Learning is Change
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

11.07.07

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Core 1:

  1. Write-on: Does music have the power to persuade?
  2. Discuss the Pied Piper of Hamelin questions:
    • How can music create changes in the ways people feel and act? Are
      these changes always positive? What are some examples of ways in which
      music may have affected events in history?
    • What assumptions did the Mayor make about the Piper?
    • What was the Piper’s point of view about how he was treated? Were his actions justified? Why or why not?
    • What is the lesson of the poem?
    • Why do you think the Piper chose music to charm the rats and the children?
    • What did the Piper mean by the words, “And folks who put me in a passion/ May find me pipe after another fashion”?
    • Why was no one able to stop the children?
    • How did the Piper persuade the Mayor to allow him to get rid of the
      rats? What evidence did the Piper use to support his argument?
  3. Which of these questions are debatable?
    • How do you frame a question so that it is more debatable.
  4. How is this more debatable: “Solved: The may should have paid the Piper.”
  5. Extension:
    • Write out how you believe a debate should be organized and run.

Core 2:

  1. Quiz-on: Why did Mrs. Logan warn her children before taking them to the Barry’s.
  2. Read Chapter 5:
    • What does it take in order to create change in society?
    • Do you have the kind of courage that it takes to change others or yourself?
  3. Extensions:
    • Start to think about what part of racism or sexism you would want to tackle (change for the better).

Core 3:

  1. Write-on: How can you make it so each student in this class is heard, and so that Austin isn’t forced to shush us every few minutes?
  2. Read to Shylock’s Speech
    • Why is this speech so important to the story?
    • How does it add complexity to his character?
    • What is flawed about his logic?
    • Is Shylock a sympathetic character?
    • Do you believe that Shakespeare’s viewpoint of Jews at the time The Merchant of Venice was written was progressive or just nuanced.
  3. Perform the speech.
  4. Extensions:
    • Read you AR book.

Core 4:

  1. What is revision in persuasion?
    • Why did the founding fathers make the changes that they did?
    • How has their persuasion benefited society?
    • How do you give that kind of importance to your own writing about a book.
  2. Choose two revisions made in the Declaration of Independence and
    write out your theory on why these particular revisions were made from
    the viewpoint of one of the founding fathers.

    • Speak as if in the continental congress and try to convince the
      assembly to revise the document before sending it out into the world.
  3. Extension:
    • Continue working on your body paragraphs for your persuasive essay.

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Why should students come to class?

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If my students can do the majority of their work with writing and reading online…
If my students can receive all of their assignments online…
If my students can maintain constant contact with their friends, classmates, and teachers online…
If my students can create spaces to come together or work alone online…

What do should we do in the classroom?

One of the biggest takeaways that I have been formulating at the Virtual Schools Symposium is that the hybrid model is not fiction. When students have access outside of class hours (and this is not a given by any means), shouldn’t we be expecting that they be connecting and collaborating during this time?

The more that I work with my new 7th graders (the students who I have only known under the Academy of Discovery Model), the more I realize that productivity is something that comes from having the ability to work at your own pace and schedule. I keep seeing the majority of essays being written at home even though I feel the obligation to give them time in class. I keep seeing my students make more meaning out of the emails and instant messages outside the classroom.

My real question, I guess, is what activity is so well suited to face-to-face contact that it can’t be replicated online? Whatever the answer to that question is, is what I need to be doing in my classroom, every day.

Here are my thoughts on what can’t be replicated online, yet:

  • Debate – In its truest form, debate is a refined series of verbal arguments that require many people talking in rapid succession. Although you can do debate in an elluminate session, the passing of the mic is awkward at best and the visual separation of the competing sides is not possible.
  • Networking – It is why we still come to conferences. Finding great people that you want to work with and that will challenge you is something that is lacking in the online world. A social network does create a sense of community amongst many people, but it the bonds forged are not immediate. They take time and tending. In face-to-face communication, it is easy to see the worthwhile. It is easy to recognize excellence. That is what classroom time can be: the search and recognition for excellence (in writing, in math, in science, etc.)

What are the things that you think are so essential in the classroom that they can’t be outsourced to a virtual space? (Do they still exist? Will they always exist?) I really want to know.

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Mini-Edublogger Meetup at VSS2007

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I would like to propose a meet-up for anyone who is blogging, podcasting, or tagging at VSS2007. Please comment on this post if you would like to be a part of this. We could meet at a session or simply eat at the same table at lunch. I would love to know what other bloggers are seeing at their sessions.

I hope to see you soon.

VSS Blogroll so far:

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Evangelists for Learning

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Point #1:

“The people that complain are our best customers, not our worst.” –Jackie Huba

In the keynote for NACOL VSS 2007: Jackie Huba, an advertising consultant and blogger, is talking about creating learning evangelists. Her idea is that word of mouth is all powerful. The students and parents that complain about learning are the ones that may be the biggest evangelists. They are the ones that care enough to put forth ideas. They are the ones who want a better product. For every complaint from them, many more complaints exist (she says 26).

