Message in a bottle - castaway

Message in a bottle - castaway
Originally uploaded by alles-schlumpf
message

Mouth

Mouth
Originally uploaded by Phil Dragash

Always Learning and Sharing

cc licensed flickr photo shared by cheryloakes50

I am always learning and sharing. Recently, in my Images4Education online class that I am a co-moderator for, I learned this little short-cut for attribution of photos from FlickR. The short-cut is from Alan Levine and his website cogdog . I can't wait to share this with  my students and staff. So, be sure that you share your photos at FlickR as creative commons!

k12onlineconference.org is Everywhere!

What are you doing the next couple of weeks? How about joining, for FREE, the k12onlineconference.org . If you haven't participated in the k12onlineconference in the past from 2006, 2007, 2008 and now this year 2009, don't worry, you can pick up with this year and still participate in the sessions from 2006 since everything has been archived and believe it or not, it is all still very timely!
If you are thinking that the timing is wrong, you are remembering correctly, the k12online conference used to be in October. But the conveners thought to shake things up and in a global manner has provided the k12online confernce at a time when some of our closest educators are finishing term and going on vacation and have plenty of time to joining in the conference.

Last week I was lucky enough and caught up with a fireside chat with Keynote Kim Cofino. It was amazing to listen to Kim's keynote and then to have her available to ask questions or get more clarity about her presentation. Now where else can you get that kind of connection from a face to face workshop? The best thing about it, was there were over 120 of us in a chat room asking questions of Kim and each other. That fireside chat and text is available at http://tinyurl.com/yfcwt9w
Take time and head over to k12onlineconference.org and check out the schedule.
Add k12online to your twitter, your facebook and join the k12online ning.

Hope to see you at the next fireside chat! Oh, did I say this is all FREE? Well it is.

Resources:

You can follow @Twitter k12online

You can follow on Facebook k12onlineconference

You can follow @ the Ning k12online.ning.com

Cross-posted at cheryloakes.com

Join me @MathPlayground

Sometimes an educator comes along whom you have the privilege of meeting and having a conversation, and she has a huge impact on your thinking. Last Thursday evening  at Seedlings, 
excuse the shameless promotion, Alice, Bob and  Cheryl, interviewed Colleen King, an entrepreneur from MA.     She would prefer to be known as a math teacher. Colleen is very humble as a businesswoman and very impassioned as a math teacher!  (Here is the audio of our interview.)
As educators we are always looking for ways to instill a love of learning to our students. In my opinion, textbook companies, state education organizations, national and international standards provides us with the scope and sequence which sets the road map. Then assessments are supposed to provide the checks and balances which indicate how we as teachers, schools, states and nations are performing. We compare ourselves to others and constantly revise and make improvements to what and how we are teaching. We deliver content, we ask students to practice for fluency and achievement improvements and then we move on. At that point most of us consider our job is done, it is up to the students to hold onto the information and then deliver it at the appropriate time. This is where Colleen King differs in her beliefs and delivery.

We have long known that play is the important work of childhood. I would also recommend that is important to adulthood too, but that is another story.You can gain more information by researching the old guys, Piaget and Vygotsky,  and the new guys, Mitch  Resnick  and  Daniel Pink. Here is an interview by Alan November with Daniel Pink.  We know that when children and students play with concepts they internalize their learning and are better able to demonstrate their knowledge across many platforms, problems and solutions. We know students need to reflect and create in order to own their learning. We usually say we don't have time for this allotment of practice and play. However, Colleen found a way. She asked students about gaming, she asked students about motivation and engagement. While it is very important to read, listen and understand how play should be incrementally woven into our classrooms and our thinking,  Colleen King demonstrates this applied thinking to math in unusual and engaging ways for our students. Colleen tutored students and observed, she listened to students and then she went on a crash course and learned programming to bring this to life.


