It's Too Late to Turn Back Now

I've really grown as a tech-savvy teacher this semester! Thanks to Bill, Sara Kajder, Troy Hicks, my fellow teachers, and all the others who have contributed to what I've been able to learn this semester. I can't wait to do even more. This has been a great course!

Will the Real Mrs. Atkinson Please Stand Up?

I have long thought that I have multiple personalities. Teaching five different courses sometimes requires five very different teachers, and sometimes I do things and do not remember that I have done them; other times I just forget to do things. The former was the case with my Voicethread. When I tried to create an account, Voicethread told me that my email account was already in use. I thought, "Wow, that was easy!" But then I got nervous because I couldn't remember when I created a Voicethread account, and that was kind of scary. (I'm thinking I did this the day we met with Sara Kadjer, but I'm not sure.)

So I logged in to my previously created Voicethread account, and you can imagine my surprise when I learned not only had I already created a Voicethread account, but I had also uploaded a picture. Then, I got really scared because I HAVE NO MEMORY OF DOING THIS!!

Once I got over the initial shock that one of my many personalities had taken control of my Voicethread without my knowledge, I watched a quick Voicethread tutorial. It was quick and easy. See below.



After watching this video, I was able to participate in our class conversation on Troy Hicks' book, The Digital Writing Workshop.

I also went to youtube to look for other videos on Voicethread, and there are TONS of great video tutorials for Voicethread. I found one at school today, but I got sidetracked and clicked off of the page. I tried to find it again, but I couldn't get back to it. But here is another good tutorial if you like a longer than one minute tutorial to get you started.



And evidentally, it's really easy to create your own Voicethread posts. I was browsing around in Voicethread this afternoon and discovered that I had also created my own Voicethread with pictures from the snow we had earlier this year.



I'm still not sure which Mrs. Atkinson did all of this, but I'm glad she did. If it was easy enough for her, I'm sure it's easy enough for anyone else. I'm excited about trying it in the classroom. Hope those of you in the blog world have as much success as one of the Mrs. Atkinson's did. Now, will the real Mrs. Atkinson please stand up?

Diigo Dilemma

Friday, we were asked to review an article for class using Diigo. We were given the opportunity to use Diigo's highlighting tools and sticky note features to participate in a critical reading of the article "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age" by George Siemens.

As my English 101 students were also participating in a critical reading activity with their research articles, I was able to gain some feedback from my students about using Diigo in class.

Here is what we learned:
1. My students felt that a shared article provided a level of confusion which made them very uncomfortable. They felt, and I agreed, that reading something that someone else had previously highlighted and annotated made it difficult to read for themselves. We all wanted to read only what had been previously highlighted. I was distracted by the sticky notes as well, especially when you couldn't physically lift the sticky to read the text underneath.
2. The issue above is irrelevant when the article is saved to your individual library. If we were using this process for individual research, the highlighting, comments, and sticky notes of others would not interfere with our reading. This is a plus.
3. On another positive note, I discovered through research of my own this weekend that you can add articles from EBSCOhost to your Diigo library. However, I have not yet tried this with DISCUS or WebFeat. As a result, this is something I could possibly incorporate into my English 101 courses next fall. I could probably begin using Diigo with my English IV courses in a couple of weeks, but I may need to do more evaluation of the product first.
4. The downside to number three is that you cannot highlight or add sticky notes to the pdf text of an article. At least this was the case for the article with which I was experimenting. I have provided a link to the screencast of that article below.

http://www.screencast.com/t/NDZjYzVk

Please note the use of highlighting and sticky notes in the blue header above the article. The highlighting features and sticky notes would not work in the pdf version of the text. I could highlight; however, as soon as I clicked on a new sentence to highlight, the previous highlighting would disappear.

Concluding Thoughts:
I can certainly see the relevance of using Diigo in the classroom. I think it has great features, and I think it conserves paper. However, my 101 students would still have to provide a printed version of their sources when they submit final drafts because our college partner requires that those be submitted. Also, I think not being able to highlight or annotate a pdf version of a text could be a major drawback to using Diigo with my students. I do not want them to have to print some copies of their research in order to annotate and have others stored in Diigo. That would be a disaster waiting to happen when it comes time to create works cited pages and include internal citations, quotes, and paraphrases in the paper.