What does this mean for us as teachers on the cutting (sometimes bleeding) edge of education?

Well, I think that we need to be able to pay attention to our critics and frame our ideas in order to make them into evangelists (I would call them advocates). We need to be solving issues of content and access so that our students and parents see that we are listening.

If we are listening to our stakeholders, we need to do something about it. Pushing further and further out into the blogosphere and online learning without listening to what is working and what isn’t will never create the kinds of advocates that we need. So, my next question is: How do we listen well? How do we use what we hear to change, or possibly, keep doing something that is working.

Point #2

“Google Never Forgets.”

If you post something, write something, create something, google will remember. Bad press matters, as does bad research, bad marketing, and bad framing. I want to make sure that I don’t make any missteps with my identity. Is that possible?

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Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

11.05.07

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I am at NACOL’s VSS 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky today. Here are my sub plans.

Cores 1-3:

  1. If you get stuck in your blogging today,  please go here and find inspiration.

Core 4:

  1. If you are “finished” or “stuck” in your essay writing:
    • Get a couple of people to read it and comment.
    • Comment on other students’ essays.
    • Look for revisions to make your piece more persuasive
    • Edit using one of the following checklists if you like:
    • For added flavor, record your essay as a podcast (on garageband with music if you like).

If and when you finish working on your essay, you can start/continue your Academy Authentic work.

Uncategorized

Without Community…

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This is my first time blogging from in on an airplane. My daughter, Isabelle, may be the cause of that. She is cleverly intriguing, so much so that it is difficult to be very reflective when she is saying “da da da” at you. My trip today, and the reason for this blog post, is to find out what the North American Council for Online Learning has to add to the School 2.0 conversation.

I was not the only one with this idea, however.

I just so happened to sit next to Kathryn Knox, Ph.D. (Senior Director of Curriculum and Instruction at the Colorado Virtual Academy) and we struck up quite the conversation about online learning.

My favorite part of the discussion was when we stumbled upon community as a tenet for a successful online school. She put it this way: “Without community you don’t have a school. You have a program but not a school.” This idea really caught me and it hasn’t let go yet.

Are we trying to create programs that are viable and sustainable, or are we trying to create communities that constantly need tweaking and guidance. The first is easy: Set up the systems, install the software, write the content. The second is terrifyingly hard: engage all stakeholders, listen, change.

I really need to keep looking at the Academy of Discovery to make sure that I am not just creating a program, I am creating a community.

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Combined Word Dictionary Video Podcasts

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This is our first attempt at a video podcast. Because not all of our students have agreed to have their pictures posted online (and because I hold security at a premium), I have obscured their faces somewhat with CamTwist. This project is about creating new words and putting them into our modern lexicon. Please feel free to use these words in your everyday speech. Also, Please comment on this project.

Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

11.02.07

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Core 1:

  1. Debrief-on? How many new words can we expect in our lexicon based upon your work with the Combined Word Dictionary.
  2. Record a few definitions for classroom podcast.
  3. Turn-in Essay, and self-assess according to Kid-Friendly Rubric.
  4. Read Pied Piper of Hamelin:
    • How can music create changes in the ways people feel and act? Are these changes always positive? What are some examples of ways in which music may have affected events in history?
    • What assumptions did the Mayor make about the Piper?
    • What was the Piper’s point of view about how he was treated? Were his actions justified? Why or why not?
    • What is the lesson of the poem?
    • Why do you think the Piper chose music to charm the rats and the children?
    • What did the Piper mean by the words, “And folks who put me in a passion/ May find me pipe after another fashion”?
    • Why was no one able to stop the children?
    • How did the Piper persuade the Mayor to allow him to get rid of the rats? What evidence did the Piper use to support his argument?
  5. Extensions:
    • Answer the following question in a paragraph: Should the mayor have paid the Piper? Why or Why not?

Core 2:

  1. Practice-on: Practice your interview with your partner.
  2. Record interviews using iMovie and CamTwist
  3. Finish reading Chapter 4:
    • How does someone detach themselves enough from humanity to laugh about burning someone else?
  4. Extension:
    • If you forgot to share your Academy Authentic with me, do so.

Core 3:

  1. Group-on: Get into your “Best” groups and be ready to vote on your categories.
  2. Vote on Categories 1-5.
  3. What new categories should we add for next year’s students?
    • How are these better than the current categories?
  4. Extension
    • Read your AR books.

Core 4:

  1. What is revision in persuasion?
    • Why did the founding fathers make the changes that they did?
    • How has their persuasion benefited society?
    • How do you give that kind of importance to your own writing about a book.
  2. Choose two revisions made in the Declaration of Independence and write out your theory on why these particular revisions were made from the viewpoint of one of the founding fathers.
    • Speak as if in the continental congress and try to convince the assembly to revise the document before sending it out into the world.
  3. Extension:
    • Continue working on your body paragraphs for your persuasive essay.