Learn Me Sumthin'

Closing Shop Here

2010-12-09T14:59:00.002-05:00

After some reflection, I decided to shut this blog down. My new and hopefully more productive home is at http://keeferto.typepad.com/blog/. I have named this new place atychiphobia (fear of failure) and will try to focus a little more on writing more from my heart and in my own voice.

If you have come here before, please consider venturing over to the new site.

Our Space, Redesigned

2010-08-16T07:41:00.017-04:00

Over the last few weeks I have read some fun and thoughtful posts about teachers and librarians who have redesigned their rooms. I started thinking about an Extreme Room Makeover last spring. I got a SMART Board installed in my room last year which my class and I liked a great deal, but the location (which I had little control over) was right in the middle of the room. The SMART Board became the giant elephant of the room. I knew I had to change things for this year so that when kids were using it to collaborate, other kids wouldn't just stop and stare.

So here is my design proposal for this year. If you happen to have friends at HGTV, feel free to pass this along. I think I could do a much better job than the three finalists I saw last night on Design Star (In case you missed it, one of the designers suggested using your clothes as inspiration. Since my typical wardrobe is cargo shorts and T-shirts, I'll pass on that advice).

Goals:
In thinking about what I have learned from countless hours spent on The Third Teacher's site and reading all the things the Third Teacher tweets, I decided to focus on a few big goals:

1) Diminish the presence of the SMART Board by creating more inviting spaces for students to work if they are not at the board.

2) These inviting spaces should allow for different types of groupings and work to be done.

3) I wanted to get back to the idea that as much as I love tech, fostering a love of reading is still the most important goal in my room.

4) I still wanted a huge space in the room to meet as a class and if possible sit in a circle or oval.

Winning Design:
After several attempts of moving things around, I decided I should just draw some things out. I found a nifty little tool called Classroom Architect that helped me play with the space. This is what my "final draft" looked like:
Last night, I was able to see what my design looked like. I think it turned out much better than having khaki walls with lots of storage space like my cargo shorts ... come to think of it my room does have tan walls and lots of storage space. Maybe I am not that different from the young lady on Design Star.

When you first walk in the door ...
you get to see a long narrow, tunnel of a room that sometimes makes me feel like I am in a subway. Not much I can do about that, but I do get to hang all the pennants from stadiums I have visited over the years across the room from the door. At least that is a little fun. You also get a little peek at my new crazy cool table I found at Ikea that will hopefully be a 'coveted' place to do some collaborative work when the kids are not working at the SMART Board.

The Back Corner ...
is where I think I will find 4 to 8 of my class during workshop times because of the table and these 2 little cubes that students from previous loved. I have 4 more of these cubes stationed around the room, but the 2 that are in the little nook were "hot spots". There must be something to reading or working in a place that someone standing at the door (e.g. our principal or parent volunteer) can't see. I purposefully bought an oval table to make conversations between students easier.

The Meeting Area is still huge and the SMART Board is still front and center but I am optimistic the other spaces I have created will offset the presence of the SMART Board. I also added a little bookshelf under the screen to maybe subliminally suggest that reading and thinking are a good foundation for using technology. I am also a little excited about my fun new floor lamp that is in the picture. My daughter was a heavy influence on that decision.

The Library and Computer Tables ...
now create an area that is separated from the rest of the room. One of my colleagues who saw this said something to the extent of. "You know, kids might not read there because you can't see them." I wanted to respond, "You know, kids still might not read when you can see them if you don't value reading." But I took the higher ground and just replied something like, "We'll figure it out." I love this space for many reasons, but the main one is this new area gives my students the opportunity to show that they can read/work without being seen by an adult.

My new favorite spot is this little table I put against the window in the back corner of my room. We have a great view of a wooded area near our school and this space will be a great spot for one or two of my kids (or me when they are at lunch) to work and get a little glimpse of nature at work. I am thinking about putting a little plant on the table as well, but I want to see how much space this table actually has before I do that. The stools will also be nice for storage during the summer or drumming like the guys you see in summertime Chicago near Millennium Park.
A view from the other direction ...
shows that three of my tables are now pushed against the "back wall" of the room. I have never done something like this, but about the only time my class is at their desks for long periods of time is during an assessment, so I figured this design allows for as much floor space as possible.

Reflections
It will be interesting to see how this little experiment works. I think the class will really like all the little nooks and crannies that will give them independent places to work. I also think they will like the places that allow for better collaborative work. I know that my true reflective thinking might not take place for some time. I want to see how the class uses our room before I get too excited about this redesign. After all, the room is meant for the kids, not just me. If you have any ideas, let me know (I am talking to you Candice, Vern and Genevieve)

Later,
Tony

Picture Books: 10 for 10

2010-08-10T08:08:00.002-04:00

Two of my Central Ohio Edublogging friends (Cathy and Mandy) started this little challenge for today based on the silly premise that if we could only pick 10 picture books to use with our class, what would they be? Seriously, only 10 books?!?! I think Cathy even suggested the idea of being stranded on a deserted island with our class what would we have in our survival bag? Now, I am extremely passionate about teaching and love working with kids, but being stranded on a deserted island with 25 or so 4th graders does not sound fun on any level (unless your idea of fun is Dante's Fifth Circle).

So I am thinking of this challenge as more of what 10 books would I throw out my second story window if the blaring alarm was an actual fire and not on the last day of the month when my principal remembers to schedule the monthly fire drill.

My Must Rescue Books in no particular order are:

Owl Moon written by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr

Besides the incredible illustrations and wonderful wordplay, I have a strong connection to this book because it is one of my daughter's all time favorites. I probably share this book with each class about 5 to 6 times a year for many reasons. The most important reason for sharing is the connection my daughter and I have with the book.

Tough Cookie by David Wisniewski

I absolutely love this book. Take one part Bogart-esque gumshoe and one part stale chocolate chip cookie and you get the protagonist. Every class I have shared Tough Cookie with has loved it. We tend to spend a great deal of time analyzing the pictures and the pacing of this wonderful tale.

The Watertower written by Gary Crew, illustrated by Steven Woolman

This story may not be for every teacher, but the wonderfully descriptive story of two friends trying to outdo each other is almost lost inside the somewhat creepy pictures. An added bonus to this book is the layout. When you read the story you have to rotate the book, not unlike the swirl of water going down a drain.

Home Run written by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Mike Wimmer

I have about 20 fabulous picture books that are about baseball, so I could have probably completed this entire challenge referencing nothing but America's Pastime. So it was hard to pick just one, but Home Run is a grand slam. Burleigh's poetic bio of Babe Ruth is magnificent and Wimmer's art is astonishingly good. Just look at the cover above. I am glad this book was not in print when I was 10 years old. I may have become a Yankee fan, yikes!

Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg

For me, no list like this one would be complete without a book by CVA. Yes, I know others like The Stranger and Jumangi might be more obvious picks, but the story of these two little mischievous ants exploring someone unknown bystander's house makes me smile every time I read it. I also love the perspective of both the writing and the illustrating. I think kids love the idea that they can "stand on CVA's shoulders" to manipulate perspective in their writing as well.

Condor's Egg written by Jonathan London, illustrated by James Chaffee

This story is one of several books London has written in a narrative nonfiction style showcasing a day in the life of an animal. London's research into Condor's must have been extensive because the richness of this tale would be hard to imagine. The illustrations are breath-taking and definitely extend, not just add to, the text. This is another frequently shared book in my room. The most powerful discussions seem to flow from the idea of using this as a mentor text for writing a nontraditional research paper.

Rimshots by Charles R. Smith Jr.

I wish I would have thought of an idea like this one. Smith meshes his love of basketball, photography, poetry an apparently typography into a an pop-artish stew of imagery that can be read and explored over and over again. As an added bonus, I think this book single-handedly helped over 50 boys I have taught in the last 10 years get that poetry can be extremely cool.

Shrek by William Steig

Kind of like choosing a CVA book,it was hard for me to choose a William Steig book. There are many worthy ones, but even before the movies, Shrek was my favorite. For 4th grade students, it is hard get get more laughter than what I hear when I frost read aloud the searing, but well-written insults that appear in Shrek. But once you get past that the real magic happens. Shrek is a great mentor text for numerous reasons in my room. This may be the reason I have to buy a new copy about every two to three years.

Rapunzel's Revenge written by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale

Definitely not a picture book by any classic definition, but this graphic novel twist of the Rapunzel story is one of my current favorite books. I love the story and the art, but I especially love this version of Rapunzel. Think Pipi meets Trinity from the Matrix in the wild west.

How I Became a Pirate written by David Shannon, illustrated by Melinda Long

There are too many positives in this book to count. The only one you really need to know is you and your class can snarl like Blackbeard and it would be perfectly acceptable.

There it is. The books I would rescue from a fire. Thinking about the list and composing this post were more difficult than I thought. I kind of felt like the selection committee for the NCAA basketball tournament. Speaking of which, if this were a bracket, Shrek and How I Became a Pirate would be the top seeds, but I would expect the sentimental fan favorite Owl Moon to make a deep run.

Thanks Cathy and Mandy for dreaming up this idea, it was big fun.

Later,
Tony

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Big Thinking: Leadership Day 2010

2010-07-30T14:47:00.000-04:00

This week Scott McCloud, of Dangerously Irrelevant, encouraged edubloggers to post our thoughts about how we can help educational leaders grow into more tech savvy educational leaders.

Scott says,

"Administrators’ lack of knowledge is not entirely their fault. Most of them didn’t grow up with these technologies. Many are not using digital tools on a regular basis. Few have received training from their employers or their university preparation programs on how to use, think about, or be a leader regarding digital technologies."

To a certain extent, I agree with Scott's words above. From what I have seen in the last 5 year of my teaching career it is not hard to imagine that many administrators are not comfortable with digital technologies and have also not received any training. However, I have a hard time with the "is not entirely their fault" part of Scott's quote from above. I think if something is truly important to you, you work on it without your employer, teacher, parent, spouse, etc. providing you with resources or incentives. When you are intrinsically motivated to learn, you find a way to learn it. Based of what I have seen via my PLN, there are administrators and teachers all over the world that are finding ways to enrich the educations and lives of their students by embracing digital technologies.

So, what would I say to counsel an administrator? I think I could boil it down to three big ideas.

1) Remember your roots. Now, maybe there are some administrators in the field today that dreamed of becoming a test-data driven automaton that would punitively dress drown teachers for not raising test scores. But I am sincerely hoping that nearly all administrators started out as teachers who wanted to engage students in learning and change lives. So, remember your roots 21st Century Administrator. Think big about how some of these new technologies can engage kids in learning and maybe even change their lives.

2) Be supportive by example. I know it can be hard to try new things, but if a teacher is working for an administrator who is muddling through their own successes and failures in an attempt to become more tech savvy, then I believe the teacher will be more willing to try some new things as well. So, don't be afraid to subscribe to some blogs, start a blog, create a Twitter account or join a Ning to learn and explore 21st Century Administrator. Think big about how setting a positive example of risk-taking can lead to your teachers taking some risks.

3) Observe and learn from the students in your school, then challenge them. Don't be awestruck. Kids amaze me with technology, but not because they know how to do something with a computer. When I am amazed, it's because of how a student can stretch her thinking and world with technology. I am not so impressed when a student can put a movie clip on YouTube. So, 21st Century Administrator, when you are on your next walk-through don't be impressed that a student made a PowerPoint or created a podcast. Ask them to show you some tricks, but also look to see how they are using these tools to enrich their learning. Then challenge them to do something bigger. Think big about how the students in your school can utilize technology to stretch themselves.

I feel lucky that I have worked for some administrators who have let me take some risks and explore integrating technology into my classroom. But, I also think that is because I have learned how to make a strong case for integrating technology. I think the next big step the administrators that I have worked for should take is to not just be supportive of teachers like me, but cultivate a climate where teachers who do more with technology than using a SmartBoard or having kids type a report on a computer are the norm, not the exception.

Thanks Scott for encouraging all of us to reflect and think about how we can help administrators help themselves.

Later,
Tony.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Drawing Pad: Possibilities Seem Endless

2010-07-18T17:10:00.000-04:00

In my last post I shared about how I would most likely be downloading the Brushes app for my class iPads. However, I will definitely have the kids experiment with Drawing Pad as well.

Drawing Pad has many features that I think would be ideal in the hands of an elementary student. These include:
1) Four different drawing tools: crayons, markers, colored pencils and paintbrushes (all of these have a wonderful selection of colors).
2) A stamping tool which allows a user to tap the screen to make stars, hearts and bubbles.
3) A collection of sticker book styled animals, transportation devices and some goofy emoticons.
4) A decent variety of background paper choices, including the option to use a photo as the background (as long as the photo is in the iPad photo library).
5) Ease of use when erasing not- so-perfect attempts.
6) Easy to use sharing and saving options.

There are probably too many possibilities to count on how to use Drawing Pad but a few that are swirling around in my head already are:
1) Quick sketches of characters or scenes from stories read.
2) Creating illustrations for stories written in writing workshop. One of the saving options for Drawing Pad is to put the newly created drawing into your photo collection, so you can place it into other documents you create. We did a digital picture book project last year and I can see the potential of having students use Drawing Pad for illustrations this year.
3) Creating observational illustrations in science or math class.
4) Just having fun.

Below is a picture my 11 year-old daughter made using Drawing Pad. I asked her to play around with it and I told her I would be sharing it here. She thought it was easy to use and she wanted use a lot of the features to show off what Drawing Pad could do. She thought her beach scene turned out ok, but she admitted it only took her about 10 minutes to do it.

It will be interesting to see what my 4th graders think of Drawing Pad this fall. I know I would of thought it was pretty cool if I had something like this when I was there age.

Later,
Tony

P.S. I am also using this entry to try out BlogPress for the iPad. It seems easy enough to use, but there are some downsides (like not being able to easily create hyperlinks). I imagine I will only use it when I am not at home and take my iPad with me or if one someone else in the house is using the laptop and the only tool I can get my hands on is the iPad (like that will happen).

Playing Around With An iPad

2010-07-15T08:23:00.005-04:00

Last spring I wrote a grant for a class set of iPads and to my great surprise, my overly ambitious proposal was accepted and now I need to figure out how exactly I am going to use these things. So for the last two weeks or so I have been scouring the web to learn as much as I can about good apps to use in a classroom and what other teachers are planning to do with the iPads they have. Maybe more surprising than the fact I got a class set is the incredible widespread adoption of iPads by teachers and schools around the country (if you followed any of the blogs or Twitter updates from ISTE, you would have thought that it's now some sort of union requirement to have an iPad).

