Word Cloud

We used tagxedo.com, a word cloud creator, to create this. To create the word cloud, each participant had to choose 20 words that encapsulated their learning during this course. We compiled all the words into a Google doc and then copied and pasted them into Tagxedo. The larger, bolder words are words that showed up on the list multiple times. Word clouds can be used as an effective analysis tool to prompt deeper discussions.

Global Collaboration Via Skype

Grandview Park Baptist School teachers collaborated with Greater Lisbon Christian Academy educators to review Project CRISS strategies via Skype. This was a great opportunity for Deb Vail, my Professional Development partner, and I to model risk taking with the implementation of global collaborative teams.

We knew:
It is critical to check all connections ahead of time. We planned for this but were not able to check all ahead of the actual Skype session.
Feedback might be a problem with multiple Skype sessions going on at the same time, however, we wanted to have Lisbon Academy teachers be a part of each of our collaborative groups.

We learned:
More than one Skype call in the room does create an echo and feedback problem.
Solution - spread out and move into other rooms. We were fortunate that we had the options to do this.
Thanks to our Lisbon partners as this was a Friday, end of day afternoon session for them! Thanks for making our collaboration meaningful and for helping us to see that global collaboration can and does work! Obrigado to our friends and colleagues!

Learning About Primary Sources

The Grandview Park Baptist School staff provided their rationale for their chosen primary source. 

Learning about Primary Sources

Grandview Park Baptist School staff provide rationale for selection of a primary source.

Reflection to Dust Bowl "Rules for Dining".

Please respond to "You Ought to Be In Pictures"
This is the view from your car window.
Journal your immediate thoughts, feelings, or emotions. Write in first person.

Collaborating with Grandview Park Baptist School Staff

Friday Deb Vail and I will  have the opportunity to work with the secondary staff from Grandview Park Baptist School in Des Moines, IA. We will be revisiting the principles of Project CRISS and learning about new strategies to encourage active involvement of students. Several of the strategies will involve the opportunity to write on my blog as we study the topic of the Dust Bowl.

from: http://allthingsmundane.wordpress.com/

Staff will be synthesizing learning from a module about the Dust Bowl. They will upload an icon that encapsulates their understanding of the Dust Bowl.
Think about the elements incorporated in todays learning activities: primary source documents, multiple resources, technology integration that all fall within a Framework for Learning.  
Explain how this icon represents the Dust Bowl for you.

Partnering to Learn

I am so excited that I found a teacher who wants to learn how to use blogs to support instruction and work with me on this journey of learning together!  It will be fun to experiment with different blog formats and options to turn a plain blog (mine at the moment) into one that has many options and can support the documentation of learning for all students in a class. Thank you Teri for being willing to be my partner in learning! I can't wait to see how our PLN will grow through this experience!

Attention Deficit or Distracted Learning For The Right Reasons????

    I knew I had a problem with my attention span in high school when I came up with the brilliant plan of holding my feet up just inches from the floor everyday during Biology in order to try to pay attention in class. This quiet, almost invisible, unobtrusive "task" helped me make it through each and every day of Biology. It wasn't that I didn't like the subject matter - I actually liked science. It was the pace and lack of excitement in the day to day drudgery of listening to lecture that about drove me over the edge. Many kids used their energy in ways that were not as productive to the learning environment of the classroom. (I guarantee you my brothers were not as kind!) While I have never run across another person who was as creative as I was in holding feet up off the floor, I have certainly met too many to count who experienced the clash between lack of engagement and curriculum expectations.
    As I think about how my personal learning has ramped up over this past year I can barely count all the new ways of accessing new learning that I have experienced. I didn't wait for the content to come to me, I went out in search of it as I needed it. The learning has been amazing, yet I find myself with a new type of attention deficit. I am sure there is literature on this with a very specific label - but it is the difficulty in following through with a task because of all of the links and learning opportunities that I find on the way to my destination. Knowing how I am struggling with this lack of focus - I wonder how will we help our students through this pop up window style of learning? (Response to that topic will be a different day's blog.)

    The books, blogs, tweets, and articles that I have read, technology tools I have tried, webinars that I have listened to, technology courses I have taken, virtual conferences that I have attended, and the new professionals who have been added to my PLN are all connections that I am thrilled to have made and continue to learn from. I am so excited about my 24/7 learning opportunities that I share my new learning with anyone who is willing to listen and learn along with me.
    However, I don't want all of this to just stop as information learned. I want to apply my new learning. I am thinking of ways that I can incorporate my new skills and develop my own "classroom" with children from families that I know from across the country and world. I want to experience the fantastic learning opportunities that teachers and students alike experience in connected classrooms and schools. The multi-age virtual classroom that I envision is one that will connect children to schools and classrooms around the world. I can't wait.
    Keep reading to see if I can actually pull this off - if I don't get distracted in the next link I follow, webinar I listen to, or the next great educator that I meet along the way...........

Taking the plunge

 I have been thinking about setting up my own blog for some time. After reading many books on the subject I knew that I needed to take the plunge. I need to learn by doing. I will learn from my attempts, from my mistakes, from my successes, from feedback and from encouragement from many along the way.

Thanks to encouragement from the authors, tweeters, and bloggers that have inspired me, you are reading my first post on this site.





I want to express my thanks to the following authors:
Will Richardson's Learning on the Blog, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful WEb Tools for Classrooms,  and Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education.
First grade teacher Kathy Cassiday's Connected from the Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades.
Alan November's, Who Owns the Learning? Preparing Students for the Digital Age. 

What I have learned from reading is that I need to just do it.

I can't expect to entice the teachers or administrators that I work with if I can't speak about it from experience. I am very hopeful that my own blogging experiences will encourage others to re-imagine what learning can look like, what authentic learning and value beyond school can become. Help me to rethink a school that is not confined to classrooms, bells, schedules and a post office address. Help me to entice ALL children (including gifted) to high expectations, problem solving, challenge, and meaningful learning opportunities.  Help me to encourage and support students, teachers, and administrators so that they are willing to meet others from around the world, to learn from their experiences, to visit their communities, and to become passionate learners together.

Just do it.

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