I would love to hear feedback from others. Has anyone tried using Diigo with their students? What other positive experiences have you had? Have you had any other negative issues that I could side-step?

Spring Break Blues

First, I want to say that I was thankful the Monday holiday after a much needed Spring Break week. I feel more rested, revived, and caught up on my personal reading after that wonderful week. However, I do not think many of my students have returned from Spring Break. Sure, they are here physically, but sadly, they are not here mentally. For example, my English 101 students are now involved in the "make or break" section of the course and are working on their argumentative research papers. Tuesday I was excited because most of them came back from Spring Break with the required number of articles for their papers; to my disappointment today, however, most of them have not taken the time to actually read and interact with the texts.

Since we began the process of collecting sources, I have been teaching my students critical reading strategies like checking for understanding and clarifying and summarizing in conjunction with articles which explain the importance and components of argument and how to write successful introductory paragraphs. After using these articles to teach the critical reading strategies, I've given students class time to begin applying the strategy to their own collection of articles. So this morning, you can imagine my surprise when my students could not construct their thesis statements because they had not read the articles they had been collecting. I was so frustrated.

To monitor and adjust, I allowed students to spend another class period interacting with the research articles they have collected, and most are on task, either marking the texts or refining their searches. When we meet again, students will be held accountable for producing evidence that they have read and understand the articles they have collected. Then, we will try again to write thesis statements and introductory paragraphs.

I know that I love Spring Break, or any holiday for that matter, but I have to be prepared to come back to work and am held accountable for my responsibility. It would be nice if the kids did the same. Here's hoping that next week the Spring Break mentality will have worn off...

Wiki What???

My Creative Writing class wanted to write a class story. Here is what ensued...

Last week, I asked about using an etherpad with my Creative Writing students. After our classes on Friday evening and Saturday, I learned that there are some security issues related to etherpad that we may not want to get into with our students, and I was encouraged to try a wiki instead. I thought, "Okay, I can do that." While we were discussing the issues with etherpad, I remembered that our teacher webpages had a feature that would enable us to add a wiki page to our class website. Since this is where my kids blog, I thought this would be feasible and safe for the students. So Friday evening, excited that I had found an alternative to etherpad, I added a wiki page to my Creative Writing website.

Monday, my kids came to Creative Writing excited for workshop. We finished most of the pieces during that particular class period because they were even more excited about having the opportunity to begin writing a class story on Wednesday. Wednesday rolled around, and we finished workshop with plenty of time to spare for using the wiki to begin the class story. Each student logged in to a laptop. They were going to work on workshop revisions and the class story at the same time. (I love my little multi-taskers...)But low and behold, they did not have access to the wiki page. I was the only person who could make changes to the wiki. Will someone please tell me, what good is a wiki page only one person can access? I mean, because I teach six different classes, I am known to be more than one person on any given day, but I'm just saying...

"Monitor and adjust, monitor and adjust," is what I thought next. I knew I quickly had to correct this situation or face the disappointment of thirteen individuals who had been looking forward to this activity all week. Thank goodness they were multitaskers; everyone had something else to work on while I figured out what to do next.

How did I fix it, you ask? I accessed the wiki page as myself, opened the page on my classroom desktop, turned on the projector, and the kids would leave their revisions to add to the class story when someone else added something which inspired them. This IS NOT what I had in mind, but it was the best I could do with what I had available. At the end of the day, I felt like passing around a piece of notebook paper would have been as effective. I was not a happy camper.

I'm still disappointed, but that's why teachers are known for their ability to monitor and adjust and be cool under pressure (hah!), right? I would love suggestions if anyone has any. Does anyone know or understand why we would have a wiki page for our websites if we can't access it? Are there any other free wiki options we could have used?