Anyhow, this post will be the first is a year-long series that shares the successes and failures of utilizing an iPad in a 4th grade classroom. My first impressions are that an iPad will be a great tool to have. As a teacher one of the things I love about an iPad is the ease of use. When I got my iPad to start exploring this summer, it took a few scant minutes to figure things out. When I started downloading apps and letting my 9 year-old son and 11 year-old daughter play around with them, you would have thought that their brains had been hardwired to work with an iPad. A few of the apps I have explored are amazing. For example Brushes is a wonderful art tool. I am already envisioning how Brushes will help students illustrate writing and working with my art teacher on some projects. Google Earth on an iPad is visually stunning and it seems easier to use than on a desktop or laptop. I am sure that I will find many other apps as well, but unfortunately some of the "best apps" for education lists out there are filled with apps that don't really involve creatively using the iPad, they are just flashcards or study tools with a slicker interface.

One major disappointment is the amount of hiccups in usung web 2.0 tools. I knew that Apple has locked down an iPad so that you can't work with websites that utilize Flash (so I already assumed Glogster and BrainPop would most likely be noncompliant). However it was really, really disappointing to learn that an iPad doesn't even play nice with Apple's own OSX server based wiki/blog sites. We use the OSX wiki tool in our school district and you really can't edit with an iPad. Nice. However, I think I did find a way to get around this until, hopefully, Apple fixes this issue (if this 'hack' seems to work easily, I will share it in more detail in the future).

Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some more ideas about how I intend to use iPads in my classroom. In the meantime, if you know of someone who is already playing around with iPads in schools or come across websites that maybe I have somehow missed, let me know about them.

For your viewing pleasure, this little video is what hooked me on Brushes. I fully expect my 4th graders to produce work like this by the end of October :)

Later,
Tony

Origami Yoda says, "Read this book, you should."

2010-06-30T18:10:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago my friend Franki asked me if I had read The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. Ashamed I was that I hadn't even heard of it. So naturally I decided I needed to look into this book (Franki has this directly matter-of-fact way of making me do things I might not normally do. Don't you both admire and despise people who can do that to you?)

Well, I really enjoyed Origami Yoda even though it is not the type of story I normally read. All character driven conversation, no action usually makes me a bored reader.

Angleberger pieces together a loose plot based on the idea that a rather peculiar boy, Dwight, has an origami Yoda finger puppet that dispenses unsolicited advice to his classmates. The narrator of the book, Tommy decides to investigate whether or not the Origami Yoda is "real" or a hoax. The story unfolds with Tommy sharing his investigation through case files. Sometimes he is the author and other times his classmates takes over.

Angleberger's style reminds me a little of Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) in the sense that each "case" is it's own little tale and the writing tries to mimic what a typical middle schooler would sound like. As you read the cases, Origami Yoda is able to share life lessons through a string of amusing incidents that I think most 4th-7th graders would relate to quite easily. These scenes include the prospect of cheating, getting water on your pants that looks like you wet yourself and whether or not a girl thinks you are cute.

I think Origami Yoda will be a big hit at my school in the fall. The cover alone will draw kids in when they see it in the library or classrooms. Then the first few lines will be enough to hook most kids.

"The big question: Is origami Yoda real? Well, of course he’s real. I mean, he’s a real finger puppet made out of a real piece of paper. But I mean: Is he REAL? Does he really know things? Can he see the future? Does he use the force?"

I can think of many kids I will encourage to read Origami Yoda. I just wish that the writing was a little stronger. But when you are trying to sound like a 6th grader, I guess you can't be a wordsmith. Entertained I was by reading The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda, so complain I shouldn't about the writing.

As an added bonus, try making your own Origami Yoda:

Later,
Tony

Digital Picture Book Writing

2010-06-17T15:20:00.005-04:00

In a post a few months ago, I mentioned the influence that Troy Hicks has had on my teaching this year. When I think about the impact that his book has had on my teaching this year I become increasingly thankful that I read it. One of the major writing projects our class finished at the end of the year was composing a "digital picture book". This idea started percolating in my brain while reading Troy's book. It then really started to boil when I saw my friend Kevin Hodgson present on the topic of digital picture books at this year's Dublin Lit Conference.

So, how was I going to start this adventure? I had 3 major goals in mind when I started mapping out my plans:

1) I wanted the kids to compose a short story for a younger audience (we targeted our first-grade buddy class). The main reason I chose this goal was to limit the size of the books. By spring in my room, kids tend to start trying to compose 20-30 page stories. In some aspects this is great fun, but if we were going to create picture books, I knew that a lengthy story could pose some serious problems.

2) I wanted the kids to have lots of options for how their stories would be illustrated. We negotiated several choices, but interesting enough every author or pair of authors chose to use Pixie (we have this loaded on our school computers) or photographs (thankfully had I access to several digital cameras). The one option that wasn't chosen was to scan hand drawn illustrations. I was kind of hoping at least one book wanted to try this, just to see how it would have worked.

3) I wanted the kids to be able to share these books easily, so I wanted them to use Keynote as the platform because in Keynote you can record a slideshow to give voice and turn it into a Quicktime movie which makes it very easy to share.

Interestingly enough when I mapped out these goals, it was all I really needed. By this point in the year, my kids knew that to tell a good story all the stuff that usually encompasses what we typically look for in writing (voice, plotting, strong mechanics, etc) were so embedded that the original checklist I gave my kids was incredibly simple. I copied and pasted it below:

Digital Picture Book Goals:

1) Compose a story that you think would entertain our first grade buddies (if you are stuck for ideas, think about reworking a fairy or folk tale).

2) Think critically about how your illustrations or pictures will support and enhance your writing.

3) Make it easy for our audience to read the books, think carefully about word choice, thoughtful editing, font choices and other things that writers need to think about when composing a story.

After this relative simple jump into the project, we spent about 2 days storyboarding and critically reviewing some of our favorite picture books. The kids were really buzzing during this time. One thing I loved was how quickly they were sharing ideas with each other. I witnessed kids giving each other books for mentor texts, helping each other with ideas for pictures, giving each other feedback on the appropriatness of the theme and even sharing ways to make an idea 'funnier'. A general theme seemed to be developing that 1st graders like funny stories.

The next revlation for me was that I completely jumped into drafitng right on Keynote. After the 2 days of planning and browsing, we had the computer lab signed up. But instead of them drafting their stories in a writer's notebook or on their wiki pages to ventually be transferred into Keynote, I just let them go. It was a fascinating process watching them move text around, cut snippets from one page to add onto another, revising on the fly when something didn't seem to fit. It was wonderful. I truly think without the the thinking of Troy and Kevin bouncing in my brain, I might not have done this.

Once the kids had the basic framework of their stories typed, they began the process of creating their illustrations on Pixie or staging their photographs. This took some time, overall each book took about 4-5 hours spread over a week to get the visual elements completed. Once these books looked 'done' we had a 90 minute block in the lab to give feedback for final revisions. This too was an interesting and wonderful to see. Each group got lots of thoughful feedback and wnet back to work on the last day to make changes.

Since I had been hogging the lab for about 2 weeks now, but we still hadn't recorded the voiceovers, I was able to snag some laptops from our mobile lab at randon times over the next 3 days to compelte the voiceover work. One big thing to consider if you attempt to record voices is finding a really, really quiet spot. And you need to hope that the office doesn't randomly to an all school page. We had a few redos because of these issues.

When we were all done, we had a viewing party with our first grade friends. We were all "starstruck" by seeing the books on the big screen of my SmartBoard. My kids were rightfully proud of their work. And I was extremely proud of them too. Of course, not all the books were huge hits and some of the kids told me later that they wished they could go back and revise some of their pictures or add more to the story (yeah, that was extremely rewarding to me as a teacher, I can't think of too many times where the middle grade kids I work with want to go back and redo things after the are done).

I know that I will do a project like this again next year. The list of things that I, as a teacher planning a project like this, can do to make it better is getting big already. But for a first attempt, I was thrilled with the outcomes. Below are two examples (one with Pixie illustrations and one with digital photographs) that were big favorites of the first graders. I kind of like them too.

Official Secret Agents by Grace and Payton from Mr. K. on Vimeo.

Hungry Kitty by Brandon from Mr. K. on Vimeo.

Later,
Tony

Magnificent 12: The Call by Michael Grant = Marvelous Fun

2010-06-16T13:34:00.009-04:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently passed my initiation test into the world of Advance Reader's Copies (ARC for 'those in the know'). The Magnificent 12: The Call is my first official ARC. I may have to vacuum seal it for posterity.

Anyhow, I really enjoyed reading this first installment of The Magnificent 12 series. Michael Grant has crafted a fast-paced adventure with some highly entertaining characters. The story centers around Mack MacAvoy, who by all accounts is the most average person on the planet. According to the opening line in the story, Mack is not just an unlikely hero, "He was an impossible hero." Mack is easy to like because of his sense of humor and gift for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the story progresses we learn that Mack is actually part of an ancient order called to protect the world from evil. Yikes! Especially considering one of Mack's issues is his long list of phobias that includes "phobiaphobia", the fear of phobias.

Mack learns of his newly discovered responsibilities from an absent minded ancient wizard named Grimluk, who is also part of this evil-fighting order named The Magnificent 12. Grant also tells the story of Grimluk in an almost alternate chapter format. The chapters about Grimluk are where Grant's knack for dry humor is easily seen. Grimluk grew up in a society that was so "primitive" that "the blanket of earth had been worn down by rain and snow and whatever mysterious force pulled things down toward the ground (gravity, but that had not been discovered yet)."

After learning about his new role as potential savior of the planet, Mack teams up with the delightfully fun Stefan, a bully to the nth degree who takes Mack under his wing early in the book, to help Grimluk. Mack and Stefan find themselves faced with confronting Eriskigal, a nearly immortal princess who is equal parts beautiful and wicked. Back in the ancient times, Grimluk banished Eriskigal's mother and ever since that moment, Eriskigal has been working on stopping Grimluk and returning her mother to power. She has quite the collection of unique and dastardly monsters at her disposal as well.

Mack and Stefan find an ally in Jarrah who also seems to be connected to the Magnificent 12. This first installment of the series leaves the reader wondering what will happen to these 3 new friends venture to China to find the next member of their group.

Grant's plotting is very well done and the snippets of humor juxtaposed with danger will appeal to many middle grade readers. I also think he does a great job crafting the characters, especially Mack, Stefan and Grimluk. They are all show more than one side of themselves, which I think is lacking in many books like this one. I absolutely cannot wait for the next installment to hit the stores. Which will be quite some time since this book hasn't hit the stores. There is also a website that goes along with the series, http://themag12.com/. I had some fun browsing the site, but honestly the characters in my head looked nothing like the artist's renditions. Oh well.

Overall, I think this will be in the hunt for the Schwberry Order of Merit. I can already think of 10 kids from my last class alone who would devour this tale.

Later,
Tony

Newbery/Schwaberry

2010-06-14T16:37:00.012-04:00

A few weekends ago I had the wondrous opportunity to eat breakfast and hang out with some of my Central Ohio Educator Bloggerati Peeps. Like my first visit with this group, the food and conversation were awesome. However, on this latest escapade, I got to join the group when we visited the greatest bookstore in the world (well at least in Ohio), Cover to Cover. Sally Oddi, the owner of Cover to Cover treated us to some Advance Reader Copies.

The velvet curtain has now been pulled back and I feel like I am now on the inside of some mysterious club. The club where geeky people like me get to read books before they are even published. Oh ... My ... Stars. As I was leafing through the stack-o-goodies, my friends Bill and Karen of Literate Lives were already talking about their predictions for next year's Newbery Award Winners. They both do a great job reading, reviewing and handicapping the winners. If Vegas has a betting line for who will get tabbed, I would use their website before I placed my wagers (Bill's picks from last year, Karen's Picks from last year).

I love people like Bill and Karen because they help me find books that I would never pull off a shelf. Their hard work helps me, a relatively B-movie type of reader, find books for kids that yearn for stories that are filled with SAT level vocabulary words and characters that inspire them to new levels of thoughtfulness. You know these books well. Books whose titles sound a little like this: "Penelope: Civil War Heroine" or "Swimming Against the Tide of Sorrow."

At this point, you probably think I am not being very kind to Newbery Award books or the people who choose to read them. This is not entirely the case. I think over the last 20 years or so there have been some fantastic books that appeal to kids that have won the medal or earned a Newbery Honor Sticker (Maniac Magee, Ella Enchanted, Holes, Hoot to name a few). However, not unlike the Academy Awards, I do think the Newbery is more about impressing "insiders" than actually appealing to a general audience (Quickly now, try to name 5 kids who read and enjoyed Kira-Kira or 5 people who watched and enjoyed No Country for Old Men). I do have to admit that books that make up the Pantheon of Newbery Winners are interesting and well-written, from a mostly adult perspective. Sort of like the winners of the Academy Award are interesting and well-crafted, from an "at-least-I-can-honestly-tell-my-freinds-I-saw-the-Oscar-winner" perspective.

So, while I won't get into an argument about the quality of Newbery books, I do wonder if kids are drawn to these books. Sure, a pesuasive teacher, friend, mother or father can get a child to read Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. Actually, with that book it may take a bribe of the new iPhone to get any kid to read it.

So, to satisfy my own yearning to bestow accolades on really good books that kids will want to read, I have created the Schwaberry Order of Merit. Like the Newbery Medal, the Schwaberry will be announced in January and the book needs to be published in the previous year. I will also carefully consider three criteria before announcing the winners.

1) I will be able to honestly list more than 5 kids I know that read the book and loved it (maybe even reread it).

2) The kids I can list from #1 need to be both boys and girls.

3) The book does need to have elements of quality writing as well as being a great read. For example, as much as I love the Captain Underpants series, I doubt that would have been a Schwaberry Finalist.

Over the next few days, I will be trolling through books I have already reviewed on this site to see if any are Schwaberry worthy. If only Powerless was published in 2010, but I do think The Brixton Brothers: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity will get a nod.

Tomorrow, I will review A Schwaberry frontrunner and an ARC book I got from Cover to Cover titled The Magnificent 12: The Call.

