21st Century School Teacher

Like Wikipedia--but all about things living!  "The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an ambitious project to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth." Biodiversity galore!

Another whiteboard application--set up nicely for collaboration...

"Scriblink is a free digital whiteboard that users can share online in real-time. Sorta like pen and paper, minus the dead trees, plastic, and the inconvenience of being at the same place at the same time. Scriblink is all about collaboration. Whether you're there for fun or more practical things like layout planning, concept diagramming, or tutoring a friend in math, Scriblink brings you the power of free hand expression with anyone, at anytime, anywhere in the world."

I like this one...

Like to talk?  Want to learn a new language?  Try Babbel where you can learn languages online.  If you teach a foreign language, this could be a great resource for you...

I happened upon a new application tonight--Tikatok. 

"Tikatok™ is where kids channel their imagination into stories – and publish those stories into books to share  with friends and family." 

This site provides a writer's workshop-like format so that kids can publish online...  I typically use Lulu.com  for publishing students' work, but this application guides younger students in writing and publishing their stories in a kid-like fashion.  I did not spend a significant amount of time on the site--but it looks as though probably K-4  would be the obvious audience.  If your students do not have access to a scanner, Tikatok advises you to send the pictures to them and they will do it for you...  Tikatok appears to have excellent customer service--so if you like a person on the other end helping you as you complete each project, give it a try...  The cost looks to be a bit more expensive than Lulu.com, but worth checking it out if you want a unique publishing experience for younger grades...

dabbleBoard--still in beta--is a really cool whiteboard program.  It's highly intuitive, easy to use, with some cool features! 

Want a fun and engaging way to run a group dialogue in your classroom?  Try Meebo... You can create a free chat room and embed it on your homepage or your blog... Students can access it and discuss away...

Student achievement gap exaggerated, prof claims by Scott Elliott Staff Writer--Dayton Ohio Sunday, August 31, 2008
 
Randy Hoover, a Youngstown State professor, has completed research showing that Ohio has a large poverty gap in test performance—that is regardless of race or ethnicity.  His study shows the correlation of variables like median income with test performance was “off the charts.”

"This is an extremely high correlation for social science research," he said. "I've never seen anything this high."

In fact, Hoover’s study showed that three variables were most likely to predict test performance: the percentage of single parent wage earners, the percentage of poor children, and the median family income in the district.  Should this be surprising?

Rightly so, “Hoover argues the study shows Ohio draws invalid conclusions about the quality of school districts by using tests that largely measure how poverty impacts each district.” Hmmm…shocking… (not)

“In fact, when Hoover, an education professor and former classroom teacher, looked at school district performance after controlling for "lived experience" factors, he found a different range of school district test performance — far more high poverty districts scored well and more wealthy district scored badly.”  Seems like those “poor performing” districts taking the heat for low scores should get a little more credit…

And finally… "The stakeholders reading the Ohio school report cards have no way of knowing if the schools and districts are actually advancing academic achievement."

I am ecstatic that correlations between poverty and test scores can be substantiated where no other dominant correlations exist--hello…we have a poverty gap in America between low income students and the wealthy…  Can we continue to ignore the influence of poverty on academia  while simultaneously penalizing districts for “lack of improvement” when it can be clearly demonstrated that test scores are more likely than not to be attached to the size of parent(s) pocketbook?

 

The Center for Open and Sustainable Learning published The Open Educational Resources Handbook today on Lulu.com--the first in a three-part series.  It is available for free download, or you can purchase a black and white copy for $19.99 (color is a tad more...)  "The OER Handbook is an introductory guide for educators to the Open Education movement. The handbook is arranged along the "OER Lifecycle:" Find, Compose, Adapt, Use and Share."

The handbook opens with a discussion on the definition of what OER is and why OER is important to educators, then quickly moves to an overview of copyright--the copyright paradox--and how educators can use copyright as an advantage when sharing their work...
Why find, compose, adapt, use, and share?