A Country Girl Accepts Her Fate--"Where I'm From"

Lack of Motivation Makes Me Sad

Since last week, I've been kind of sad about the lack of motivation my English IV students have displayed working with new technology tools, but I haven't given up. I tried again this week to encourage students to participate with multimedia tools, this time doing group presentations to teach each other about the monarchs of the English Renaissance and the impact those individuals may have had on the literature and art of the period. On Monday, I gave students a step by step guide for completing the Web Quest project. I modeled a PhotoStory, again emphasizing how easy the tool was to use. Each group was able to select the monarch of their choice. I allowed students time each day in class to collaborate and work on the assignment. Today was presentation day, and I was excited, albeit a little nervous after last week, to see what my students had created. They had bragged to each other about how great their presentations were going to be, so I thought, "This has got to be better than last week."

Boy, was I wrong. Of the six groups in my class, only one didn't complain that someone didn't do his or her share. Three groups passed, and three groups failed. One group didn't even have anything to present...sigh...

I really don't want to give up on this group. I need to motivate this class. I REALLY NEED to motivate this class. I feel like I've tried almost everything. I need some suggestions. Please help!

Frustration Sets In

Two weeks ago, I posted a blog about my excitement concerning the new technologies I planned to implement in my English IV class. This was my first time using any of the fun stuff we have learned with this class because they have been reluctant to participate this semester. Nothing I've done or planned has excited them, and it's draining my joy. Normally, English IV is my favorite class; I've taught English IV more frequently than any other subject. This semester, however, the class is different.

I usually have students complete a Canterbury Pilgrimage and Prologue project using PowerPoint, but this semester I wanted students to use MovieMaker or PhotoStory. Two students of 24 used MovieMaker. No one used PhotoStory. Like many teachers we know who are reluctant to change and adapt as technology does, most of my students were reluctant to try MovieMaker or PhotoStory and stuck with PowerPoint because they were more comfortable with the program. The two students who used MovieMaker created awesome movies, but neither one met all the requirements for the project. I gave step by step instructions for what needed to be included in the project along with the grading rubric on day one. Still, students did not follow directions. I even gave a quick tutorial on PhotoStory to show students how easy it is to use. Next semester, I think that I will require students to use MovieMaker and PhotoStory rather than allowing PowerPoint as an option.

I also mentioned in that "excited" blog that I had created a Ning for this class to demonstrate their knowledge of the Canterbury characters and characterization. This was a disaster. Many of the students couldn't gain access to the Ning for whatever reason. Some said the email invitations didn't come through, some didn't follow the directions I gave in the Ning, and some just chose not to participate.

I guess my biggest frustration is not with technology, my frustration with this group stems from a lack of care and participation. 23 of the 24 students in the class this semester have to pass this course in order to graduate. While this is normal in most high schools, this is not usually the case for our students, who begin taking college classes in their sophomore year. Every student in the class but one has had a previous experience with a college English course but were unsuccessful because of their motivation and lack of participation.

I thought that using the new technologies with this group would turn them on to learning because they are so into MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking adventures, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case. I would love to hear if any of you have any suggestions for motivating this group.

Yes, Renee', you have a country accent. If you don't believe it, listen to yourself on Ipadio.

I do not like the way I sound on video. I do not like the way I sound when I create Jing screencasts. I do not like the way I sound on Ipadio. I do not like green eggs and ham. Hah! I would like the snazzy British accent I hear when I call in to Ipadio. Could I have one of those please?

My podcast is a story I began last week with my Creative Writing kids. Can I just share how much I love that class? My kids are awesome. They would literally write for 90 minutes a day if I let them, except for sharing time. They can't wait to share with the rest of the class what they've written, and they insist that I write and share too. This class is really refreshing, and they have encouraged me to retune my creative voice.

We use the writing prompt book, The Writer's Book of Matches: 1001 Ways to Ignite Your Fiction. This book has the craziest prompts, some of which ARE NOT school appropriate, so please be aware. I give my kids four prompts from the book to choose from, and I always give some kind of writer's choice option each day to begin class. To see some of what the kids have come up with, visit my Creative Writing class site. They've posted stories three times, and we've participated in Writer's Workshop twice. We'll finish workshopping their second pieces Monday in class. The piece I read in my podcast was a prompt which had to include, "Despite her current appearance, and the fact that she was in police custody, he knew she was the one..."