Later,
Tony

Reflections On Stop-Motion Club

2010-06-12T09:26:00.003-04:00

During this past spring, my friend Mary from Teaching in the Tech Frontier and I ran an after school stop-motion movie club called Scottie Dog Productions. It was an amazing experience for me (I am pretty sure that Mary enjoyed it a great deal as well). It has taken me some time to really think about the work the club did because I tend to look at things through the "What more could I have done" lens rather than the "Wow, this was pretty good stuff" lens. The list of things I learned during our time with the group includes these highlights:

1) Sixty minutes seems like six minutes when you are working with 11 different groups of kids who are making movies. There were times when I would hear Mary or one of the other wonderful teachers who helped out say, "We'll need to start cleaning up" and my first thought was "We just started, how can it be time to clean up?!"

2) Some of the students who joined the club found a place where they excelled. We had about 10-12 out of 42 that would fall into the group of "at-risk academically, ADHD, not involved with sports, etc" that found a place where they can become leaders and feel successful. I absolutely LOVED this aspect of the group.

3) Sometimes having a group of "best friends" might not be all that great. We had 3 groups like this and only one seemed to be able to handle the issue of collaboration well. This was interesting to me, but in retrospect it wasn't that surprising.

4) With the exception of 2 minor instances all the kids lived up to some high expectations for the time we spent together. Mary and I wanted the group to be fun, but with 42 students and 4 teachers spread over 5 different areas in our school, we felt like we needed high expectations for respect and behavior. The fact that we only had two minor problems confirmed one of my long held beliefs. If you provide kids with worthwhile experiences, they will want to work and be successful at what they do.

5) Scottie Dog Productions was yet another example of how the kids we have currently in school have absolutely no problems taking risks with technology. Because our school has Macs, we used iPhoto and iMovie to make the stop-motion movies. The 'mini-lesson' for using iMovie was just that, a mini-lesson. Mary modeled for the whole group for a grand total of 5 minutes on how to drop pictures from iPhoto into iMovie and some of the little tricks you could do in iMovie. We did have to do a little reteching with some groups, however most of the groups found things to add into their movies without any instruction at all.

6) Parents loved this group. I couldn't believe the amount of positive comments we received and when we had a before school "Premier Party" our school library was packed for an event that maybe took 20 minutes. I felt confident that most parents would like the fact we were providing an unusual after school activity, but I was overwhelmed with the amount of positive feedback we received.

6) Lastly, Mary and I have learned that some of the group have started making movies on their own. In fact in one case an older sibling has started making movies because I think she was a little jealous of the fun her little brother was having. I am trying to convince the parents of these kids to set up a Vimeo so we can easily post their summer fun on our website.

Mary and I are going to restart the group in the fall. We are probably going to change a few things based on what we learned. One idea is that we may have the kids do some "contract work" for teachers in the building. For example, maybe one of the fifth grade science teachers will want a stop-motion movie made to help explain electrical circuits or maybe a 3rd grade teacher will want a movie that helps to explain the rock cycle. However, we are going to try to stick to the basic goal of the group. Provide a place where kids can have fun, be creative and learn about making stop-motion movies.

Here is one of my favorite movies from the club. If you want to see the rest check out our website, Scottie Dog Productions.

A Man Who Build a House by Kate, Jessica and Grace from Mr. K. on Vimeo.

Later,

Tony

Fun New Toy From Blogger

2010-06-11T22:29:00.003-04:00

Blogger has just released a new template device that gives you a little more fun than the previous template choices. A few months ago I downloaded a free template that I liked, but I had extreme difficulty when I wanted to add widgets or change minor things (like the color of links) because, while I like to think I am tech savvy, a code monkey I am not. So if you like Blogger, but want to update your template, it just got a whole lot easier.

After watching this video it took about 5 minutes of playing to change my template to something I liked and I know it will be more functional behind the scenes for me. I loved the chalkboard background, especially because I don't really have any in my classroom.

Later,
Tony

Hi-Tech Action

2010-06-10T16:45:00.006-04:00

Trackers by Patrick Carman is one of those books that was very difficult for me to put down. Like many other books in the action and adventure genre geared toward kids (i.e. 39 Clues, I, Q. series, Peak), the characters in Trackers are thrown into a situation that seems incredibly unlikely for adults, let alone pre-teens. The Trackers quickly learn that some of their hi-tech spy-game antics have caught the attention of some unsavory characters. Their "fun" quickly turns out to be a little more serious than they thought. Like being manipulated to help crack a code that could potentially be used to steal billions of dollars serious. This is type of plotting is exactly why I like books like this one. I love the idea that smart, risk taking kids can overcome big problems when they have the right motivation.

The Trackers are a group of four incredibly tech savvy kids led by the pseudo-narrator Adam Henderson. Adam had grown up in his father's computer repair shop so naturally he is a computer savant to the nth degrees. When the story starts Adam is in some sort of custody being interrogated by an Inspector Ganz. Through the questions Adam slowly unravels the story of the Trackers. Throughout the interview we learn that Adam and his friends Lewis, Emily and Finn make an almost perfect team because their strengths and weaknesses balance extremely well. Through Adam's eyes we get to see how the team works. He almost plays the role of doting father when sharing some of the things his Tracker team can do. However, Carman's development of the characters in this first installment of the series is a little shallow. This flatness could be a result of only seeing Adam's perspective. Also, due to the nature of the interview process, Adam is very guarded, not wanting to reveal too much information.

Like his Skeleton Creek books, Carman uses some multimedia to enhance the plot of Trackers. Every once in a while Adam will just say something like, "It's better if you see this" then the reader needs to go online and use a password to access the movie that Adam is showing his questioner. The book does have "transcripts" of the videos for readers who might not have instant internet access. I love the idea of incorporating video into a story. I'm sure that Carman could have gone without it, but in this story line the use of video not only makes sense, but it clearly adds to the story telling. I was sucked into the videos almost as quickly as I was sucked into the book. The website where you watch the videos also has a game based on one of the elements in the story. I played around with the game a little, but it was a little on the easy side.

For me as a reader, and I imagine for many young readers as well, the only real disappointment was that Trackers Book One ends on a ridiculous cliff hanger and book 2 won't be released until January 2011. Thanks a lot Patrick Carman! I fully think that readers, 4th through 7th grade will devour this series. There wasn't anything in the first book to make me think that the story will be inappropriate for 4th and 5th graders. It will be interesting to see what happens in book 2 because of the hint of violence that was given at the end of book 1.

Below is an interview with Patrick Carman and links to Trackers Related Websites

Trackers Official Website
Patrick Carman's Website
Review of Trackers by Franki at a Year of Reading

Later,
Tony

Reflections on Data Collection with Google Forms

2010-05-18T19:30:00.008-04:00

In my last post, I shared the idea that our class was using Google Forms to send a survey to as many people as possible. The "product" of our work is a Keynote presentation that is shared below. Overall, I thought this project went well. Now that I have had a little time to think about it, here are some of my reflections:
1) Really sorting through the mountains of info we received was a daunting task, so I limited their searching and exploring to small chunks.
(imagine this times about 100)

We could have spent the rest of the year analyzing the results. However, I was impressed with how quickly the kids were able to look for patterns in the data they received. Mind you, these patterns were not earth-shattering conclusions, but they did go beyond the literal level of just identifying which survey choice was the 'winner'. For example, a pattern that was not shared on the Keynote was the tremendously diverse answers to the favorite recess activity. The group working on this one was perplexed by the amount of "other" choices. I think a valuable lesson they learned was the idea that different places produce different norms for recess activities.
2) The kids were very energized by the amount of people outside of our city who took the survey. We had over 150 people from about 15 different states and 3 countries outside the USA take the survey. The power of social media. Besides using my Twitter Account,

Class survey for data/graphing unit http://bit.ly/a8JVFd please respond, retweet and share with many, many peopleless than a minute ago via webTony Keefer
TonyKeefer

I learned that the kids had their parents share it through email and FaceBook. I think my class learned a powerful lesson here about how connected we are to people from all over the place.
3) The class became more knowledgeable in the area of asking purposeful questions for surveys and they really learned a lesson in clarity. Some groups questioned their results because they felt that the people who took the survey misread the question. However, when other classmates explained how they read the question, the mismatch became more obvious.
4) If I repeat this project in the future, I may start it earlier in the year and let the survey stay 'active' for a while longer. After we started looking at the data we got about 20 more hits. I think it would be interesting to plan and send the survey out about 1 to 2 months before actually doing the final project. The kids could see how it the results change over a longer time. I am also thinking about trying to extend the depth of the survey questions to include ideas that might be more meaningful. Think, justice issues like hunger, rights, environmental concerns, etc.

Overall, using Google Forms to create a survey for my kids to collect and think about data was more than worthwhile. I would definitely try doing it.

Our Data and Graphing Project: 2010

View more presentations from Tony Keefer.

We also posted the Keynote on our class gallery as a way to share the work done after the survey.

Later,
Tony

Data Collecting with Google Forms

2010-05-02T09:10:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago I read an interesting post by Tom Barrett at edte.ch about using Google Forms ( a feature within Google Docs) and social media to collect data for math class. I loved this idea, so I decided to give it a shot as well. When I told my class we would be making a survey to collect data to eventually analyze the findings, one of the first responses was, "We did something like that last year." My reply was something like, "Yes, I remember some of you as third graders walking around our school with clipboards in hand." Some eye-rolling led me to believe that at least a few of my students were not that interested in repeating that process. So I let them in on the idea that we would do something a little bigger this year. We would compose a class survey, build it on Google Forms and send it out to as many people as possible. Their curiosity and anticipation was climbing. One student is hoping that we get responses from all over the world. (I am not sure that will happen, but you never know).

My main goal for this idea was for the class to compose questions that were beyond the "Do you like pizza? Yes or No" level. I knew that just using the power of web-based connections to gather data would make the data collecting more 'fun', but I also knew that we needed to write questions that made the responders think a little more than, "yes" or "no". In a mini-lesson I shared some possible question formats ranging from multiple choice to likert scale to yes/no with qualifiers. We spent about 30 minutes a day over 3 days on the 'survey project'. The first day brainstorming in groups possible topics or themes that would be in the survey. The second day, the groups chose topics and started drafting questions. Most groups created 5 or 6 questions and started getting feedback from the other groups. The last day of the survey writng, the groups polished the 3 questions they wanted in the survey and checkied in with me. I did recommend a few modifications, but for the most part, the survey questions are exactly how the kids wrote them. Overall I was impressed with their thinking.

I created the Google Form for the survey and yesterday sent it out via email and my Twitter account. Today I am writing this entry and my wife will be posting the survey link on her Facebook account. As of the time I am typing this entry, we already have 28 responses and about half of them are outside our local community (one as far away as Tuscon, Arizona).

Tomorrow in class, my students will be making predictions about how the questions will be answered and they will get their first peak at the data. One very cool thing about using Google Forms is that with a click of a button, the spreadsheet info gets converted into graphs.

You can take the survey here:
Loading...

The final goal will be to analyze (my mind is racing with possibilities on how to analyze the data by various subgroups) and share the results. I will write about this in the near future. The class is thinking that we should produce a Keynote presentation so we can embed it the website we use to share some of our work. I love how my class is really getting the idea that sharing work can go way beyond hanging a poster outside of our classroom door.

Later,
Tony

link to survey to copy and share with as many people as possible (my class wants to be "swamped"): http://bit.ly/a8JVFd

Bond, Baddies and Bullets ... Oh My.

2010-04-01T11:48:00.015-04:00

About two years ago I discovered the Young Bond series by Charlie Higson. Seeing how I read many of the Ian Fleming novels and watched nearly all the Bond movies (including the dreadful Timothy Dalton experiment in the late 1980s) I got sucked into the books pretty quickly.

The 4th installment of the series, Hurricane Gold, dives in with a short and nerve-wrecking trip to the Caribbean island of Lagrimas Negras and into the mind of one of the many bad guys the James will face, El Huracan. The heavy foreshadowing of the 'Avenue of Death' was well executed.

When James enters the story, we discover he is on an extended leave from Eton School and will be taking a vacation with his aunt to Mexico. Shortly after arriving in Mexico, James meets then has to rescue two American children, Precious and JJ Stone, from would be kidnappers during a hurricane. Yes, you can't be on a relaxing vacation to sunny Mexico if you are Young James Bond.

As the book progresses James, Precious and JJ are reunited with the kidnappers, learn that Jack Stone, the father of precious and JJ as well as being a friend to James' aunt, may not be the squeaky-clean rich hero he seems to be. When the trio finally escape the kidnappers a second time, James and Precious decide to track down the leader of the gang to a criminal's paradise on the island of Lagrimas Negras. When James gets to the island, he meets and faces El Huracan.

Hurricane Gold is filled with intense action and clever, but not too surprising plot twists. Higson's writing style is plot driven, but he does develop several of the characters very well. His development of James is particularly good. In the overall series, we have seen many sides of James, but in Hurricane Gold we get to his inner frustration and voice become more prevalent.
I will also enjoyed the historical details of the book. Higson was able to layer in some interesting story lines based on the mood of the world in the 1930s.

Like many recently published series, Young Bond has an official site at http://www.youngbond.com/, but I found an "unofficial site" site called the Young Bond Dossier, that I enjoyed more. The Young Bond series is not for every middle grade reader, but I do think fans of action oriented series like Alex Rider, Percy Jackson and I,Q might really like the change of pace of a setting that is 70 to 80 years in the past.

Later,
Tony

After School "Movie Club"

2010-03-29T12:23:00.007-04:00

My friend Mary over at Teaching in the Tech Frontier and I are jumping with both feet into the world of movie making with kids. I am very excited by the opportunity and by the whopping amount of 3rd and 4th graders who signed up for the project (42 out of about 200 3rd/4th graders in our school).

The decision to create this after school club was driven by many factors:

1) The kids in our community have lots of opportunities to do many things, but there isn't much for intermediate aged kids that doesn't fall into the sports, scouts, church activities. All of these are great, but what about the kids who may not be interested in those type of things?

2) The kids at our school don't have many opportunities to do productive things after school and at school. Sure we have a latchkey program and some tutoring clubs, but we do not have any group that extends kids beyond the normal school day.

3) Mary and I were both inspired by what Kevin from Kevin's Meandering Mind did when he came to the Dublin Lit Conference earlier this year. We decided that creating a movie production club would not be that hard.

4) Mary and I are both a little too nerdy for our own good and we actually think this will be 'fun'.