Please check out her website MathPlaygound.com  to get started. I started with the Fraction Balance,  and moved to the suggested Fraction-Decimal and finally the  Fraction-Percent. When we think about students internalizing fractions, fractions and decimals and finally fractions and percents, we plan good instruction and then give many practice examples and hope that the students understand enough that they will be able to solve problems they eventually encounter in real life and on assessments. Colleen has done an excellent job of bridging the math instruction to math play with gaming, which our students live for. By making games for instructional practice and play, Colleen has provided a way for students to engage in the important work of playing with math tools and rules. As stated on the website, MathPlayground.com  "is for elementary and middle school students".  However, I contend that many teachers and adults would enjoy the challenges and reminders about how to systematically solve problems and play at math.
As soon as Colleen made this available to students she began seeing how students were using the new tools. Then students modeled her presentation videos and they began filming their problem solving strategies. This is what we want, our students to model, and create. These students are extending their learning and following in Colleen's footsteps of living life as a life-long problem solver and learner.You will see from the videos the students made about solving math problems that they have internalized the process enough to begin creating and teaching, just what we want.
I am glad to be sharing this site with you. I shared MathPlayground.com today on my Facebook account and within an hour I received a comment from Katie: " I had no idea about thinking blocks! Now my plans are set for tomorrow! :) Have a good holiday!" Please share MathPlayground.com with your students, their parents, and your friends. Spread the word that it is Math Playtime!
This is part one of a two part series between Cheryl Oakes , Tuesday and Bob Sprankle, Thursday. Give us some feedback and let us know what you think about MathPlayground.com and more!

When was the last time you watched someone teach a digital learner?

Cross-posted at techlearning.com
Watching a digital learner last week while someone else was teaching was a real treat.

I watched Deb Barrows, a Mission Sales Specialist for Fablevision, and former
technology teacher,
teach Sarah Fryer, who is famous for her youtube response to President Obama's
talk with students, how
to use Animation-ish. Animation-ish is a product produced and sold by
Fablevision, a company dedicated to all learners developing their true
potential.

Just as you would create a multi-page comic, a flipbook, you follow the
same idea with Animation-ish. It is similar to creating a storyboard.
It was the tool as much as the process that intrigued me. We were at
the Maine Technology Conference ACTEM, where we heard
Marcos Torres talk about using the resources of youth and media to
learn with our youth. Animation-ish is one tool that I would classify as a current resource our youth will embrace.

Let me take you back to the vendor area at the conference. Deb demonstrated how to use the software to create
a mini story. Sarah watched intently and followed the model and created
a mini-story. Then Deb created a new story at a different level and
Sarah immediately created another story. You can see an example of
Sarah's final creation for the day. Deb commented that, "What I really
loved was watching Sarah use the interactive white board
like a pro! You could actually see her thinking when she was creating
and making choices. It was so cool." Lori Collins, Professional
Development Director for Fablevision, was at the booth and her demonstrations focused
on the options Sarah had with Animation-ish. Both Deb and Lori are
expert teachers and they know how to engage digital learners.Watching Sarah, I was reminded of looking at this moment through the eyes of a
digital learner. How shall we teach differently for our different
learners?
Sarah watched while Deb demonstrated. There were no words
exchanged as Sarah drank this all in with her eyes. I watched as she
observed for a few minutes while Deb modeled, then I saw her use her
skills and create her own story. Lori picked out a couple of the
important transitions and demonstrated them to Sarah. Sarah instantly
transformed the the software and the experience into her own creation.
She did not need the steps laid out for her, she did not need a
worksheet to follow along, she viewed a model, created an attempt,
erased, started again, and within 15 minutes she created her own story.
There was no tentativeness, only trial and error, an attempt at an
idea, an assessment, another attempt and then a brief reflection and
satisfaction.


Do we need new tools for new learning?
Animation-ish allowed for a story to be told and created. We all have a
story to be told and shared. If we think back to all of the cultures
before the written word was the norm, the history and culture were
shared through oral traditions. Today our learners are visual, our
teaching should be visual, our stories should be visual. We may not be
very sophisticated with our initial attempts at visual story telling,
but our visual stories will be powerful.

Other resources:
Sarah's cooking video Black Bean Dip.
Sarah and Animation-ish You can view a short movie of Sarah using Animation-ish.
ACTEM, Maine Technology Conference

Just funny!