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.