I am really excited by two of the long range goals I have conjured. The first being that this club is more for next year and the following years than just the last few weeks of school. Mary and I are thinking that next years' 5th graders will 'power down' the last four to five sessions and we will bring in a fresh group of third graders to train for the following school year. The other long range goal is the idea that we will mesh making movies that are all about whatever the kids want to do along with movies that might become a resource for teachers and students. Imagine a stop-motion explanation of how circuits are wired.

I have a long to-do list over the next few days, but the first is coming up with a better name for our group than the "Stop Motion Animation Club". I am leaning toward "Scottie Dog Productions" since that fierce beast that is the Scottie Dog is our school mascot (I already have ideas for a great logo as well).

So, look for new posts about our progress, as well as a website that will be devoted to the kids' movies.

Later,
Tony

Slice of Life 3/29/2010: Back From a Break

2010-03-29T11:50:00.003-04:00

Over the last week or so, I have taken a break from this space and Twitter. The reasons are many, but the most important one is that I was becoming way too addicted to being "connected."

I have had probably a gazillion slices of life since my last post, but the most important was the realizations were: 1) Real conversations are really good and 2) I deviated from the intended purpose of this space.

So I spent some more time "unconnecting", learning, reading and thinking so I could get back to the original purposes for this blog:

1) Share ideas about using tech in the classroom.
2) Share books that maybe the typical intermediate teacher wouldn't pick up.
3) Occasionally rant about something, then delete the post immediately.

So, for this brief return to the "Slice of Life" Challenge, I need to say a few thanks:

1) Ruth and Stacey, I thank you for the challenge and I enjoyed (I think :) ...) the commitment to daily writing. You two are amazing and inspiring, I honestly don't know how you do all that you do.

2) To the many people who came to my blog and commented on my writing thank you, thank you, thank you.

3) To the new bloggers I found through the Slice of Life challenge, thanks for being a part of it too, many of you are now filling my Google Reader account.

3) To my wonderful wife (who I know will read this), thank you for putting up with me when I was trying to detox from Slice of Life.

Maybe next year I will try again.

Also to give myself I clean, fresh start, I did some digging and learned about how to change the look of my blog by downloading and tweaking a template from http://btemplates.com/. It was very therapeutic task that reminded me that I can work through something efficiently when I put mind to it. I went with a template that was a little more 'earthy' because I wanted to remind myself to stay connected with the people and places that are right in front of my eyes on a daily basis and not just the people and places that I might never see in person.

Later,
Tony

Slice of Life: 3/20/2010

2010-03-21T20:55:00.003-04:00

Watch this quick, less than 3-minute, video from TED. The speaker is Derek Sivers, who probably does many things, but he is apparently well known inside the music industry.

I am a big fan of TED talks and I had been out of touch lately. So, while riding my exercise bike today I decided to catch up (yes, I am that much of a nerd). Because I was nearing the end of my ride, I clicked on the under 6 minute tab. The title of this video, "Weird, or just different" spoke to me. I am glad I watched it. Here's what I came away with by watching Sivers' tiny clip.

1) If we have some deep-seeded assumptions, it can be hard to look at them differently, but maybe we should make a more earnest attempt. I know I need to try to make that effort more often.

2) How many kids do we brand as weird, that if in a different context would be the norm? I confess, I am guilty of this.

3) How many ideas do we shelve, because they seem weird? I know that I shelve too many too often.

4) In the era in which we live, can we really afford to not start looking at things in from different view points? Probably not.

Later,
T

Slice of Life: 3/19/2010

2010-03-20T22:51:00.003-04:00

I had a pretty typical Saturday filled with lots of activities, but I accomplished absolutely nothing "productive." Sometimes, this makes me feel a little guilty, but as I type this post and I feeling strangely guilt-free for not doing anything other than enjoying time with my family.

People always say, "Family comes first." This is an awesome theory to hold in our hearts, but in our actions, it can prove to be quite difficult.

In the spirit of a true 'family first' day, I am keeping this post very purposefully short.

Later,
Tony

Slice of Life: 3/19/2010

2010-03-19T21:01:00.005-04:00

When I got to school today I decided to revisit Georgia Heard's book The Revision Toolbox because I have truly been struggling to help one of my students see new possibilities in their writing. She is kind of stuck in a rut. I did get some new ideas, but a a "margin note" took me on a rather strange 10 minute diversion.

The margin note I wrote in Heard's book was "I bet T. would like this." I had to think about who T was. This note was probably written 7 or 8 year ago when I was a staff-developer at a different elementary school and during this phase of my life I had several great colleagues who name began with T, including three different Teresas.

These good memories of great friends who I do an absolutely miserable job of contacting led to me writing myself a note on the to-do list on my internet home page ("call ....").

Then I looked down to the "poem of the day" on my home page which was a lovely poem by Maya Angelou titled Touched by an Angel. The title and fantastic wordplay reminded me of Billy Collins poem Questions about Angels.

Thinking about Billy Collins caused a cheshire-cattish grin to emerge across my face because my all time favorite Billy Colllins piece is Marginalia. His ode to the random things we write in the margins of books.

A margin note caused my delay from searching for new ideas to help a student. However, it was a delay that was worth the meandering ride.

Later,
Tony

Marginalia

Sometimes the notes are ferocious,
skirmishes against the author
raging along the borders of every page
in tiny black script.
If I could just get my hands on you,
Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O'Brien,
they seem to say,
I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head.

Other comments are more offhand, dismissive -
"Nonsense." "Please!" "HA!!" -
that kind of thing.
I remember once looking up from my reading,
my thumb as a bookmark,
trying to imagine what the person must look like
why wrote "Don't be a ninny"
alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson.

Students are more modest
needing to leave only their splayed footprints
along the shore of the page.
One scrawls "Metaphor" next to a stanza of Eliot's.
Another notes the presence of "Irony"
fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal.

Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers,
Hands cupped around their mouths.
"Absolutely," they shout
to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin.
"Yes." "Bull's-eye." "My man!"
Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points
rain down along the sidelines.

And if you have managed to graduate from college
without ever having written "Man vs. Nature"
in a margin, perhaps now
is the time to take one step forward.

We have all seized the white perimeter as our own
and reached for a pen if only to show
we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;
we pressed a thought into the wayside,
planted an impression along the verge.

Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria
jotted along the borders of the Gospels
brief asides about the pains of copying,
a bird signing near their window,
or the sunlight that illuminated their page-
anonymous men catching a ride into the future
on a vessel more lasting than themselves.

And you have not read Joshua Reynolds,
they say, until you have read him
enwreathed with Blake's furious scribbling.

Yet the one I think of most often,
the one that dangles from me like a locket,
was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye
I borrowed from the local library
one slow, hot summer.
I was just beginning high school then,
reading books on a davenport in my parents' living room,
and I cannot tell you
how vastly my loneliness was deepened,
how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed,
when I found on one page

A few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil-
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet-
"Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."

- Billy Collins

Slice of Life: 3/18/2010

2010-03-18T22:04:00.009-04:00

Refreshed, revived, rebooted ... whatever you want to call it, compared to yesterday I feel very much alive and well. I think I woke up this morning in the exact same position my body was in last night when I mumbled good night to my wife.

I was rarin' to go. It is utterly amazing what an uninterrupted night of sleep can do for you. The day with my kids at school was great, filled with thinking and sharing and questions and laughter. Then after school, I rolled through 11 (yes, eleven) parent conferences that were all really good. For me, conferences are fun. The prep work is far from exciting, but the conversations with parents always give me a little adrenaline rush.

So, at 8:40 (approximately 13 1/2 hours after leaving for school) I happily walked home thinking about being able to relax and spend a little time watching some basketball while hanging out with my wife. I hit the door and my dog Josie nearly jumped out of her skin when she sees me. A few licks and tummy rubs later, I felt really good. After chatting with Jules for a little bit, I turned on the TV and saw this:
Well, maybe the ref wasn't thinking it, but I was yelling it. I don't have any particular allegiance to Ohio University, but

1) they are in Ohio

2) several friends and family members are alums and

3) they are kicking the crap out of Georgetown.

And it really didn't have to be Georgetown because I have nothing against them, but I got to watch the last 7 minutes of a ridonkulous underdog beating a perennial basketball powerhouse. I was officially jacked up like I just had a triple espresso with a Mt. Dew chaser.

If only Lehigh can beat Kansas in the late game, I might be able to stay up all night.

Later,
Tony

Slice of Life: 3/17/2010

2010-03-17T23:00:00.003-04:00

"I am very old and very tired." This is a self-diagnosis driven by 3 key symptoms.

1) It's St. Patrick's Day and not even an invite from Kathy Ireland (even the circa 1987 Kathy Ireland) could convince me to go to my favorite watering hole today.

2) I just tried to finish filling out my March Madness Bracket and I seriously considered just going with the higher seed all the way through and coin-flip the Final Four of Syracuse (which I don't really like), Kansas (which I really don't like), Kentucky (which I totally don't like) and Duke (which I nearly despise). Absolutely no fun at all this year. Even some of my usual under-doggy type fun teams are looking like they got "no love" from the NCAA Selection Committee this year.

3) As I look at the fact that I have less than 10 minutes of juice on my laptop battery when I started this post I made the choice of 'better make this a quick post' because I have no desire to find the power cable. This couch is far too comfortable.

I am seriously hoping a good night's sleep will come my way tonight.

Later,
Tony

Slice of Life 3/16/2010

2010-03-16T22:04:00.003-04:00

At 6:30 pm it was nearly perfect in my book. A slight chill in the air, sun starting to drift low in the western sky, the smell of damp grass and the thump of a soccer ball compressing after a well struck shot.

Soccer season started tonight. Coaching my daughter's team is definitely a strange ride. Sixth grade girls who love to win almost as much as they love to be girly girls. Spending time with these girls is almost THE highlight of my day. The games are fun because we do win a lot of them (and winning does really feel good). However, practice is what I really love. I get to see the girls as who they are. Middle schoolers who are more than comfortable in their own skin. Where else can you learn about, "who has a crush on who", the hot new bands, and "why 'faux Uggs are just as good as the real Uggs but only better because you can like get 2 or 3 pairs instead of just one"?

Practice also offers glimpses into the collective split personality of the team. It constantly amazes me that this group of fun-loving and extremely cute girls in practice flip the switch to mercenary mode in a split second.

First game is three weeks from today and at the end of practice, right after an obnoxious belch caused spontaneous laughter and story-telling about lunchtime atrocities, one of the girls asked, "Who do we play first coach?"

"The Huskies, should be a tough game."

"Yeah right ... we will probably only score 5 goals against them. Brraaaawwwwpppp"

Yup, that's my team ... belching fashionistas/stone cold killas.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/15/2010

2010-03-15T16:48:00.003-04:00

So I am stressed out with a gazillion things to do. Report card wrap-up, planning for parent conferences, soccer season starting back up ... not to mention just the everyday things I normally do.

Due to this fact I don't have much to write today or not nearly enough time to do it, but when I was cleaning my room after school, this brought me a little joy.

No, not the "hot mess" of papers I can't seem to do anything with, but the "stack-o-books" that my various kiddoes finished over the weekend. I am jealous that they had so much time to read this weekend, but I am excited that we are still reading like crazy.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/14/2010

2010-03-14T22:34:00.004-04:00

Today my oldest child and only daughter, Ellie, had her first "formal dance." The middle school she attends has a dance club that has met 4 times to learn about dance moves and the ever important dance etiquette so when the 6th graders like her get to go to "real dances" it will be quite the splendiferous affair. Not sure if all this learning will translate to successful dances in the future. Somehow I think middle school dances have not changed much since I attended them (Well hopefully the music has, I would hate to have 13 and 14 year-olds be subjected to Journey's "Open Arms").

Anyhow, today's dance club affair was the culminating "formal" at a swanky nearby country club (My daughter came back raving about the chicken tenders served on crystal plates. Wowie). She got to hang with her friends, listen to good music (apparently not Journey) and even dance with some boys. Thankfully, she liked the last part the least.

For me, the moment of the day was when she came downstairs before the dance. I could feel my breath being sucked out of my lungs. She didn't look my little girl at all. I have seen her all-dressed up before, but today was a little different. She looked amazing, mature, confident ... all the things I want her to be. So why I am I so not ready to see her like this?

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/13/2010 (Headmagnet)

2010-03-13T10:16:00.005-05:00

Over the past 9 months I have probably learned more than in the last 5 years combined. This is primarily due to my cannonballesque plunge into the pool of web 2.0 tools and applications. The list of things I have explored and tried would be ridiculous, but I can name the most important new tool I have discovered. Google Reader. This tool allows me to quickly read and react to numerous news and blog feeds in one location. It is like my own private newspaper. It was really easy to do and Google has some slick tutorials if you don't know how to intuitively 'play' to add feeds to your account, so I am not going to spend time in this space to share how to create a Google Reader account.

I am pretty sure if you are reading this, you are aware of services like Google Reader and you may already be using one. So why post about it here? Why now? To get some feedback about a new idea I learned about this morning.

In a very "Slice Of Life" kind of way, my mornings typically have a 10-15 minute scan of my Reader. There is no way I can get to everything (especially when I have sources like Wes Fryer's Blog in my reader ... This guy is great, but the dude must have a T1 port at the base of his brain) but, I at least skim through most of it. Today, while perusing my reader, I followed a link to Headmagnet and got "lost" for about 20 minutes.

If you are like me, you clicked on the Headmagnet link that is about a 1/2 inch above what I am typing right now. If you are not like me, here is a screenshot for you to think about for a moment.

So, an online tool that quizzes you in a variety of ways for any topic you want to take the time to upload into your account. Then it apparently tracks your retention of the material. I have never been a big fan of flashcard-y type of memorization activities. And I am very aware that with the flood of information that crosses our paths daily, the idea of memorizing may becoming outdated. However, I began to wonder if some students could benefit from a tool like this. Then, my brain went on one of its usual back-and-forth arguments of "Yes, Headmagnet has wonderful potential" to "Are you serious, how could you even consider using a tool like this with kids. This is a terrible, terrible terrible idea."

I am sure I will eventually be able to calm my brain and make a decision after some more exploration. In the meantime, if any of you out there explore Headmagnet or may already use it or know people who do, I would appreciate you sharing some of your thinking.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/12/2010

2010-03-12T23:38:00.005-05:00

This will be a very quick Slice of Life. Tonight my school had its annual spring carnival-type event and I manned the Cake Walk for about 90 minutes. Cakes, Loud music, excited kids and parents/grandparents with the 'really, do we have to do this again' look in their eyes. Good Fun.

