Browsing articles tagged with " discover"

Guest Teaching 10.29.08

Oct 29, 2008   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   365 Questions, Uncategorized  //  No Comments

Cores 1+4:

  1. Write-on: 
  2. How can we decipher the symbolism of Maus 2, extracting more meaning from only the images?
  3. Frame analysis:
  • Describe- Describe the frame in detail. Make sure you find even the smallest pieces of information that are hiding within the illustration.
  • Explain- Explain the meaning of each of the objects and details in this frame. What do these things symbolize or represent? Why does the author use this image instead of another one? What message is the author trying to convey through this frame?
  • Expand- Show how this frame and its different meanings relate to the rest of the book or to your own life.

4. Use Photo Booth to take a picture of the frame you would like to analyze.
5. Annotate the photo with description, explanation, and expansion using preview (after you have converted it to a PDF)
6. Go to Slideshare.net and upload your file… Make sure that you tag it with maus2.
7. Look at our greatness.

Cores 2+3:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Using a backchannel to discuss and ask questions about Animal Farm (While we read).
  3. Text animalfarm and then your question or comment to 41411.
  4. I also need a google jockey to get images that help to express what is going on in Animal Farm.
  5. Read Chapters 9 and 10 of Animal Farm.
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    CAGT 2008: Technology and Community

    Oct 10, 2008   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    Presentation (both live and PowerPoint):

    Technology And Community

    View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

    Cell Phone Back Channel and Idea Network:

    Audio Reflections:

    Subscribe Free Add to my Page

    Topics and Links from the presentation:

    1. Make the Community Visible
    2. Make the Community Inclusive
    3. Make the Community Public
    4. Make the Community Always-On
    5. Make the Community Lasting
    6. Tending your community
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    The Ripe Environment: Collaboration as Instinct

    Jun 26, 2008   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  2 Comments

    I sat at the over-long table, as I always do on Mondays and thought about the next time I would meet my students for Extended Learning Time (our version of a multi-discipline course without any set curriculum or standards to give guidance or restrict us).

    “Well, it is earth day in a couple of days.”

    Immediately, my colleague and I started a Google Document called Earth Day 2008. We started dropping in links to pages we found.

    “Oh, I did hear something about an event on the National Geographic Channel. Did you hear about it. Something about the human footprint.”

    We were pushing hard now, 25 minutes before kids arrive. Link after link being proposed as a starting point.

    “What is the question we are really trying to get our kids to answer here.”
    “Is Earth Day important and why?”

    And we we started writing out a discussion, a plan of attach. We eventually came to the conclusion that there were others who were interested in asking this same question, experts even. And yet, within 30 minutes we created an authentic question and activity around it. Our instinct was to create and collaborate, rather than offer worksheets as an attempt at lesson planning. This is our Ripe Environment, and the class that the students came into that day was Ripe too.

    They couldn’t wait to see who had the bigger footprint. They couldn’t wait to collaborate on their own weekly or monthly collection of soda cans or milk jugs. This process of not waiting to be told, of instinctively knowing that it is the right thing to do, that makes it truly authentic.

    So, how do you foster this instinct for collaboration. Well, by saying yes to it as often as possible. It is my personal belief that there is never too little time to create, too little time to collaborate.

    If you have only a minute:

    1. Put a request for a resource out on twitter.
    2. Do a delicious search instead of a google search (it is a community of people waiting to help).
    3. Link to someone who is talking about it.

    If you have a half-hour:

    1. Start a google doc and invite a few others to join in.
    2. Search technorati for new blogs, videos, and people who are interested in the same thing.

    If you have a longer:

    1. Start a wiki and get people to contribute.
    2. Start a blog and get people to contribute.
    3. Start a movement and get people to join.
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    Community requires tending.

    Apr 11, 2008   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  4 Comments

    George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a story mostly about tyranny and the corruption of utopian ideals, but in the very beginning there is a passage that means something very different to me. It deals with the leadership of Mr. Jones before the rebellion, before the animals decide to take the farm into their own hands.

    “The fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and the animals were underfed.”

    This quotation represents all of the things that happen when Mr. Jones gets too distracted to work, to maintain his environment, and to make life better for all those involved. To me, this is about not tending the community. It is about letting things lie fallow which must be uprooted and overturned to see what is underneath them.

