself. Also, answer the questions and don’t try to hijack the chat.

If you find yourself in a chat and unable to keep pace with reading the posts you can check out the transcript, posted after the fact.

Pros of my Twitter Chat

Screen shot of my first Twitter Chat

I have found some great professional educators that I can get ideas from and probably bounce ideas off of.

I realized that there are like-minded people out there that share my positivity about my profession. This was expressed by the retweeting and favoriting of my Tweets by fellow participants.

When I have time I would like to revisit the Twitter Chat, and I plan on reaching out to the new members of my PLN at #whatisschool to bounce some new ideas off them.

Blended Learning

I have found some interesting articles via Twitter, but the Twitter Chat yielded a gold mine: information on blended learning. @TriSciCurious tweeted about blended learning, along with a link to VIDEOS! It really helps me to see teaching practices in action, and this site is exactly what I need. We talk about blended lessons all of the time, but I had a hard time visualizing it my classroom, beyond using the tablet for listening to reading or practicing math facts.

Cons of my Twitter Chat

I have little time to review the resources that were presented by fellow participants. I imagine this will change when I finish my coursework.

Join my PLN and follow me @rheavallarta 

Backsliding Through the Stages of Technology

While reading about the ACOT study regarding the stages of technology I was thinking about my elementary school teacher colleagues and where they fit in. A handful of them are the ones that cannot log into websites and think AOL is the internet. They are the epitome of Stage #1, Entry. That term is misleading; entry implies you want to go inside. These people are planted firmly on the outside waiting for the “computer teacher” to teach the students.

Fluidity 

Stages are fluid. I believe that you go back and forth through them as technology evolves, whether you want to or not. Anyone who had the Window 8 OS thrown at them knows what I am talking about. One day you are feeling like a confident Stage #3, Appropriation and the next day you are back at Stage #2, Adoption.

I firmly identify with Stage #3, Adaptation, expecting that every once in a while I will slide back to Adoption. Even though I am an early adopter and avid user of all things technological for myself, implementing technology in my classroom with my students using it is a different story.

Surrender

The template we tried to use.
(New Rochelle High School)

A few months ago we set about this ambitious project of creating travel brochures for the Thirteen Colonies. I found a template the kids could use with spaces for text and pictures and made a graphic organizer to accompany it. We did internet and book research. We found images. But when push came to shove, the brochure template was hard to manage, kids were struggling with project. I was getting anxious. I did the unthinkable. I abandoned the typed up brochure for a paper and pencil creation. THE HORROR. Especially since my motto is "let them struggle."

Lesson Learned 

Looking back I would have modeled the same persistence I demand from my students. I also may not have used a Word template. I could have provided them with a rubric or checklist and left them to their own devices. They probably would have surprised me with their creativity and use of technology.

Introducing Rhea

Making History

My name is Rhea Heggaton, a fifth grade bilingual teacher in Addison School District 4. I am a career changer and this is my third year teaching. My first year in the profession was spent “making history” with Chicago Public Schools in 2012. Educators and concerned citizens may remember the CPS school strike and subsequent school closings in 2012-2013. I was a teacher at the late Peabody Elementary School, one of the 50 schools shuttered that year. Despite the obstacles presented I persevered, finding a job in my current district.

My 15-seconds of Fame (Noticias Univision, 6/15/13)

Prior Lives

Prior to becoming a teacher I was the Director of Human Resources for a small company in Evanston for five years. In search of a change I moved to Mexico from 2003-2010. Life was not all SCUBA diving and sunbathing, contrary to what my friends believe. I worked in the travel industry and was ultimately the Director of Content for one of the top three online travel agencies in Mexico.

The Path to the Present

Upon returning to Chicago in December 2010 I began working as a paraprofessional and obtained my Type 29 Transitional Bilingual Certificate. I started taking classes at Dominican University in 2012 to earn my MAT in Elementary Education along with bilingual and ELL endorsements. This is my last semester of classes!

The Best Career Ever

Despite this being a difficult job (understatement of the century) this is the first one I love. It is impossible to get bored when you are teacher, which has always been a challenge I have faced in my professional and personal lives. Even though I say I would like to teach the same grade two years in a row, I secretly like the new challenge presented by the change.

Words of Wisdom from a Newbie

Three very positive teachers. (Personal Photo)

My advice to new teachers is to find the positive teachers in your school. Avoid the negative ones like the plague. (Hint: In my experience negative ones are usually found in the teacher’s lounge.) Positive teachers will always see the bright side and make you find something to laugh about. They will commiserate with you, but they will help you find productive solutions to problems. Actually, this is good advice for any teacher no matter how long they have been in the profession.