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Keeping One Foot in the Fire

This may turn in to a rant. I apologize. This may turn in to a sermon. I apologize. But I once again have to air my belief that administrators and Technology Integration Specialists should continue teaching at least one class. Having that connection with your faculty is important. It gives you street cred. It may be impossible to teach a full course, but certainly admin should continue offering something like clubs and advisory.

Our school, Korea International School, offers both clubs and advisory programs in the entire secondary school. The advisory in the high school meets once a week for 40 minutes and the middle school meets twice for 40 minutes. Clubs can meet once, twice, or three times a week in the high school and in the middle school they meet once or twice. Isn't this a golden opportunity for administrators to show their teaching abilities? Commit to doing a club once a week for 40 minutes and/or an advisory. Get in the classroom; use the technology; engage the students; provide educational leadership for your faculty. It seems like a win-win situation to me. Your teachers will be inspired; they will feel you are in the trenches with them. You will be in touch with students in an entirely different way. It would be especially nice for someone with a job like mine. Half of my job is student discipline, so most students only see me when they are in trouble -- this is a horrible way to be known. If I had a club or advisory, some students would be able to say -- but I have Mr. Bray for club, he is OK. Or, I have Mr. Bray for advisory, I know he cares about students. The second half of my job is technology integration and this is where the students have seen me differently, because I get in the classrooms and show them the programs or support the teachers with technology. It has been valuable.

The students and teachers see me differently because they see me teaching. It is a good thing, trust me. Take the time to teach in your school. It pays off more than you can imagine.

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Teacher Reflections of Technology Use during School Closure

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interview Sara.m4a (4374 KB)

Second interview of teacher reflections on using technology during the school closure at KIS. The high school went out for a week due to H1N1, but several teachers kept the learning going by using technology. Sara Patterson, an English teacher, reflects on her experience in this podcast. Enjoy!

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High School Closure Podcast

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interview Jess.m4a (3316 KB)

As some of you remember, Korea International School's high school was forced to close for a week due to an H1N1 outbreak. During that time, several teachers used online resources to continue there teaching. Although the situation wasn't ideal, many of them continued the learning. I will be posting a series of interviews with high school teachers. They will share with you their experiences both positive and negative. Our hope as a school is to make preparations so that if we are forced to close again in the future, we can do an even better job than we did this time. Enjoy!

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Playing with Glogster

When I'm not swimming in the turgid waters of middle school discipline as the Dean of Students, I'm wearing that other swimming cap I deal with -- Technology Integration Specialist. As I told another colleague, our students are digital natives who swim in technology with ease. They perform the backstroke, breaststroke, and crawl with the zero effort; we, on the other hand, swim as though we have a large rock tied to one foot. The trick is practice -- never stop swimming, because to stop will mean to drowned. Part of my job is exploring and experimenting with technology, so I can continue to swim with the digital natives, even if it takes me longer to swim a lap.

Today's lap involved swimming with Glogster again. I came up with this work to share. I hope people enjoy it, the actual focus was not on the content itself, but rather the experience of using the tool. Glogster allows for hours of creativity and messing around, which can be shaped into hours of educational material, if used correctly and with some teacher creativity. One of KIS's art teachers, Sarah Digges, is using it as a reflection tool in the artistic process.

Often times teachers come to me asking for advice about technology and the best advice I can and do give is "Don't be afraid to jump into the deep end of the pool with those digital natives." You will find that the laughs you hear from them are not because of your inept skills, but because of their joy in sharing and learning with you.

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Comic Life, once again...

You returned from a trip and want to create a scrapbook photo album, but you don't want to invest hundreds of dollars into scrapbooking materials -- reach for Comic Life. I have included a couple of quickie examples attached to today's blog for those who haven't seen Comic Life before. The great thing about the program is that you can make your projects as simple or complex as you like, so throwing something together really only takes minutes. Great for the novice scrapbooker who wants the pleasure of playing with photos without the mess and headache of normal scrapbooking. My sister will kill me when she reads this blog, because she is an avid scrapbooking junkie and even a licensed dealer of materials; however, if she used the program, I'd bet that she would convert in a heartbeat.

In education, Comic Life opens the door to a discussion about photography. My examples have some simply terrible photos, but that was intentional on my part, because I will use them in class to discuss what makes a good photo and how to edit to improve photos with iPhoto. Actually the middle school students at KIS are becoming quite adept at editing and changing photos. I've asked them during classes, how many of them have cropped photos, and most hands go up. How many have used editing tools to manipulate photos, more hands go up. Some of this is due to the wonderful work our computer department does and the rest is simple experimentation on the part of students. Oh, oh, oh to be a digital native, eh? I usually introduce what I have called the Three Methods of Comic Book Communication: Layout, Dialogue, and Image. The students have all read comic books, so they are pretty savvy at applying that natural knowledge base to their own comics, especially after you point to the techniques to them in a short discussion.

I'm continually going on about the wonders of Comic Life and its applications in the classroom, especially for elementary and middle school teachers; but recently Tyler Sherwood, principal of Chatsworth East International School in Singapore, turned me on to a new use for Comic Life -- making yearbooks. I was bemoaning the process my poor art teacher was going through last year making a middle school yearbook on Twitter, when Tyler pointed me in the direction his school went last year with Comic Life. He was even kind enough to send me a copy via old-school snail mail for me to look over with my art teacher. Although she started the process and is locked in to the system she began with, she was very impressed with the Chatsworth Yearbook 2008-09 edition, as was I. She even told me that if she had it to do over, Comic Life would be the way to go. Thanks to Tyler and the students and faculty of Chatsworth East for sharing.