What struck me the most though was the number of middle school 'graduates' of our elementary school who came through the door over and over again. It was awesome to see some of my former students. But it was also great to see these 'older kids' acting like younger kids. If one of the middle school crew won a cake you would think they just one the lottery. "YESSSSSS! IWONNNNACAAAAKE!" Combined with jumping and high fives.

It always makes me happy to see kids acting like kids, especially during that strange time that they really don't know if they should act like kids or mini-adults.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/11/2010

2010-03-11T20:51:00.005-05:00

So my good friend Mary over at Teaching in the Tech Frontier wrote about how melodies can spark memories yesterday and she asked the question, "What melodies trigger memories for you?"

When I commented, I said too many to list, but Bad by U2 resonated immediately in my mind. I have many wonderful memories associated with this song ranging form my first 'big crush" to watching my daughter sing the song in the back seat of my car a few weeks ago (I tend to brainwash my kids ... no crappy music for them!!!).

So today, when I got to school, I cranked up Bad as I was getting organized and I listened to most of Unforgettable Fire while I was grading some papers earlier this evening. Then for some crazy reason I switched over to radio for a little bit which simultaneously ended the U2 lovefest I was having with a thud and a warm smile at the same time. The first radio song I heard was John Mayer's "Heartbreak Warfare" which triggered the memory of the first time I heard it. "Boy, John the guitar melody sounds strikingly similar to my all time favorite song. You suck!"

But the weird thing about John Mayer is, as much as I don't want to like his syrupy sweet songs and voice and the fact that a vast number of women under the age of 50 think he is hot, I can't help but to like him. You see my wife, Julie, invited me, a self-proclaimed alt-rock guy, to a John Mayer concert before we were dating. And because I was already falling for her, I said yes. So I spend a night listening to "Why Georgia, 83, Great Indoors ...." thinking, "Hey, this guy isn't as bad as I thought." Funny how the intoxication of love can cloud your judgment.

Strange stuff, the connections that a single piece of writing by a friend led me to make in the last 24 hours, but I guess that one of the things that make my life a great ride.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/10/2010

2010-03-10T21:16:00.005-05:00

I have always been a huge fan of underdogs. I am not too sure when this all started, probably watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. About the same time I was wasting my time in front of a tv, I became a nearly life long fan of the Detroit Tigers because they were pretty god-awful in the mid to late 70s (though the coolest hats in major league baseball may have had something to do with it). I always come in dead last in NCAA March Madness pools I join because I really do think that East Tennessee St can beat Duke ... if everything works out according to my plan. And this year one of my all time favorite underdogs, the New Orleans Saints, won the Super Bowl (Unfortunately, I can't root for them as an underdog anymore).

Today, I read what might be the last post of one of the truly great underdog stories I have seen in my life. About 6 months ago I started following the blog of Mark Titus, An Ohio State University basketball player who is a walk-on benchwarmer. His blog is called Club Trillion. In basketball lingo a trillionaire is a player who gets one minute of playing time but has no other statistics at all (no shots, rebounds fouls, etc) because if you look at the box score his 'line' will read 1 followed by 12 zeros, or one trillion. Not the kind of contribution that most players want to make. He started his blog about 2 years ago and has over 1,700 followers and has had over 2.5 million hits ... Wow!

His writing is part comic, part insightful, part stories from the basketball Bucks and all straight from his heart. It is his heart that got me. One of the things he started was a concept called Club Tril. He sells t-shirts from his website with a slick RUN-DMC style logo and proceeds of the sales go to the charity Kid Again. I think he has raised over $25,000 for this cause. During OSU's recent senior night, nearly all the student section was wearing Club Tril T-shirts and Titus, who played 18 minutes and scored 1 point the entire season got the largest ovation of all.

Mark Titus, underdog and inspiration, will be missed by me. I would check out his most recent post, even if you are not a big basketball fan. His thoughts about how our childhood dreams not quite working out but things being better because of that has depth that is impressive for a college senior. I am also leaving you two goofy videos. The first Mark produced himself when people started questioning his basketball skills this year. The second is one a Mark "The Shark" Titus fan put on Youtube (yeah, the benchwarmer has fans that put videos out there about him). In the fan video, I thought it was very neat to see students celebrating a Buckeye victory while holding blow-up plastic sharks, that I am sure were meant to cheer on a player who never really played.

Later,
Tony

Slice of Life: 3/9/2010

2010-03-09T20:01:00.004-05:00

Part 1:

So, I missed yesterday. I am out of the running for the fabulous prizes that Ruth and Stacey have finagled out of various proprietors of goods for geeky teachers. Crap. I made a commitment to a month of writing daily and I failed before I was half way through. Kinda reminds me of my last plan to get in shape. Well, I at least made it past day 3 on this challenge. So, instead of letting this get me down, I have recommitted and vow this time, "I WILL NOT MISS ANOTHER DAY." Well, unless I have a series of events like yesterday happens again.

In short, yesterday went a little like this:

1) Get to school and I am feeling good.

2) Have a nagging feeling that I am forgetting something around 9:30 when my kids are in Phys. Ed.

3) Have nagging feeling confirmed when I realize I have an all day meeting scheduled for tomorrow that completely slipped my mind. GRRREEEAAAATTT.

4) Spend the rest of the day trying to teach and make mad sub plans for the next day. Then it dawns on my while my kids are taking a math assessment that all the planning I did over the weekend to get ready to kick off the next unit are completely wrecked because, "Can I really trust Subfinder to win the lottery for me and find me a teacher that 1) likes math and 2) is not afraid of a computer or SmartBoard. YYEESSSSSIIRRRRR!

5) Remember around 2:00 that I promised to take my son for a haircut right after school, then almost simultaneously remembered that my wife and I are hosting a church group meeting at our house at 7:30. OMG!

6) Spend the next 9 hours racing around like a chihuahua on crystal meth.

7) Crawl into my bed at 11:45ish and stare at the ceiling wondering if my lovely wife would really understand if I crawled out of bed to post a quick Slice of Life before the deadline.

8) Made the absolute correct decision not to do that.

So I could beat myself up a little, but I decided why? This Slice of Life challenge has been awesome for me and the extrinsic carrot of possible winning a book from Stenhouse has nothing to do with it. The reward has been the act of writing itself and the feedback from readers I have received. That being said, Stacey ... Ruth ... in no way would I feel cheated if you secretly slipped me some free goodies for trying to write everyday. I really, really wanted to sneak out of bed last night. If you count Kevin's 'robo-posting' while he was on vacation as actually counting for participation, you could count me in too.

Part 2

My lifelong guiding principal has always been, "Don't let things get you down." Like everyone else in the world, things do get me down once in a while. However, I really try hard to find laughter and joy in every situation, because if you look for those things, they tend to jump out at you.

This afternoon when I got home from my all day meeting, I was looking forward to reading Newsweek (it's a little Tuesday ritual I have). If you haven't seen this week's edition the cover story is yet another, "Let's Save Education" plan. I assume it has the usual "firing terrible teachers and finding great teachers to replace them or tying pay to student test scores or increasing the amount of charter schools, etc, etc, etc." I didn't bother to read it. At some point I will because the cover will beckon me like a carnage filled traffic accident on the side of the road. "Don't look, Don't Look, Don't Look .... I looked." I don't know where I stand on this newly discovered, "teachers are lousy ingrates" barrage in the media. But, I do know one thing. Great teachers inspire me daily and terrible teachers embarrass me daily. Not sure how to fix that, but I am sure that whatever plan is enacted will most likely harm more great teachers than terrible teachers.

Even with the burden of my Tuesday ritual being hijacked by some bad will toward my profession, I did find a little nugget of joy. Newsweek hooked me into Googling the new video by a the band OK GO. These guys are a little on the quirky side, but their new song is catchy and the lyrics really spoke to me. And the video is indescribably cool, brought a smile to my face and made me say 'wow'. Not an ordinary 'wow', but a Mr. Slinger, from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, "wow, that's about all I can say, wow."

Enjoy:

This Too Shall Pass by OK GO:

You know you can't keep lettin' it get you down

And you can't keep draggin' that dead weight around.

If there ain't all that much to lug around,

Better run like hell when you hit the ground.

When the morning comes.

You can't stop these kids from dancin'.

Why would you want to?

Especially when you're already gettin' yours.

'Cause if your mind don't move and your knees don't bend,

well don't go blamin' the kids again.

When the morning comes.

Let it go, this too shall pass.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/7/2010

2010-03-07T20:54:00.002-05:00

Two days ago I read a very fun Slice of Life by Bree at The Things We Read about the joy of getting a package delivered from UPS or Fed Ex. I, too, share the feeling of excitement when a package gets delivered. Especially when I forgot I even ordered something. It's kind of like finding a $20 bill in a coat you haven't worn for 6 months. Bree's post reminded me of the ultimate UPS experience that I have ever seen. Here's the story:

At the school where I teach we have the most dynamic and happy-to-be-alive UPS man ever. Let's call him Dave. Anyhow, Dave practically dances into school when he delivers packages and his amazing smile brightens everyone's mood. He also greets everyone he sees on the way into the office, kids included.

Somehow our students started picking up oh his vibe and a few years ago some fifth-graders would watch for him at lunch (our cafeteria is right outside the office door). I was on lunch duty when the chant started slowly at this table of fifth grade boys when Dave strutted into school. "UPS! UPS! UPS!." I looked over and Dave started waving his arms like Duane "The Rock" Johnson (before he became the star of goofy movies) which naturally egged the 5th graders on. When Dave went into the office the chant died down. A few moments later when Dave stepped out of the office he did the "I can't hear you!" hand to ear gesture and the 5th grade boys restarted, "UPS! UPS! UPS!"

Fast forward about 3 days and I am back in the cafeteria again and I see the big brown truck pull up into the bus lane. This is going to be good I said to myself. Dave came zipping up the walkway with his usual swagger and smile. When he hit the door, there was a tense silence that I would compare to that moment when Phil Mickleson is lining up a putt to win the Masters. Then bedlam breaks loose. Dave cupped his hand to his ear and the entire cafeteria, not just the lone table of fifth graders, erupted. "UPS! UPS! UPS UPS! UPS!"

I was in awe. Right in front of me I am witnessing a spontaneous celebration of a guy whose warm heart makes lots of people happy when he joyfully delivers a package to their door. Sadly, this new tradition was nipped in the bud, because the chant echoed down hallways and apparently disrupted some leaning in classrooms that were not at lunch. Sure, I get that, but man I am happy that I witnessed what I did.

So, this wasn't a slice of today, but without reading other "slices" I wouldn't have remembered, "UPS! UPS UPS!" So thanks Bree for rekindling a memory of one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/6/2010

2010-03-06T21:28:00.004-05:00

This is a sliver of a Slice of Life.

We ate dinner at my mom and dad's tonight. My dad was talking to my son about basketball and the conversation transitioned quickly from my son's 3rd grade team to Ohio State's impressive run to close their regular season to a recount of the best high school team my dad witnessed when he was in high school.

"Columbus East had a great team in 1963. I saw them beat Upper Arlington by double-digits. East had these 3 forwards that were all 6'4'' or 6'5'' and two guards that were around 5'9''. They were so fast and whenever a shot went up those forwards ........"

This is so my dad. He has a memory for sports that is nearly photographic. Naturally, when I was growing up, I wanted to be just like him. So I spent countless hours memorizing the backs of baseball cards and scouring the daily sports section. I don't think I am the machine he is, but I have won a few bar bets with my ridiculous memory for sports trivia.

During my dad's recount of this 'classic game' that "led to their second state championship," I glanced over at my wife and saw that "seriously, are you kidding me look?"

One the way home I apologized in advance to my wife. I said, "I know in about 20 to 30 years, Hank will be bringing his family home for dinner and we will be talking about how great some soccer game was and then I will tell the story of some other amazing game I saw in 1994. She just smiled and sighed.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/5/2010

2010-03-05T20:43:00.002-05:00

One aspect of being a teacher is that I think we all have a built in "teacherdar" that will pick up other teachers when they are in the same place. Sometimes this can be really great, but too many times for me it causes my head to hurt.

Tonight, when my family went out to dinner, was a perfect example of when my 'teacherdar" can lead to a near migraine. We rolled into this local restaurant that we love, primarily because on Friday nights, there is never a wait even though it only has about 20 tables. Thank goodness this place does a great lunch business! As soon as I made it into the lobby, my 'teacherdar" went into full sweep mode. First table, a middle-aged couple who looked way too upbeat for a Friday night at a not-happenin' place. No chance they are teachers. On second thought, he looks a little tired. But upon further examination of his way too accountant-y wardrobe, I felt safe. The only other occupied table had a younger couple. The boyfriend/husband had that far-away, I-will-nod-every-once-in-a-while look, while the girlfriend/wife was animatedly pointing a finger while imitating a whiny middle-school girl voice.

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Frustrated teacher at 2 o'clock!

"Welcome, do you have four tonight?"

The chirpy voice of the hostess pulled me out of my "teacherdar" moment for a second. But, before I could request a table to the left side of the restaurant, we were being escorted to a table that was about 10 feet away from the animated finger-pointer.

After we got settled, my suspicions were confirmed and I got to hear a 20 minute tirade about what is going on at school "X" and "How lucky you are that you don't have to put up with crap like this at your job!"

Now, my wife and I vent to each other and maybe we even make the mistake of venting outside the friendly confines of our home, but I can't remember a time in my life where I felt it was my duty to let an entire restaurant know that my school-life is lousy. In the big picture, I can step back and think, "yeah I get we all have a bad day here or there in the classroom." What I can't wrap my head around is the amount of times I have been in a public place and I hear teachers complain, complain and complain some more. It's no wonder we have issues with getting respect, proper pay, decent support from our communities ... the list can go on and on.

So what did I do? Nothing, except try to be with my family. It wasn't easy but I just tried to ignore the ridiculousness and be thankful that there were only 7 other people in the restaurant besides my family. I also felt a little sorry for the guy sitting with finger-pointer. I can't imagine thinking all day, "I can't wait to go out to a nice dinner and spend time with her" then have to listen to a visceral monologue that condemns everything from the kids to the parents to her colleagues. Yikes. I hope he was thinking happy thoughts while he was nodding and umm-umming through the meal.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/4/2010

2010-03-04T16:08:00.004-05:00

Today, one of my shyest students impressed me greatly. I love when you see a student you work with recognize that he or she has something to contribute to the class community. I completely understand why it took her nearly two-thirds of the year to make her mark. Our community is filled with alpha-wolves of both the male and female variety. This makes for some exciting days and rollicking classroom discussions, but for the shy, but very smart girl in the corner it can be difficult.