Overwhelmed! Where to Begin?

Monday of this week was a fantastic learning experience for me! I learned so much; however, I do feel a little overwhelmed. I want to try everything I saw, but realistically, I do not have the time to experiment with all of the technology and implement what I saw into all the different classes that I teach, especially when I learned that a sixth class will be added to my already busy schedule. I have decided that I will try several of the new technologies and spend my summer deciding how I can incorporate even more for my classes next fall.

I was really impressed with Glogster, Voicethread, and Ipadio. Thanks, Sara Kajder, for a wonderful staff development day. My experimentation and implementation for this week was creating a Ning for my English IV class. Next week, I want them to create profiles for for their favorite Canterbury characters, and I thought this would be an awesome way for them to express their knowledge and understanding of character and characterization. In addition, they are going to begin work on a multimedia travel project in connection with The Canterbury Tales. I'll post more on how this turns out next week.

I've also taken some time to play with Jing. I was surprised at how easy screencasting is. I still hate the way my voice sounds when recorded, but the uses for this technology are endless. I had to train some teachers last week for our online SAT/ACT prep software, and by using Jing, I was able to create some how-to videos which really enhanced teachers understanding during the staff development. Not only did this tool help teachers prepare for the staff development, but this will also give them something to go back to when they feel lost or can not remember how to get where they need to go in TCA. I love it!

I love all this new technology! I only wish I had more time to learn and more time to implement what I'm learning in the classroom. Slowly but surely, I'm trying to get there.

"Save early, save often"

Last week provided me with a learning opportunity. In Sara Kajder's book Bringing the Outside In, she reminds her students as we all do all too often, "save early, save often." As I was creating a "model" project to aid my students in the creation of their first book talk commercials for AVID Literacy, my computer froze while I was previewing my finished commercial.

Frustrated and angry, I reopened PhotoStory, knowing all along what I would find. Most of my project was gone, several hours of hard work had just gone down the drain. To make matters worse, there was no way to recover and recreate the lost work before I would see my students later that afternoon. I was ready to have a meltdown, but I turned my catastrophe into a learning experience for me and an opportunity to teach my students to learn from my mistakes.

When class began, I opened my project and shared with my students how my failure to "save early, save often" had actually provided me with an opportunity to teach them how to use PhotoStory. As a result of my mistake, we were then able to walk through the entire creation process, from adding pictures and voiceover to adding music and creating a works cited page. Some students felt that PhotoStory was "easier" than MovieMaker, while others felt more comfortable using MovieMaker because it was what they knew. All in all, my students left class that Thursday feeling more confident that they could create their own commercials.

My "model" project would have shown students a nice finished product, but it would not have given them the same level of confidence that teaching them to create did. Modeling doesn't always mean showing them a perfect finished piece. Sometimes I forget this. Modeling means walking them through the process as well.

Tuesday came quickly, and most students came to class prepared to present their commercials. There were a few of the usual excuses for why a few were not prepared, but I was pleasantly surprised by those who presented. I've uploaded the commercials of students who wanted web publication. I'm having trouble adding one of the commercials, however. I'm not sure if her file is too large or what. Hopefully, I'll figure that out soon.

Moving On...

My kids have been blogging in English 101 for the last two weeks. They seem to really like the process and are doing a good job with the assignments. This has also cut down on the amount of valuable class time we would have previously spent going over and picking apart homework readings. This is certainly a plus.

I'm still working the kinks out of the blog posts for my Creative Writing class. They didn't really seem to get it the first time, especially the importance of the peer feedback. They were more than willing to share their original pieces, but they did not take much time to respond to each other's writing. We are practicing a workshop approach to revise and improve some of their original pieces this week, and their second blog post is due Friday. I think that after participating in workshop, they will have a better understanding and appreciation for peer feedback. At least, that's what I hope.