   

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Comic_Life_once_again....zip (20993 KB)

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Twitter for Educators

I field a bunch of questions about Twitter from teachers. What is it? What is it for? How do you use it? Why do you use it? Twitter links for Educators is a great place to get started using Twitter, if you aren't already. It is also an excellent places to gather ideas of other things you could do with Twitter that you may not be doing. The information is clear and the ideas practical. As for my self, I use Twitter as part of my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and a general networking tool. For example, I met Aron Solomon, the head of Think Global School, through Twitter. I have several other Apple Distinguished Educators and Technology Integration Specialists in my network.

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So Your School is Blocking Facebook, eh?

"Free the technology! Free the technology! Free the technology!"

This should be the chant in front of every administrators' door. For those that are in schools where Facebook is blocked; where cell phones and iPods are banned; where the future as been shoved in a closet with a blanket thrown over its head and beaten with a metal bat -- the chant of, "Free the technology" must be heard. Your students are being short changed. They will not be prepared for the future. Share this link with your administration: One Hundred Ways to Use Facebook in the classroom. That's right -- 100! Count them baby! How many way can you use that textbook? Go ahead now, count the ways... Is it 100? NO!

One of the things I love about Korea International School is the freedom given to teachers by the administration. The administration trusts teachers to make wise, professional, educational choices with technology. Because of that trust, our students are learning and growing with technology. When they compete for university acceptance and jobs with other students, they will be ahead of the game, not behind. I have to give a great big thank you to Rich Boerner, Robin Schneider, David Christenbury, Shane Kells, Bruce Roadside and Dan Choi for creating an environment of innovation and collaboration about technology. Without their continued support and trust, our exploration and experimentation with technology would not be possible nor feasible. Thank you gentlemen!

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Prezi and Glogster

This is a suggestion... Wait! No, this is a command to immediately drop everything and anything you are doing and check out Prezi and Glogster. I'm serious here. Why are you still reading? Get to it! Both sites are unbelievable and incredibly interactive.

Prezi allows you to develop presentations vastly superior to PowerPoint or Keynote with the added advantage of being stored online so you can edit or present from anywhere with any computer as long as you have Internet access. Prezi allows movement -- zooming and panning, lines and pathways, text boxes, photos, and video clips. The layout is on a giant canvas that you design and control. The final products are visually stunning and make a powerful impact on audiences. Students will love the freedom to explore and experiment placing items on a giant canvas and having the presentation move around to each new location. Teachers who want to get their students attention should try this website.

Glogster is a powerful blogging tool. It also provides a canvas for the artistically inclined to place graphics, text boxes, images, audio files, video players, and links in creative and original ways. You can use a template or build your own from the ground up. (What? Virtual ground, I guess... My metaphors are cliche dangerously outdated.) However, unlike Prezi, the idea here is to post and have visitors, rather than use it for presentations. But now that I'm thinking of it, Glogster could be used for a presentation tool as well. I plan to use it as a blogging platform for my classes in the future, because I will be able to teach elements of layout and design at the same time. Plus, the students will love the freedom of having text, audio, and video to share their thoughts.

Regardless, both websites offer ample opportunities to explore self expression through technology and I hope that educators will start using these tools with their students. One of the joys of working overseas in a private school is the freedom to experiment and grow as an educator. I'm proud of my administration for not falling into the trap of slapping handcuffs on the technology by making silly rules and blocking websites. Teachers need to fight for the right to use these technologies in the classroom and it is high time that the unions back home step up to the plate with teachers and demand the administrators and school boards fund and allow technology in the classroom. Anything less is criminal.

   

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Prezi_and_Glogster.zip (1121 KB)

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Making Movies with Students

One way I have incorporated technology in to the classroom is through the use of iMovie. In the past I have used Movie Maker as well, either program will do the job and they both come on any Mac or PC. Currently I work at a 1:1 Mac school, so I'm focusing on iMovie in this post. I have had students retell the major plot points of stories, act out scenes from plays, create their own original movies, and the list goes on. You can do great group work or individual projects as well. With group work, always use a task form that requires students to assign jobs to their members. It just makes life easier later when the problems come up because someone didn't do their job. When the finger points begins, simply look at the task form and say, "Sorry, it was your job to do it." I also highly recommend some form of story boarding before any filming starts. This is a lesson learned through painful experience -- trust me. Do not let students loose with a video camera without story boarding the project. The time put into planning is worth ten times its value during actual filming and the final product will be much better. On the top of final products -- five to seven minutes. Again, trust me on this one. Five to seven minutes of a good film project is vastly superior to 15 minutes of very boring dialogue that wasn't necessary. Keep the project small! You will thank me for it. I've even done three minutes with middle school. It is enough to get the major points across to an audience.

Often I will also use iMovie or podcast in the reflection process of a written assignment. It helps those reluctant writes, because I don't have to say to them, "Now that you are finished writing that assignment you didn't enjoy, because it was writing -- write about it!" This way I can give them the reflection questions and they can plan out their answers and simply record themselves discussing the assignment; much less painful for all concerned.

For those interested in group projects, you can download my Task Form. It is just a great way to make all the members of a group accountable. It lets me know who is supposed to take care of what part of the project. Also, you can download my Story Board form for the planning stage of a movie production. It was made with Comic Life and can be easily adapted to comic book projects, podcasts, story planning, and presentation planning. 

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story board.pdf (378 KB)

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Task Form.pdf (39 KB)

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