The Winter Wonderland Project is an online project for grades K-3 that includes winter-themed technology activities with reading, writing, and math components. Registration will open on Wednesday, November 18th. The Project will begin December 1st and end February 28th. Teachers who participate will share student work on their own personal page(s) on the wiki. Suggested thematic activities and resources for each month will be provided. We will have a Featured Activity each month that we hope all classes will be able to complete. We have chosen our Featured Activity to introduce you to some new tools or websites or new uses for tools you already use. We do realize that there may be times when sites are blocked at schools or schools do not have access to the programs or tools used. If you cannot complete the Featured Activity we would still love your participation in the Winter Wonderland Project.

Please visit the Winter Wonderland Wiki to register, learn about the planned activities, or to get more information about the project.

Thank you,
Winter Wonderland Project Coordinators
Amber Coggin, Nedra Isenberg, & Vicky Sedgwick

I would guess a year or so ago I looked at the site Pics4Learning and thought it was a good idea but there wasn’t a lot there. I moved on and forgot about it. Well, this year I’m making a greater effort to begin teaching my students the importance of using pictures they have permission to use and how to give credit for pictures. While looking for appropriate sites I came across Pics4Learning again. This time I took a closer look and was happy that there seemed to be a larger selection of photos, or maybe I just didn’t take enough time to thoroughly explore it last time I was there. There are close to 50 different topics to choose from. They even have pictures from the Library of Congress. This came in very handy when I was looking for pictures of the presidents for a wiki project I did with my 5th graders.  I think this site is especially wonderful for elementary students. The site is safe, easy to search and easy to see who to give credit for the photo.

I also noticed that anyone can upload pictures. So, I have become a cheerleader for the site! I would like to encourage everyone to add photos. I  belong to several groups on Flickr and know there are many edtech folks out there that have pictures that would be great contributions to this site.

I had a couple of questions and contacted the site. Melinda Kolk responded very quickly. Here are my questions and her answers:

Is it possible to do a batch upload?

Because of the citation information needed for each image, there isn’t a batch upload on the site. You can however, send a CD to us with the photos and a completed spreadsheet. (Contact Melinda Kolk for spreadsheet info.)

Do you have a size preference for the pictures?

This is really a hard one. It is always nice to have large images for resolution purposes, but really large images take a lot of bandwidth. I wouldn’t do scenery shots at less than 1024×768 or 768 x1024, but if you are shooting a particular bird, or flower, or something at 600 across would probalby be fine because a student would use it in a project as an image that supports their work.

So please go take a look at the site and give some serious thought to adding to the picture collection.

(My First Blog Bost)

I just passed my one year anniversary of blogging. Hard to believe just over a year ago I barely knew what a blog was let alone a wiki, ning, Twitter or the words web2.0 and PLN.

I had a crash course in learning all these terms at NYSCATE during a day long session with David Jakes. I had actually signed up to take a class on video conferencing. When it was canceled I had to sign up for a second choice. I’ve been thankful ever since for having to do that. I walked into that session with no idea who David Jakes was or what I was about to get myself into! By the end of the day I had signed onto Twitter, Google and Delicious. I had made my first blog post, Google reader was up and running and I had been introduced to wikis, nings, Google maps and Google Earth. As you can imagine my head was spinning by the end of the day. I had taken a bag of papers to grade and a book and magazines to read in the evening while at the conference. Those went untouched as I began my journey into this strange new world.

How has that one workshop had an impact on my life?

• Well, I’m pretty much addicted to my computer. I don’t have internet on my phone because I’m afraid I’ll become addicted to that too and I think my family would draw the line at that!
• I learned to do what we tell our young students to do all the time-SHARE. I no longer find myself in the mode of this is mine and I don’t want anyone else getting credit for it.
• I started on Twitter. Like many others I didn’t get it at first but it didn’t take long to see its value. When Twitter was having some technical difficulties during NECC I tried Plurk. For the summer I was on both but once school started I couldn’t keep up with both so now I spend my time on Plurk.
• I joined Delicious but before I became hooked on that Diigo came along and I joined that as well. I like Diigo but I’m not using it as the social network that it is.
• I belong to way too many nings. Many of them have ended up not having much activity. But three of my favorites are Artsnacks by Kevin Honeycutt, Projects by Jen by Jen Wagner and Setting the Standard by Melanie Holtsman. I just signed up to be a mentor on Artsnacks so I actually put it on my Google calendar to go there every Sat. to comment on at least 3 pieces of work.
• In April I started a ning for elementary tech teachers. Three people told me they thought it was a good idea. Now, 8 months later it has grown to include middle school teachers and has over 200 members. I’m so pleased with the great group of dedicated teachers that have made it successful.
• I have flickr pro account and have joined a few groups but am most active in Photo Fridays.
• I applied for the Inspired Teacher award from Inspiration and won.
• I applied for a NYSCATE grant and won. I was very happy with my beginner’s luck on those two.
• I am a very quiet/shy person. I attended NECC in San Antonio and worked on being a little more outgoing by speaking to the people near me in presentations and hanging out on the fringes of the Blogger Café.
• I have also joined facebook. That I use mainly for keeping track of my family including nieces and nephews.
• I have started over 10 wikis. I’m getting ready to start using my first one with the students actually adding and editing work.
• I completed my first truly collaborative project, Scary Spuds with Amber Coggin’s class in Alabama.
• I’m working on another wiki project, Winter Wonderland, with Amber Coggin in Alabama and Vicky Sedgwick in California.
• I learn new things on a daily basis because of my PLN.