This week, I've tried some new things and am in the process of implementing more technology. I guess I'm taking baby steps, but I'm working on it. In addition to blog posts, I've asked my English 101 students to respond to some questions and each other for an upcoming Socratic Seminar. I'm using the same blog space that we use for our reader's responses, but hopefully, this will generate a more authentic conversation about the reading on which the seminar is based.

The project I'm really excited about was inspired by Sara Kadjer's Bringing the Outside In. While I would love to use the Digital Storytelling within my English 101 Narrative section, I am severely limited by the college's requirements and expectations for the course...This is an issue I will discuss in future blog, however. Back to the excitement...

I gave a benchmark test during the first week of my AVID Literacy class (HSAP Prep) using the USA Test Prep software. From the test results, I found that my students were weak in the areas of research and writing. However, all of my students appear to be avid readers, certainly a plus for me. As a result, I have decided to incorporate a "technology project" into the class which will use their reading advantage and attempt to improve some of their research and writing weaknesses.

I'm calling the activity a Book Talk Commercial. Students will use Windows Movie Maker or PhotoStory3 to create commercials based on the books they are reading for SSR in class. I'm in the process of creating a model project now using PhotoStory. Using Chapter Two of Kadjer's Bringing the Outside In as a guide, I'm focusing on the content rather than the technology. I have given students a planning guide already, and they must complete the content section of the project before beginning the construction of the commercial using the technology. To quote one of Kadjer's students, I don't want my students to learn "a technology," I want them to use "a technology to learn."

My goal is for students to encourage and sell their favorite SSR books to fellow students as we work toward not just success on a state assessment,but also long-term improvement in reading, writing, research, and communication skills. I'll let you know how it goes...

New Technological Experiences in the Classroom

Last week was a short week with our students, but I was determined to begin using some of the technology we've read and learned about in our course Writing in the Digital Classroom. I added blog pages to my Creative Writing course website and my English 101 course website.

In Creative Writing, students posted original pieces they had written either in our class or in a previous class. The were allowed to select pieces they wanted to continue to work on throughout the course of our time together in class. Then, they are expected to share comments and feedback with their peers to help their peers make revisions. Next week, students will bring a revised copy of this writing to our workshop where they will read the piece aloud to the class and provide even more feedback and support for their classmates. (Thanks Writing Project for the workshop experience!)

I was really surprised at how comfortable and even excited the kids were about posting their original work on the blog page. I was so nervous the first day we blogged in class and am still nervous about putting my thoughts and experiments on the web for anyone to see. My students didn't seem to face this same fear and willingly posted their work for their classmates, parents, other teachers, and anyone else who cruises my teacher website to see. I was proud of their willingness to share and realize that I need to put some of my own apprehensions about blogging to rest. If they are brave, I will be too. :)

In English 101, students were expected to complete reader's responses based on Chapter Five of Frederick Douglass' Narrative. While I was impressed at their original postings, I was disappointed in the level of class participation today in class. While I realize that I was asking for participation during the eight o'clock hour of a rainy, Monday morning, only a couple of students were willing to share, ask questions, and respond to the blogs posted over the weekend.

I've used this technique before with some success, and Sarah Kadjer discussed the success of this technique in her first book. However, I felt like the response was less than successful this morning. One positive experience that came out of class this morning was when one student said, "I felt like I had to think more about what I was going to say because I knew other people were going to read it." I know this is a breakthrough, but I wanted more. I hope that the response will be greater in my Tuesday/Thursday 101 class tomorrow.

Here's hoping...

First Week Thoughts-Creating a More "Tech-Savvy" Classroom.

I've thought all week about what I should write about in this week's blog. I'm still really nervous about posting my thoughts and opinions for other people to read, but here it goes. I spent the early part of the week immersing myself into Sara B. Kadjer's The Tech-Savvy English Classroom and Troy Hick's The Digital Writing Workshop. I tried to find time to read some of the articles posted in my Google Reader but was slightly overwhelmed at the plethora of information coming at me while trying to begin a new semester last Wednesday. After reading, I had so many great ideas for implementing more technology in my second semester classes, I hardly knew where to begin.