We have been working on deeper thinking skills in both reading and writing and have spent of few days with William Carlos Williams. "oh yeah, the 'Red Wheelbarrow guy!" one of my alphas who had read Love that Dog barked out on Monday. Yesterday we played around with writing our own "Red Wheelbarrows". Borrowing the opening stanza then adding to it in away that will make our readers 'wonder beyond belief' about the subject that 'so much depends upon.'

So, my 'shy gal' started cranking some rather inspired pieces in seconds. I watched her furiously scribble in her writer's notebook. She didn't come up for air until about 20 minutes after she started. I asked to read and all I could say was, "Wow, you have me hooked. I want to know the full story of the box, the book, the shoe ... all of them. Do you want to share one of these tomorrow" Her response was, "Can I think about it?"

I felt a little saddened, but at least it was not a definitive, "NO!"

She decided it would be ok for her work to be shared, so we unveiled it bigger than life on the SmartBoard this afternoon. She was beaming with pride as the pack all started complimenting her and firing questions at her. It definitely made my day, I hope it made hers.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/3/2010

2010-03-03T19:08:00.005-05:00

My 3rd grade son is one of these kids that most teachers dream of having in their room. You know the type ... polite, smart, loves to share, loves to ask questions and maybe most importantly he excels at playing the 'game of school.' I always get reminded of how he tends to 'work the classroom' he occupies when I talk to his former teachers. Inevitably the question, "How's Hank doing? get asked, followed quickly by, "I really miss having him in my room. He is so awesome." At times I wonder if they really know my son.

Don't get me wrong, I think he is pretty awesome as well, but for completely different reasons. I love how he always picks Buffalo Wild Wings when we have our 'guy time' together. This may present some problems in a few years. I love how he tries to spout off useless sports info like he is should be sitting next to Bob Costas at the Olympics. "You know, dad, Shawn White has his own private half-pipe. It's so remote that he has to fly in by helicopter to get there. That's why there is no waaayyyy he will not win the gold medal. Those Canadians don't have a chance." Off course he forgets that 2 days earlier he read that info over my shoulder while I was reviewing the Olympic Preview edition of Sports Illustrated. I love how he unconditionally loves to learn. I love his little strut when he does something he thinks is great. It comes close to, but doesn't quite cross the line of arrogance. But, I think the biggest thing I love about him is he has this little subversive streak like his dad. Only certain people are allowed to see this side of him, by his choice I might add. Which is also why I think I like this personality trait so much.

I am very fortunate to teach in the same school he attends. I get to see him once or twice a day in the halls. How many dads can say that? Because of this, I witnessed this little subversive streak in action today. This year our district switched to a new student log-in system that allows the kids to log into any computer in the district and their own desktop will appear on the screen. At first, most teachers in our building tried to hide the fact that the kids now have complete control on things like their desktop picture, the location of their dock (we are a Mac district) and several other components as well. I though this was pretty cool, the kids could personalize their workspaces. But for some people this much creative license is a little too much.

Getting back to Hank, today after school he was in the library showing his favorite-teacher-he never-had, Mary from Teaching in the Tech Frontier, all they new stuff he has done to his workspace and all the crazy photos he has taken on Photo Booth. Mary loved it so much, she hugged him right on the spot.

Then I saw the little spark in Hank's eye, the one that lets me know he is about to do something that a teacher like Mary would love, but maybe his own teacher would not love that much. "Hey ... could I use this photo booth picture as my desktop?" inquired my son.

"Maybe, but you'll have to figure out how to do it." Mary relied as she scurried out of the room to address yet another tech emergency in our building.

"Okay." click, tap, click, click ... "mmmmm" click, click ... long silence ..... click, click, "YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!" in concert with a fist-pump and arm-only version of the mashed potato.

Ladies and gentlemen, a new desktop picture for your viewing pleasure.

Now if I can just a picture of Hank's wonderful classroom teacher the next time he logs in to the computer. I can hear the slight sigh of exasperation escape her lips.

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/2/2010

2010-03-02T19:08:00.005-05:00

Yes, I have sunk to a lowest common denominator level and it is only day 2 of this 31 day quest to share a Slice of Life. The picture below is our family dog, Josie. About 10 minutes ago, I found myself alone in my home for the first time in what seems like and eternity. My wonderful wife is off playing tennis and my son and daughter are in the basement doing who knows what. So my first thought was, get posting and tell the story of what happened today at school.

But the second, I sat on the couch and opened the laptop, Josie sprang out of nowhere and nestled herself perfectly between me and the computer. This seems to happen frequently and I think in some strange way it's Josie's way of telling me to slow down. I tend to not do well with the so-called work-life balance. I am constantly thinking, plotting, maybe even scheming ways to make my classroom a great place to learn. Even when I am having a romantic dinner with my wife a little tiny voice in a far corner of my mind is saying something like, "What if you played jazz like this restaurant is playing during writing workshop? Would the kids' writing start to become more upbeat?" So in many ways I am incredibly thankful that this 4.5 pound ball of attitude and love landed in our home. Her irresistible nature forces me to slow down and just "be" for a while.

I think if Josie could talk she would have an incredibly rich voice that emotes an unbelievable coolness. Maybe Kathleen Turner or Angelina Jolie. So I can imagine her looking at me and saying something along the lines of, "Don't you want to just sit here and cuddle with me for a while? You don't need to twitter or blog or whatever you do on that computer." And of course, I would melt and say something like, "Sure, whatever you say, just let me ...

Later,
Tony

Percy Jackson's Quest Map On Google Maps Might Be Done

2010-03-01T17:13:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about using Google Maps to track Percy Jackson's Quest in the novel The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Our class might be finished (though I am still holding out some hope that a few of my students will track down some places we didn't put on the map, like Aunty Em's Garden Emporium). Reflecting on this little adventure has been very good. In short I learned:

1) That given the right motivation, 4th graders will go waaaaayyy beyond normal expectations for revisiting a text for critical reading.

2) The idea of collaboratively taking ownership of a whole class project adds quite a bit of purpose to individual students. All of my kids wanted a place he/she found to land on the map. Wow.

3) Using a Web 2.0 tool in combination with more traditional tools does not hurt the reading process, it can really enhance the process. Some of our discussions about the book, plot development and visualized what we read will stick with me for a very long time.

4) My kids amaze me. For example, if you check out the map, be sure to look at the street level view of the site for Yancey Academy. Several students wanted to find Yancey, and they took it upon themselves to debate the merits of of which potential boarding school in NYC could be Yancey since there apparently is no Yancey Academy in NYC. The picture below is a snapshot of locations for a boarding school in NYC.

The students who undertook this part of the map, used the search part of Google Maps and entered the address for what we already marked as Percy's Apartment. Then they clicked on the marker and used the "search nearby" function and entered "boarding schools". The green arrow is where we thought Percy's Apartment might be. The lettered markers are the various boarding schools that are nearby. Then they looked at the street view mode to see which school, "felt like Yancey." I think they nailed it. And for the most part, I think they nailed the other parts we marked on the map.

Another interesting thing has happened during this little project. The kids are learning a great lesson about "putting work out there on the web." The map has had over 1,700 views at the time of this post. They quickly figured out that that wasn't because we as a class have viewed the map 1,700 times. One of my more tech savvy students asked me to google "percy jackson map" because, "you know, I bet some people out there would like to see a map of the quest since Rick Riordan didn't think to put one in the book." So we did and sure enough my earlier post was #2 on the list that Google spit out. Go figure. Of course, now they all want to figure out a way to make it number 1. Not sure that will happen, but you never know.

Our finished map is below, but to get the full effect of some of the actual locations that were selected, I'd click on the link that says, "View Percy's Quest in a larger map".

View Percy's Quest in a larger map

Later,

Tony

Slice of Life: 3/1/2010

2010-03-01T07:54:00.003-05:00

Here is my daily entry in the 2010 Slice of Life Challenge.

As I was listening to my angry alarm clock blare at 6:10 this morning, my first thought was "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I am a morning person, but I absolutely hate the sound of my alarm. It sounds a little like the sirens that erupt in the background of a bad sci-fi movie. You can picture the scene. An asteroid hurtling toward earth and only Bruce Willis has the skills to save it. In the background the wail of warning tells us that a really snippy line like, "Houston, you have a problem!" is about to be unleashed.

As much as I dislike the sound of my alarm, it is very effective and reliable (I talking over 20 years-old reliable). The only time it doesn't work is when it doesn't get set. Which is the main reason I haven't purchased a newer, less alarming alarm. When this one does start its slow descent into a whimper, I know that in some strange way I will miss it. There are many, many things in my life that are far more important than this simple black box next to my bed. But I can't think of anything that has been there every single day since my sophomore year in college.

Later,

Tony

Writing Everyday: Yikes!

2010-02-28T20:31:00.002-05:00

I have just started following a fantastic blog by Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz called Two Writing Teachers. I checked out the site a while ago, but I honestly forgot about it. However, I learned recently that they have challenged all of us to join their "Slice of Life" project. It is kind of a contest to see if people will write every day for the month of March. My first thought was, Seriously, write a post about my day EVERY DAY. I'm having a hard enough time writing two posts a week. But then, I started thinking. I, like many teachers, would never consider giving up writing workshop in my classroom for a day. It's the scared cow. Even when a day is wrecked by standardized testing or a quick assembly that actually seems to eat an hour and fifteen minutes out of a day, I make sure that we have writing workshop.

So, I have decided I will give it a shot. Some posts in the next month may end up being meaningful, but even if I serve up a few craptastic entries at least for once in my teaching career I will be practicing what I preach a little. And I will have the added benefits of sharing this with my students and looking back on what caught my eye on a random day in March 2010. Check out this idea and take a browse through their blog. It is a good place to be inspired and remember some things you may have forgotten.

Later,

Tony

A Sock Puppet and a Clairvoyant Dog? MMMMMM

2010-02-28T13:34:00.000-05:00

Often times, a book's cover will suck me in immediately. A sock puppet hanging out the back of a station wagon with a crew of black-suited "goofies" chasing behind was enough for me to at least pull the book off the shelf.

"A Whole Nother Story" by Dr. Cutberth Soup is an off-beat humorous adventure that reminded me a little of the Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket and Alcatraz books by Bandon Sanderson. The story is narrated by Cuthbert Soup who among other things loves to give witty and for the most part useless advice to the reader as the tale of the Cheesman family progresses.

The Cheesemans are on the run because the father, Dr. Ethan Cheeseman has invented a time machine like device and a whole lotta people ranging from corporate bad guys to secret government agencies would love to get their hands on it. Thankfully, the Cheesemans have a psychic dog named Pinky that can predict when trouble is near.

During their time on the run, we learn that the Cheeseman children all have wildly creative names because they believe they need to change their identity at each new stop. Thankfully, we only have to endure one name change, because I think it could have been more confusing than entertaining. My favorite name change was when the eldest son changed his name form Barton Burton to Joe Smith. Not that creative you say? Well, it is spelled "Jough Psmythe". We also get to know all about the crazy cast of characters that are following the Cheesemans and who help or get helped by the Cheesemans. The large amount of characters in "A Whole Nother Story" is what I think makes the story a fun read. About the only thing that was disappointing is the book is that it ended with a cliff-hanger. In fact, the narrator closes with, "but that, my friends, is a whole nother story." I totally get that series books are big sellers, but it kills me that I have to wait around for book 2.

I am not sure this book would be a good fit for all middle grade readers, but I think for kids who appreciate strange stories or stories with a rather sophisticated sense of humor, this might be a favorite read. My 6th grade daughter loved it because, "It was so different" than her normal reading of big fantasy or realistic fiction and "it was funny and suspenseful." It will be interesting to see what my 4th graders think about the book after I place it my classroom library.

There is a clever website that relates to the book, http://www.awholenotherbook.com/. One fun thing to explore is getting your own secret identity name. Mine is "Hugo St. Vanderfeld". Which I believe is much more sophisticated than my given name. Maybe if I ever write a children's book, I could use it as a pen name. The website has a fun trailer for the book, which is embedded below through YouTube.

Later,
Tony

Putting Our Work "Out There"

2010-02-26T09:36:00.003-05:00

In my last post I shared I was incredibly inspired by educators like Dr. Tim Tyson, Kevin Hodgson and Anne Marie Corgill at the 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference. One of the lines of thinking that really stuck with me was the idea of how do we effectively share student work with a wider audience for authenticity and balance this with a concern of safe online practices.

I think I figured out one way to do both. Kevin presented some of his work at the conference using a website building service called Yola (Kevin's Stopmotion Animation Site and Kevin's Webcomics in the Classrom Site). Last night, in about one hour, I was able to use Yola to start an online "digital gallery" of work that my class has produced this year. It is still a work in progress, but you can see this gallery at http://wolfhoundsgallery.yolasite.com/. Yola was incredibly easy to work with, the only difficulty I have seen so far is that sometimes it doesn't "play nicely" with some embedding practices. So for a few of the things I embedded, I had to try more than one time to get it done. Yola is also a "comment" free service, so in essence the site I built is just what it is, a gallery. However, I did create an email account for viewers to send us a note, if they are so inspired.

It will be interesting to see the feedback from the families I have in our room to this new way of sharing their children's work. One of the reasons I decided to do this was that as a teacher and a parent of school aged children, I think it is an incredibly powerful statement to effectively and efficiently share the work students produce using technology. I can't think of a better way to "advertise" the classroom use of technology and the money spent on getting better technology in our schools than to share it online. Hopefully, the "Wolfhound" parents feel the same way.

Later,

Tony

"I don't do tech." Really?!?!

2010-02-22T07:31:00.005-05:00

Like many other Central Ohio teachers, I attended the 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference. It was an absolutely amazing event that started with a ridiculously smart keynote. The speaker was Dr. Tim Tyson and the biggest 3 (out of many ideas) that I took from his presentation were:

1) We are living at a time where, literally, school can be anything we can imagine it to be.

2) How can we as teachers and administrators help students produce meaningful content that can be shared on the global platform that is the internet.

3) The greatest achievement of any human is living up to their potential by using the resources he or she has available to them.

Whew, that alone is enough to keep my head spinning.