    Our communities are just like this I think, both in our classroom and outside of them. The communities within our classroom, especially the collaborative ones that we are all striving for, require an immense amount of tending. The Discovery Utopia wiki that my students are working on (and the reason that we are reading Animal Farm in the first place) is not an exception. If I do not constantly draw attention to the great things that are going on there, the community seems to just pass right on by them. If I do not look for the troubling points, the issues that nearly every student seems to be struggling with, students stop using the community. They find other ways to occupy their time. And that is one of the most interesting parts about our communities. They are communities of choice.

    All communities of choice are ones that can be thriving in one minute and vacant in the next. So, how do we tend for consistency? Well, we feed the animals (is it weird that I am referring to my students as animals). We put up new buildings for them to play in. We design the space so that it is inviting and provokes the best kind of authentic creativity: their own.

    I think that the lesson is pretty clear. If we do not tend to our communities, they will fail. The inhabitants will rebel and either stop using them, or turn them into something that rejects their purpose. And, if Animal Farm is any indication, the inhabitants of a untended community will become just like us and not tend to their communities. I mean that in both a virtual and real-world sense.

    I hope this comes across as something other than a Language Arts teacher’s metaphorical analysis.

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    Visions of Change

    Dec 18, 2007   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments
    Visions of Change Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (123)

    April 24, 2007 06:10AM

     

    Well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but I really didn’t expect it to happen this soon. We have received funding for our School 2.0 within a school idea, The Academy of Discovery. So, what do we do now? How do we continue to articulate the vision in the face of overwhelming support. Adversity I can handle, but what do we do now that everyone is behind us, just waiting to see how we can pull this off. It leaves me very excited to have the freedom of collaboration and experimentation within my community, but it also leaves me scared for blank page that we have been given to write on. I just hope all of our posturing and framing doesn’t signify nothing.
    Show Notes:

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    links for 2007-11-22

    Nov 22, 2007   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Delicious Links  //  No Comments
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    Choices, Choices…

    Sep 13, 2007   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    itunes pic
    This is the first podcast in over a month because I needed to upgrade for more storage space. It is not an enhanced podcast, but I’m sure it will be illuminating nonetheless.

    I was trying to figure out which content management system to use for The Academy of Discovery. I am still not sure if I picked the best one, but I am pretty confident that we are doing some great things. Check it out at http://academyofdiscovery.com.

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    The New Job Description

    Jun 11, 2007   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    itunes pic
    The more that I think about doing something “different” in my classroom, the more that I feel that process should be transparent. Not just for my students and their parents, but also for my administrators. Principals, Assistant Principals, and even Super-Intendants should be aware that there is change happening in the classroom. They should also want that change to occur, meaning that they should actively support it. But the only way that this is going to happen is if we start advocating for it.

    So, this podcast is all about how we should be writing our own job descriptions for the jobs that we dream about doing as teachers and presenting them to our administrators. I think that if we take this proactive approach, many will listen and start to think differently about what should be going on in the classroom.

    Show Notes:

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    My Students Are Known For…

    May 29, 2007   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    itunes pic
    This is the first podcast that I have done on my new MacBook and I was used GarageBand rather than ChapterToolMe in order to create the chapters. I have, as of yet, not been able to find a way of exporting the chapters and links into html using GarageBand, so you will have to download the show in order to get the links. If anyone has a way of doing this, I would love to hear about it.

    As for the episode itself, I have been hoping for a very long time that my students are learning everything that I want them to. I want them to come back to me after years of amazing creation and show me just how much influence they have derived from my class. I do not expect to change each of my students, but I do believe that many of my students see value in the School 2.0 environment that we are trying to create. The three things that I want them to be known for and to come back and tell me all about are Authenticity, Analysis, and Passion. If they have those three things down, there is no telling what they can do.

    http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/httpwww.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/


    http://discovery0607.wikispaces.com/The+Weekly+Authentic

    http://discovery0607.wikispaces.com/message/list/reflections

    http://headrush.typepad.com/

    http://yongesonne.edublogs.org

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    Digital Ex-Patriots and The Formula for Transparency

    May 15, 2007   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    itunes pic
    Well, I may be going out on a limb with this one, but I have described in the podcast a level of discomfort with technology that goes beyond the simple immigrant/native debate. The fear and panic that is associated with technology in the classroom comes from Digital Ex-Patriots. These people (parents, teachers, administrators, etc.) are so sure of their anti-technology stance that they are actively pursuing a life (of education) away from technology integration. These are the people that we must win over if we are going to continue our collaborative efforts and truly create change. Please let me know what you think about this concept in the comments or in an e-mail (benjamin.wilkoff@dcsdk12.org)




    Show Notes:

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