Last spring, while I was working on the National Board process, I knew I wanted to implement blog spaces or discussion forums into my regular classes. I have been teaching online English 101 and 102 classes for the last four or five years, and the discussion forum has always proved to be a useful tool for students. While I used the discussion board in an online classroom, it really never occurred to me to use it in a "face to face" class until last year. That was also partly because the technology was not available for use in a high school classroom environment.

Since the technology is now available, I've spent the last year working, learning, and developing my teacher website into a tool that is helpful and useful for students and parents. I post detailed agendas of what takes place in class each day with links and documents should a student be absent. I post PowerPoints from daily lessons and homework. For a long time, I thought I was the only person who used my website and that my efforts were for nought. However, I received student buy-in this semester. They appreciated being able to go back and review notes and lessons, and the attached documents cut down on students who misplaced handouts and assignments before the next class. Some of my parents have also emailed just to say that they appreciate being able to see what is going on in class each week. This renewed my energy toward creating a "tech-savvy" classroom.

This week, despite headaches, frustrations, and a genuine lack of time to prepare for a new semester, I did not deviate from my plan to implement real world uses for technology in my classroom. On Wednesday, in my first English 101 course of the new semester, I greeted my new students at the door and asked them to log-in to a laptop to prepare for their first writing assignment in the course. While students were waiting for the technology to cooperate, I had them watch video advice on how to be successful in English 101 from a student who had taken the class the previous semester. After watching the video, students went to my teacher website where I added a blog space for students to leave comments and postings about their expectations for the class. After they completed their posts, I asked them to respond to at least two of their classmates, an expectation which will continue for the course of the semester.

I like to establish my expectations and procedures for my classes on day one of each course. My students were nervous at first, and many of them expressed the same concern I felt last Saturday when I posted my first blog. Their responses were short, but they all thought the idea of blogging was cool. When I told them they would post their thoughts and opinions on the readings we complete throughout the semester via blog this semester, not one student complained.

I also plan to have students in my Creative Writing course post blogs with original pieces every other week, so they can post feedback for each other before they bring the piece to workshop. I am also going to implement similar activities into my other classes, but I will have to gradually add the assignments into those courses. I don't want to overload myself with so many ideas that I get frustrated and give up.

My hope for the use of blogs in my English 101 course is that class discussions will become more authentic. I want to see discussions driven by what the students want to know and learn instead of a teacher-driven lesson. Sara Kadjer provides support for this idea in The Tech-Savvy English Classroom. Kadjer found through student feedback that discussions started in this format are more "natural" than those led by a teacher. I also want to encourage students who don't frequently participate during in-class discussions to find their voices.

Last year, I wanted to encourage more student participation in Socratic Seminar. To do so, I had students create written responses to the Socratic Seminar questions first. Then, I posted many of their responses into a PowerPoint presentation. I also allowed them to bring their written responses with them to the circle. Some students, who were usually reluctant to speak out in class, realized the importance of their voice when they saw their answers published. This took more time to prepare than blogging, and I think that "real-life" publication will have an even more powerful impact on student participation. In Chapter Four of Kadjer's book, she says that this creates a "low-stakes entry point for those students who might traditionally be reluctant to enter into a whole-class oral presentation." This is my goal.

EDPD 547A Biography

Current Classes:
I am currently an English teacher in Horry County. This semester, I will be teaching AVID Literacy (HSAP ELA Prep), Creative Writing, English IV CP, and English 101.
Educational Experience:
I received my BA in History from Clemson University in 2002 and my MEd from Francis Marion in 2004. Being a closet nerd, I have continued to take graduate classes every year since receiving my master's degree, and I hope to accomplish my plus thirty soon.
Other Accomplishments:
I have received AP and Gifted endorsement, and I recently obtained National Board Certification, the achievement I consider the greatest of my career thus far. I have also been an adjunct professor for the last five years.