Then, most likely because I am a little ADD, I spent the rest of my day sliding in and out of sessions by amazing people like Kevin Hodgson and Ann Marie Corgill and trying to help 20 or so other teachers set up wikis for their classroom in my presentation (which was rather strange because the room I was allowed to use only had computers facing the wall, so I got to see the backs of heads for most of the time). I was also lucky enough to connect with many other friends and colleagues throughout the day. These conversations might have been more valuable than the presentations.

In short, by the end of the day I was inspired and made to feel like a slacker at the exact same time. Which, I think is the perfect spot for me because listening to people like Tim push me to do do even more searching, thinking and dreaming about what possibilities are out there for the my own children and the children I share a classroom with everyday.

So, why is it that another lasting (maybe even haunting) impression from the day was a comment made in a conversation I fell into toward the end of the day. "I don't do tech." which was followed by, "Kids in my class can read and write well, isn't that good enough?" I didn't respond to these comments, because to be honest they stunned me too much and frankly I was having too good of a day to get into a debate that I knew I couldn't win (or even tie). I didn't even know this person and she could be the greatest "I don't do tech" teacher ever and yet the comments really lingered in my head for a long time.

But even after more than 24 hours of thinking, I still don't have a response that is very strong, thoughtful or tactful. However, I hope that teachers who, "don't do tech" are still open to exploring new pathways, and if they don't, I hope that my own children and the children I teach don't end up in their classrooms. Harsh? Maybe, but it is truthful to who I am because "not doing tech" defeats the idea of us, as teachers, living up to our potential and utilizing the resources that are available to us.

And after sharing the day with so many wonderful and visionary thinkers, I know I still have a ways to go to live up to my potential.

Later,

Tony

Gee Willikers! Steve Brixton is an Ace Sleuth

2010-02-10T21:15:00.009-05:00

Mac Barnett's, The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (first in his new Brixton Brothers series) might be the most fun I have had reading a book in a long time. Protagonist Steve Brixton is 12 year-old who is obsessed with the a mystery series that in Barnett's fictional world sounds a lot like the Hardy Boys books I was obsessed with when I was about Steve's age.

Due to following the advice of the Baily Brothers, Steve is always prepared for all types of "baddies", my personal favorite being "the Tough" who can be recognized by his "greasy hair, scars on face, stubble, tattoos, loud necktie, cheap suit and poorly concealed weapon." And just like his own fictional heros, Steve finds himself in a tight spot when he checks the wrong book about the history of American needlepoint out of the library. How can there be a wrong book about the history of American needlepoint? Once he checks this book out, Steve learns about the "true job" of librarians. Apparently librarians are the guardians of important historical documents and are trained to defend these documents and secrets like Navy SEALS. So, I think the big uproar in library land about the title of "School Librarian" coming back is just another clever way to "cover-up" this true nature of librarians.

However, it's not just the librarians who want the book back, all sorts of baddies are trying to get the book as well. So Steve soon finds himself in hair-raising situations again and again. The plot of The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity is fast paced and walks the very fine line between humor and utter ridiculousness very well. The reader gets to know Steve Brixton well, but some of the other characters are not developed as well as they could have been. Even though most kids are not as familiar with the Hardy Boys books as 30 to 50 year-olds are, I think that the tongue-in-cheek writing of Barnett will appeal to many kids, especially boys who are looking for a good mystery.

I would definitely recommend The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity to many readers, but especially to those who are looking for a fun mystery that has a some action in it. I loved it and can't wait for book 2 to be published (especially since I want to find out who the 'other' Brixton Brother is).

For all you "School Librarians" out there, here's a little video from Mac Barnett just for you.

Later,

Tony

Tracking Percy Jackson with Google Maps

2010-02-10T09:37:00.009-05:00

Earlier in the school year I introduced how to make a My Map on Google Maps to mark places for a tour of Ohio. The kids were very successful because the design of the project was tiered enough that even the least tech savvy students would create a map that their peers enjoyed. In keeping with my idea that using Web 2.0 tools shouldn't be a "one-time" visit, I started thinking other ways to integrate the Google Maps tool into my room. Now, of course the kids were using Google Maps like crazy at home and during indoor recess. "It's so cool that I can look at my grandma's house!!!" However, I felt that just using Google Maps to find interesting, but cool street level or satellite pictures wasn't fitting with my goals of using Web 2.0 tools to create. So, when one of my students said we should use Google Maps to "see" the places in The Lightning Thief (our current read aloud), I said, how about we create a map that shows Percy's Quest? Lightning struck in our room quickly.

With the simplest direction of "Let's go back into the story to look for clues", we were off and running. Kids who had copies of the book groups with kids who didn't then they all started scanning through the book. In about 10 minutes we had a list comprised of:

1) Montauk (Where Percy and his mom went)

2) Camp Half-Blood (somewhere near Montauk)

3) The Metropolitan Museum of Art

4) East 104th St and First Avenue (Percy's Apartment)

5) The Lincoln Tunnel

6) New Jersey (the train station and Aunty Em's Garden Emporium)

7) The Gateway Arch

We then brainstormed some descriptors for our markers (we only did the first 2 on the list on day one). We also agreed that if I was going to add a marker, then their needed to be a solid location, not just "New Jersey". Then I kind of gave a little optional homework assignment. If you find places that you think should be marked, put it on our class wiki page with details.

Some very unexpected and wonderful things started to happen. The classroom conversations about writing became stronger, because I think the kids really started to see the connection that fiction, even fantasy like The Lightning Thief, is more 'real' when the author can layer in events, details that are real. Also the importance of setting, which can get lost of 4th grade writers is now more apparent. They also became a little critical of Rick Riordan. For example a few students at recess discovered that it might be impossible for Percy to "fall from the top of the Gateway Arch into the Mississippi River":

Most of my class seemed to think that if Rick Riordan would have understood that you can't just fall into the river, the scene would have been more believable. Funny how that never even crossed my mind when I first read the book a few years ago.

We are not done with tracking all of Percy's Quest yet, but I have been more than impressed with how spending a few minutes at the end of each read aloud session using and adding to our map has added to the thinking level of the kids. They are also asking for me to choose a book that is set in another country for our next read aloud so we can continue to use Google Maps to add to our thinking. Nice!

Here's what we have done so far: If you are not familiar with Google Maps, you can use the arrows to zoom or pan, and you can click on markers for descriptions. I also find it easier to click on the "large map" link below the embedded map.

View Percy's Quest in a larger map

Later,

Tony

More "Zombie" Fun

2010-02-09T10:09:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago when I wrote about the first book in David's Lubar's new series Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie, I closed with the idea that I was on my way to pick up book 2 in the series, Dead Guy Spy. I am happy to say I was not disappointed at all.

One aspect to these stories that I really enjoy is the dialogue between the characters. Lubar captures the voice of intermediate aged kids very effectively. Below is an example that shows that even though Nathan seems to becoming more comfortable with his "zombie-ness" he learns he may have people following him.

Mookie kept glancing over his shoulder as we walked. "Ever feel like you’re being followed?"

"Only when you’re behind me." I grabbed his arm and yanked him toward the school. Mookie got distracted pretty easily. Walking with him usually meant I did a lot of waiting up. Or backing up. Or grabbing and yanking. And a bit of picking up, since this wasn’t the first time in his life he’d crashed into stuff. I figure he wipes out about five garbage cans on an average week. If people ever turned into objects, Mookie would become a bowling ball.

"No, not like that. I mean secretly followed, like by someone who doesn’t want you to know he’s there." He turned around again. "Whoa!"

"What?" I really didn’t want to stand around talking.

We were going to be late for school if he kept this up.

He grabbed my shoulder. "The bush moved."

"Knock it off."

"Really," Mookie said. "Seriously. I think it’s following us."

"Bushes don’t move."

"Right. And dead kids don’t walk."

Okay, he had a point there. You could sort of call me dead. Or half-dead.

Well, I don't want to give much away about the second book, so I will keep it short.

1) It turns out that the bush following Nathan and Mookie was a recruiter for a secret organization known as B.U.M. (Bureau of Useful Misadventures) which wants to help Nathan find a cure to his disorder if he does a little work for them.

2) Nathan, Mookie and the other 5th grade boys get wrangled into a wrestling program by their over zealous gym teacher Mr. Lomux.

3) Nathan's friend Abigail is still searching for ways to help cure Nathan because she is a little concerned with the sincerity of the B.U.M. leaders.

4) There are plenty of laugh-out loud and slightly disgusting incidences.

5) Dead Guy Spy, just like the first installment My Rotten Life, is a complete story. In the end, you know there is more coming, but thankfully it is not a true cliffhanger ending.

It will be interesting to see how far Lubar goes with this series. I love series books for a variety of reasons, but I have never been a fan of series that stretch the story line so far that it is hard to keep interest. For example I think the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is just about perfect in this regard, while the Series of Unfortunate Events was unfortunately at least 3 or 4 books to long. My hope is that Lubar keeps developing Nathan, but that an end to the overall series comes sooner, rather than later.

No video about the book, but in keeping with the theme, enjoy this little bit of fun from CommonCraft.

Later,

Tony

Rockin' with Animoto

2010-02-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

There are a handful of teachers and leaders in my school district that have been getting together to read and discuss Troy Hick's book, The Digital Writing Workshop. The book is really good and the discussions in this group have been very amazing. One comment that really stuck with me was "Visual Trumps Everything!" I wish I remember where this comment is from, but I really got me thinking about exploring ways to for my kids to produce quick little movies that the "visuals" will help learning stick. I knew of Animoto prior to thinking about this project, but I couldn't wrap my head around how to use more that just a slideshow-like production because of the limitations of text (roughly 50 character limit on each text panel).

The beauty of Animoto besides it is FREE, is that it is so user friendly and intuitive. So I figured with the way things had been rolling in my class, why not give it a shot. So, with about 15 minutes of frontloading (and some prep to make the gathering of visual images easier for the kids), I let my class explore/play/learn about Animoto today with the goal of producing a quick video that might be a good way to review some key concepts in our current science unit.

We broke into teams of 3 and had resources like trade books, our science text and a storyboard style graphic organizer. Each team had a theme or topic to explain or describe. In less than an hour in the lab (and this includes some difficulty logging into the server, one group accidentally quitting out of Safari before completing their project, and the fact that it does take about 5 minutes for a short Animoto video to render) the class had created 7 videos and we had them emebdded on our class wiki so that everyone could see them and share them.

The videos are not the greatest things ever, but the watching the process of collaboration combined with the complete fearlessness of using a new tool was amazing. My friend Mary at Teaching in the Tech Frontier is a roving tech support teacher in our district and she stopped by to watch and help. Like me, she was impressed and was very, "happy to be hanging out with a bunch of people who aren't afraid to try new things." Today reminded me yet again that if you can thoughtfully determine how to integrate tech into the classroom, you can empower your class. As we were leaving today all they could talk about was getting home to share what they did with their family and trying to convince their parents to let them sign up for an Animoto account. Not a bad way to end a week.

One of the seven videos completed today:

Later,
Tony

Reflecting about first use of Glogster

2010-01-27T17:02:00.000-05:00

I shared in an earlier post about my class of 4th graders using Glogster Edu to create virtual posters to showcase learning from our 2-dimensional geometry unit. After evaluating their products based on rubric that combined a little math, writing and visual literacy components, I think they did a great job. I learned a great deal in this process:

1) The level of motivation was much higher than projects I have used in geometry in the past. This may be a result of a new "toy" to play around with, but I also think it was because Glogster "leveled" the field a little. The kids who struggle with art had an easy to use tool to express themselves. They didn't have to worry about how their lettering might not be as cool as a peer's lettering.

2) After a few mini-lessons about how certain elements in Glogster can be distracting to a reader, most of the class made huge revisions to their backgrounds and the amount of unnecessary bells and whistles they threw in. I felt this was a huge shift for my class. They are starting to grasp the whole idea of composing for an audience versus just themselves.

3) When kids are given access to a tool that allows them to work at home and school, they actually want to work at home more frequently. All 22 of my students did at least some of their work on their projects at home, even though this project was not a homework assignment. When I think about designing work for kids that is powerful, I am not sure of a better way to judge the impact of a project than, "I can't wait to get home to work on this more."

4) I sometimes need to be reminded that that kids (well, actually all of us) understand an hold on to information a great deal better if they have to showcase their learning in multiple ways. This project was a math "assignment" but it was more about communicating ideas. Because of this the overall work in math was much stronger. I partially attribute this to the idea my class really wanted their Glogs to be accurate, informative and entertaining to an audience.

Our next step is to embed their glogs into our class wiki so that people outside of our Glogster classroom can more easily see their work.

A few sample Glog's can be seen by clicking the links below:

http://svk54ns.edu.glogster.com/geometric-shapes-of-the-finest-priority/

http://s2rsrw8.edu.glogster.com/awesome-things-i-leared-in-geometry-/

http://s8eenz4.edu.glogster.com/quadiraterals-and-polygons/

http://s8xmhw5.edu.glogster.com/glog-2605/

Later,

Tony

More Like PowerFULL

2010-01-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid I used to think it would be fun to have a super power. Nothing too fancy, like all the powers that Superman had, but maybe something like the speed of The Flash or the optic blast that Cyclops of the X-Men could produce. Wouldn't it be cool to have just a little power that might help you make it through the day? Who am I kidding, I'd love to have that optic blast power right now. "Ooops, I just blew up your laptop Dr. Principal? Oh, that's the only place you have my observations stored, my bad."

Well anyway, even with those crazy daydreams, I never would have thought, "What if all my friends have a super power or two, but I have squadoosh." Now that would be a major letdown. It would be bad enough to not be the best soccer player, but imagine competing with super strength, high speed flying and extra super senses. This is exactly what Matthew Cody has dreamed up in his very impressive debut, Powerless.

The beginning of Powerless is the story of how a typical pre-teen deals with abruptly having to move to a new town. The protagonist, Daniel Corrigan, deals with the issue like many kids would - a mix or resentment and love. He understands that his family needed to move, but he still doesn't like starting from scratch in a brand new place. However, Noble's Green is not the typical small town it seems to be. Daniel is let in on the town secret by some of his new friends.

The kids who were born and raised in Noble's Green have super powers, but for some unexplained reason the powers and any memory of having powers is erased when the kids turn 13. Daniel and his new friends are all dangerously close to turning 13 and the group concocts a plan to determine what happens and how the transformation can be stopped. The group of friends, led by Eric, don't want to give up their super powers because 1) they have been secretly using them for good, like saving people from fires and car accidents, and 2) they don't want to lose the intense bonds of friendship formed between them.