"OER provide freedom of access for yourself and others. Because you can freely adapt them, OER encourage pedagogical  innovation. Because OER are available free of charge, using them can lower costs to students and organizations. You and your organization may benefit from potential publicity.
When you share OER, you are contributing to the global education community.
When you share OER, you open a new method of collaborating with your students and colleagues. Your OER may be helpful to future educators..."  and so on...

The handbook establishes the beginning of the "OER lifecycle" FIND and provides educators with place to start, explaining how to marry their own work with what may already be available on the internet--including information on how to conduct creative commons searches...The handbook lists repositories, and it even explains how individuals should save files so that they are easier to share and remix...

The handbook continues through compose, adapt, use and share...
I like the idea of using OER to create innovative learning experiences for students, and I think that this handbook clearly outlines the processes involved with creating or using OER.  Definitely worth it to download and read...

We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack Up from washingtonpost.com
By Nancy Schnog Sunday, August 24, 2008; Page B01

An interesting editorial about English teachers and the teaching of literature--what students are NOT getting from their summer reading lists...  Some pertinent questions...
I too think that many novels are put on required reading lists at inappropriate grades--her point about dissecting literature is probably true, as well. 

I guess my beef has always been with programs like Accelerated Reader--where students are tested and then told what level of book they should read.  If the book that they are interested is too low or too high--forget it.  I understand the premise, that students should be reading in their zone of proximal development, but are we really sending the right message when we require kids to read certain books and give them points for reading these books from limited lists? 

Let me give an example as to why I'm a little cynical...  Last year, I wanted to bring my new class of seventh graders to the media center to explore the shelves and find some good books to check out.  After briefing students on my expectations--blank stares...  "What is it?" I asked... "Mrs. W, how can we check out a book if we don't know our AR reading level?"  Um...I'm thinking...you've got to be kidding me! 

"A book isn't available to you unless it is at your reading level" is the message the students learned the year prior. I see that not all books are appropriate reads for all kids--but if a kid is having a hard time finding the right selection, isn't that what the librarian or teacher is for, not some score based on a 5 minute vocabulary test?  And really, the 5 rule (or whatever it's called) seems to work great...  If there are 5 or more words on a page that you don't understand, possibly the book is too hard. 

I don't know about you, but I've probably stopped reading as many books as I've completed--that's called knowing when the effort is no longer worth it to you.  No wonder so many kids haven't found the joy in reading a good book, when we don't allow kids to explore, test, practice, and enjoy what speaks to them...

And programs like these really stink for the high scoring AR readers.  Several of my students scored at the 12 and 13 level (Okay, to me that doesn't even make sense--clearly these 7th grade kids do not have the schema or background knowledge to read texts that are written for an adult audience...)  There are like three books in the middle school library that these high level readers can choose from... 

And now that they know their AR score, how do they pick a book to read in a public library, or a book store for that matter?  How do they find a book without it's AR ranking printed boldly on the spine?

I think that when they rank these books, they count the words on a page, words per sentence, and letters per work and then based on this, an reading level score is tabulated.  Some wonderful books with content that is age appropriate is overlooked by kids because it scores too low based on some calculation algorithm--that doesn't take into account many other variables like theme, age of the protagonist, etc.

My suggestion for librarians, teachers, districts, whoever--is to help kids choose the right books by reading them first.  Okay, you can't read them all, but all teachers should have a list of books that they can recommend that are appropriate in content and reading level for a variety variables: reading ability, gender,  age , etc.

Wow--now that was a tangent!  

What I think is book selection for teaching reading and teaching literature in the 21st century should include both classical texts and contemporary--fiction and nonfiction--multicultural texts, and texts that are self-selected by the kids.  Teachers should have choice when selecting novels for instruction--every class is different, and the unique needs of a classroom community should also be taken into account when choosing a book for whole-class instruction.  

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Students get paid to attend school  August 23, 2008
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Not long after Michelle Rhee took over as head of the Washington, D.C., public schools a year ago, she announced a plan to shut down almost two...
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The morning began with the buoyant spirit of a pep rally -- all cheers, prizes and inspirational words from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and other...
DC Mayor Promises School Will Open On Schedule  August 22, 2008
Nearly every construction job seems to take longer than expected. But with DC youngsters expected back in class on Monday, some city officials have...
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