Daniel becomes a reluctant, 'powerless' hero because his lack of powers means he doesn't have to risk breaking a code of rules that might cost him his powers. Daniel, who is also a big fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, uses his keen observational and deductive thinking skills to connect some seemingly unrelated events and ideas to help the young superheroes.

Powerless has plenty to offer. It is very well written and even though it is filled with plot twists and action, it is the depth of character development that makes the story so compelling. The group of friends cope with a variety of complicated issues, which make things in Noble's Green a world of gray instead of black and white. I can think of plenty of readers who would love this book, but my first thought is that Powerless would be a fantastic read for kids who struggle to get engaged in a longer book, but are ready to tackle the challenge.

Below is an interview with author Matthew Cody and below that is the link to his website. As usual, it's from Youtube, so you probably can't watch it at school.

http://www.matthewcody.com/

Later,

Tony

Glogging Through Geometry

2010-01-19T16:14:00.000-05:00

One of the most interesting new Web 2.0 tools that I have learned about recently is Glogster. Glogster is a place to create online posters. I was very excited back in December when I learned that Glogster had set up an "edu.glogster" version which makes it a little more safe and secure. The original Glogster site can unfortunately lead users to same very bizarre and sometimes inappropriate "glogs". Think very gothic "how to be a vampire" instructional guides. While I appreciate the creativity, the one I saw was a little disturbing.

After thinking about how to use Glogster and seeing some great examples of student work that ranged from lit repsonses to the muscular system (that one has been embedded into a wiki, which is a great way to publish a glog when students are finished with them). I planned for a 2 hour session where my class was given the goals of 1) Have fun and 2) Share some of the concepts you have learned in our first geometry unit. One disclaimer, the day before Winter break I did sign out the lab for an hour of exploring Glogster. Then many of them "played" a great deal over winter break. I think the opportunity to explore a Web 2.o tool before having to produce something with it is important for many reasons, but maybe the best reason is it gives students a chance to become comfortable with the tool.

To see the glog I created as a tool for my students to see possibilities during that exploration time, click here. In it is a short video that is a "how-to glog" that I was able to upload into my glog from SchoolTube.

To see a "Geo-Glog" that one of my students is currently composing click here. Make sure you scroll over the parts that don't look complete. A slider will appear to let you read more text.

Do you think we may have to have some discussions about visual overload? As a class we are also working on potential ideas for other ways to use Glogster. Like many of the Web 2.0 tools I have introduced to my class, the main thing is not about the tool itself, it is about finding a tool that can help share thinking and learning the best.

Later,

Tony

Holy guacamole Batman! N.E.R.D.S. rule!

2010-01-17T16:54:00.000-05:00

Well maybe nerds don't rule, as in rule the world, but if you buy into Michael Buckley's lastest rollicking tale, then nerds are America's best and last line of defense against evil geniuses that want to take over the world. The N.E.R.D.S. or National Espionage Rescue and Defense Society are an elite group of fifth-grade spies that do the "dirty-work" that the CIA, NSA, FBI or Rambo can't seem to do. Formed in the post WWII era when "new-fangled" technology made it difficult for normal spies to function well (i.e. accidentally severing a limb with a laser watch), our government decided to recruit and train children to save us from dire straights because ... wait for it ... "kids are not afraid of technology." An idea that seems to smack me in the face every day I teach.

In this opening of a series that I hope has better legs than Buckley's The Sisters Grimm, the N.E.R.D.S are infiltrated by an anti-nerd-popular-guy named Jackson Jones. Jackson, has become a social outcast at his school because of recently applied braces. And after a little detective work he learns that there is more to Nathan Hale Elementary School than he thought. The N.E.R.D.S. have their secret base deep in the bowels of this school located in Arlington, VA. This little tidbit seems to be a wink and a nod toward real-life places like Quantico and Langley.

Jackson comes to realize that some of the classmates he tormented in the past have incredible powers that help them in the hunt for evil. My favorite is Julio "Flinch" Escala. Flinch has ADHD to the nth degree, but he also has a special harness that can convert all of his untapped energy into super strength. So picture your favorite "high-motor" classmate or student. Now think, "What if he or she can flip a switch and then throw a car across a football field." WOWIE. Once Jackson makes it through N.E.R.D.S. training, which includes multiple ways for his ex-tormentees to turn the tables on him, the team learns that a mad scientist named Dr. Jigsaw is plotting to return the earth to a more aesthetically pleasing look by moving continents around.

The N.E.R.D.S have to deal with many hairy situations, but the intensity reminds me more of a cartoon than a scary movie. Buckley's writing in very tongue-in-cheek at times and the character development is a little lacking. Jackson in the only character that is really close to being developed. However, I would definitely recommend this book to readers who are searching for fun, fast-paced action and humor.

Below is an interview with Michael Buckley from Youtube. So, if your school is like mine, you'll have to watch it at home.

Later,

Tony

"I, Q" is smart fun

2010-01-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

I know it is not a brand new book, but somehow I didn't see Roland Smith's I, Q: Independence Hall until just before Christmas. It sat in my stack o' books for a few weeks, then I devoured it in about two days. So why did I like I, Q: Independence Hall so much?

Interesting characters: √

Fast moving plot: √

Intrigue: √

Excellent opening of a series: √

Old-school rock 'n' roll roadie that is also a spy: √ ... what?!?!

Yep, Boone the roadie is the character that really hooked me on this book. It is not like I didn't enjoy I, Q: Independence Hall before his serendipitous arrival, but his entrance was the beginning of a well conceived series of plot twists that added greatly to the adventure the two main characters were already having. Knowing my luck, he will die some heroic death in the second book and I will be soured on the series.

In this beginning of the I, Q series, Roland Smith leads the reader on a wild, but fairly believable ride. Even though Boone is the scene stealer, the story really focuses an Q (Quest) Munoz and his new step-sister Angela Tucker. These two are thrown together because their musician parents just got married and their rock group called Match is the next-big-thing. The newly made family unit goes on tour together in a tricked-out Winnebago. As the story progresses, Angela shares with Q that she feels like they are being followed by more than just fans and paparazzi. We learn that Angela's birth mother was a Secret Service Agent who died while on duty. Angela and Q think there may be some connection to the strange people who seem to be following them and Angela's mother. Sure enough, Angela's intuition was correct and that is when the two kids become "junior sleuths."

I, Q: Independence Hall is kind of like Jason Bourne or James Bond for kids. One thing I really like about the book is the lack of real violence. There was plenty of excitement and the story does attempt to tackle the touchy subject of terrorism, but I didn't view at being inappropriate for middle grade students at all. If you have students who liked Gordon Korman's On the Run series or Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and The Olympians books, it is a safe bet that they would like this series as well.

Later,

Tony

Found this little video on Youtube and it got me thinking about how we might be able to use video as a way to show learning about a book.

Wallwishing our way to collaborative understanding

2010-01-15T13:00:00.000-05:00

I have recently introduced my class to Wallwisher. Basically, Wallwisher is an online bulletin board where users can post very short messages, links, pictures, etc. I was inspired by some people in my PLN to think about the possibilities for classroom practice. Honestly, I struggled a little with the "why should I use it question." When I decide to introduce a new tool for classroom practice it needs to be something that will enhance learning and not be just a slick new toy to play with. Now I am all for slick new toys, but if there isn't a connection to what I am doing in the classroom, then I usually don't consider using the tool.

After some thinking and testing, I decided Wallwisher could be a great tool to track thinking over time and for students to reflect on each other's thinking. In our state, one of the expectations for 4th graders is to be able to explain how a character changes throughout a story. I typically introduce this line of thinking during a read aloud of a novel. In past years my students would jot notes in a reading journal and maybe share their thinking with a partner or two. This system worked but it was lacking a few things. The main piece that was missing was the idea that the students were only 'hearing' their own thinking and just a few of their classmates' thinking. Being a big believer in the idea that we can all learn from multiple view points, something 'clicked' in my brain about shifting the thinking from a journal to a Wallwisher.

So far making the shift has worked marvelously well. My students check on what each other has posted, expand their own thinking and are genuinely excited to see their thoughts being shared in a public way. Wallwisher is an unbelievably easy way to promote collaborative thinking. It took me about 5 minutes to set up the first one and that was because I was playing around with different background colors.

That being said, there are some drawbacks to this tool. These include:

1) The "posts" are limited to to a Twitter-like 160 characters. However a few of my students have discovered you can just 'stack-a-post' if the space is too limiting.

2) As the creator/moderator you will need to stay on top of the postings to move them around if students start layering the posts on top of each other. This hasn't happened to me yet, but I did see an example Wallwisher where this layering phenomenon happened.

3) It has been pointed out to me that if you choose the wide-open version where posts are immediately visible, you could potentially have some negative or unwanted postings appear. This also didn't happen to me, but after this concern was shared, in about 3 seconds I adjusted the settings so I had to approve posts before they officially went public. This is really no big deal, but it does delay the instant gratification piece of seeing a post published as soon as you click "OK".

Below are the 2 of the Wallwishers my class is using right now. Feel free to add to the Wall if you are inclined. If the smaller embedded version is a little to difficult for you to navigate, click on the link below it.

Percy Wallwisher 1

Percy Wallwisher 2

We are also Wallwishing to build ideas for a collaborative story we are writing. It will be interesting to see how the collection of these ideas influence the authors when it is their turn to compose.

Later,

Tony

What's so bad about being half dead?

2010-01-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

Everyone once in a while I see a book on a shelf and the title and cover just screams to me, "STOP EVERYTHING AND PICK ME UP RIGHT NOW, AND I MEAN NOW STUPID!" Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie: My Rotten Life by David Lubar did just that. Really, look at the cover and tell me you are not at the very least intrigued?

In full disclosure of my book reviewing plan, I need to admit a few things. There are plenty of wonderful sites out there that I have found that let me know about the best of current books that will:

a) be Newbery contenders

b) be guaranteed sappy picture book read-alouds

c) be great for driving thoughtful discussions about the state of our diverse world

d) be wonderful additions to classroom math, science or social studies collections

e) be great books to make you feel like you can slide a teachable moment into your reading workshops.

All of these sites are fantastic and I regularly check them to see what has been published that I can add to my classroom library. Three of these are listed in the links to the right (A Year of Reading, Literate Lives and Jen Robinson's Book Page). However, I haven't found a site that intends to review books that are just downright 'fun' to read and in many cases will be great books to draw boys into the world of reading. Sharing fun books that might hook boys will be the primary driving force behind my reviews.

So, back to Nathan Abercrombie. Nathan follows the familiar story of a likable 'outsider' in school. Nathan has a few friends that he describes as 'the second-besters.' The second smartest kid, the second fattest kid ... The type of student in our schools that is just ok. Which in fifth grade may not be the best thing to be. When Nathan gets squashed in the cafeteria by a girl he has a crush on things start to get rolling. Nathan wishes he couldn't feel bad anymore and a another outsider girl, Abigail offers to help him. Desperate for a distraction Nathan agrees to take the help and he is accidentally turned into a zombie by Abigail's mad scientist uncle. When Nathan discovers what is happening to him, he thinks it is terrible, "I was dead. Oh man, if my mom found out, she'd kill me."

However, what Nathan and his best friend Mookie discover is the advantages to being a zombie. Not having to sleep, doing endless chin-ups because dead muscles don't need all that extra oxygen to keep working, and becoming an expert on zombie shoot-em-up video games. While Nathan, Mookie and Abigail work to find a cure for Nathan's Zombie-ness, Nathan shares insights about the social structure in his school. Most of the insights are based on traditional streotypes, but I think they do have some truth to them. Also Nathan has an incredible voice that comes through with his ability to poke a little fun of himself as his situation gets worse. For example he spikes an orange drink at a party with finger that he snaps off his hand.

I devoured this book like a brain-eating zombie, but thankfully Lubar does not add any scenes of brain-eating. According to Abigail, brain-eating zombies are just in the movies. Thank goodness! What Lubar has created are some very likable characters which most kids will be able to connect with in some way. The plot is fast-paced and humorous. While Nathan will not be on any short lists of award winners, I do think it will be a big hit in my classroom and many kids, boys in particular will be clamoring for more. This is the first in a series, so I am on my way to pick up installment 2: Dead Guy Spy.

Later,

Tony

Seriously?!? What do I have to say?

2010-01-06T22:32:00.000-05:00

Over the last few years I have been asked by several colleagues that I respect and admire to consider writing an article or even a book. I was genuinely flattered and started and ill-fated attempt to write a book about boys' literacy issues. However, it never really got off the ground. Primarily because my mentors from afar like Tom Newkirk, Michael Smith, Jeffrey Wilhelm and Ralph Fletcher all said similar things to what I was thinking, so how could I add anything relevant to the conversation? I kept asking myself, "Seriously?!? What do I have to say?"

Recently, I have begun to feel the itch that I should write because some of the same colleagues that have previously tried to get me to write, like Franki at A Year of Reading, and some new ones, like Mary at Teaching in the Tech Frontier, have pushed just the right buttons. The itch has intensified because writing has always been a form of therapy for me. And lately I feel like I need a little of that. So, I might not have much to say, but I will be saying it anyway.

This past year has been the biggest year of professional growth and development for me because I have cannonballed into the of pool classroom tech integration like an ADHD middle-schooler. It has been nerve wracking, exhilarating, rewarding, frustrating, wonderful ... you name it. The best thing about this adventure has been I have been learnin' me sumthin' like crazy. I can't get enough of it. I used to quietly smirk to myself when I heard people talking about playing online games, blogging, texting, watching movies on their computers and facebooking (well, I still smirk a little at that one because who really needs to know that "Joe Smith" just picked up Cinnabon for Sunday Brunch). But now I feel like I am online for hours each day reading, learning (specifically from people like Kevin at Kevin's Meandering Mind and Tom from edte.ch), Twittering (yeah, I guess that is kind of like Facebook, but the people I follow don't tell me when they just poured themselves a glass of wine and are sitting down to watch Desperate Housewives), playing around with new tools and just being flat-out amazed what teachers and students are doing with Web 2.0 technology. This addiction has been so insane that I took my computer to California over Christmas break so I could check what my 4th graders were doing on their wiki pages and their Glogster accounts. Yikes!

So, like what it says on the top of the site, my aim is to share bit of info about the stuff that engages and empowers me and to poke a little fun at myself in the process.

Later,

Tony