What I’m hoping the next year brings:

• I just bought a microphone. I haven’t tried Skype yet but that is one of my goals. I’m hoping to try it out with my sister tomorrow.
• I put in a proposal for a Best Buy grant. I’m guessing my beginner’s luck is wearing off. But I’m hoping to find other grants to apply for. Grants for new equipment will be important as NY faces tough economic times.
• I hope to do more collaborative projects.
• I hope to slowly get more classroom teachers using some of the new tools with their students and for themselves.
• I’m looking forward to attending my second NECC and rooming with 3 of my online PLN friends!
• I want to get back to reading blogs for 15 minutes a day again. I should set that as my goal before clicking on Plurk!

My blog continues to be a place for my rambling thoughts. I’ve never considered myself a writer but I have learned to enjoy putting my thoughts down in this blog. I’ve come a long way in a year and I know with the help of my PLN I’ll continue to grow. Thank you!

Please share your accomplishments from the last year and what you’re hoping the next year will bring. I’d love to hear from you.

Gary Turner

Ash Grove, MO

Gary has built a new gas station to look like an old one complete with old pumps and signs. An old truck even sits out front. He also has an old barn with tools and a refrigerator. As soon as we arrived he called us back to the barn and pulled cold Route 66 Route Beers out for us, no charge. He introduced us to a young couple from Austria that was traveling the Mother Road on Harleys. He told stories and asked questions and finally had us all come into his station. There he passed out bags with maps and brochures for places we’d be seeing along the way. And he told more stories. One thing you don’t want to be, while traveling this route, is in a hurry because everyone has stories to tell. Gary was the best ambassador of Route 66 we saw along the entire route. He has a dream to some day add a gift shop where he sells his own hats that are made in America and a place to serve snacks.

Marcia Wilson

Cuba, MO

As we wandered in and out of different shops we had seen Route 66 candy bars. When we drove into Cuba and saw the sign for the Route 66 Fudge Shop we guessed that’s where they were coming from and we were right. She had just finished making one of my favorite treats, chocolate covered strawberries. Even though she was busy trying to fill an order for 200 candy bars she took time to visit with us. She mentioned Gary Turner and said she has an order to make candy for him and plans on making a road trip to deliver it in person so she can meet him and see his place. She also told us about some must see stops coming up on our route. My husband had been looking at the Hawaiian shirts made from Route 66 material at various shops but being 6”6” he doesn’t fit in regular sizes. Marcia had a table cloth made out of the material so I asked where she got it and she gave me the address of a place online j and o fabrics where I could order it. So, when I get home I’ll be ordering some fabric and dusting off the sewing machine and brushing up on my sewing skills!

Henry

Henry’s Rabbit Ranch

Staunton, IL

Both Marcia and Gary had mentioned the Rabbit Ranch so we made sure we stopped by. As soon as we walked in we were asked to sign the guest book, I’m sure we signed at least two dozen of these on our trip. Then he asked which way were traveling, most people travel east to west, we were the rebels going west to east! He pulled out brochures and maps for us. He said he hates it when people come in that started in Chicago and get that far and no one has given them any materials yet and sure enough there was a couple in there that fit that description, they did not leave empty handed. Henry had recently lost his rabbit, Montana which loved to be handled and had been his official greeter. He has another rabbit that he hopes will take Montana’s place in the future. He also gave us a card for a yahoo group of Route 66 enthusiasts. I’m sure my husband will check that out.

I have to admit I wasn’t all that enthused about the trip, I was doing it because I got to go to NECC, that was my treat and the road trip was my husband’s treat. But the journey grew on me. After reading a recent post on starting conversations I knew that this trip would be a good way for me to work on this skill and by engaging in these conversations it did make the trip more memorable

]]> http://elementarytechteachers.edublogs.org/2008/07/15/passionate-people-along-route-66/feed/ 0 http://elementarytechteachers.edublogs.org/2008/03/21/teachers-and-technology/ http://elementarytechteachers.edublogs.org/2008/03/21/teachers-and-technology/#comments Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:22:35 +0000 Nedra Isenberg http://elementarytechteacher.wordpress.com/?p=32 flickr photo from quatro.sinko’s photostream

As I read through various blogs and tweets I see numerous comments about teachers not using technology and preparing our students with 21st century skills. This includes Will Richardson’s Weblogg-ed where he asks; “Which leads to the second question which is how in god’s name can we talk seriously about 21st Century skills for kids if we’re not talking 21st Century skills for educators first?” Being fresh out of the “regular” elementary classroom and into the computer lab I feel somewhat qualified to enter this discussion at the elementary level.

Time of course is the biggest hurdle. Elementary teachers teach all subject areas and often feel that more and more is being thrown at them every year. So, planning takes up a great amount of their time and in the elementary classrooms there’s very little time to do this during the day. Then add on grading, contacting parents, report cards, progress notes and other various forms of paper work and it does feel like there’s not time for anything else. People that use all the latest tech tools think it’s easy to incorporate these tools into the classroom but if you’re not used to using them they aren’t intuitive and feel like one more add on to an all ready overloaded plate. Vicki Davis addresses the time issue over at her Cool Cat Teacher blog.

Another hurdle is technology ignorance. I will be the first to admit I didn’t know the difference between a blog and a wiki last November, I had a delicious account but didn’t know it could do more that store my bookmarks and I had certainly never heard of an RSS feed or Twitter. But then I had the opportunity to attend NYSCATE and my world changed for the better. If I had not attended that conference, and David Jakes full day workshop in particular, I would still be in the dark. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the majority, if not all, of the elementary teachers at my schools are as ignorant as I was a few months ago. And I am in no way claiming to be any kind of expert now nor is that meant as a put down to our teachers. I try to share some of what I learned and continue to learn by sending out a bimonthly newsletter in which I try to explain some of these tools and give the teachers links to check out. Some teachers are interested in learning more but don’t feel they have the time or aren’t quite ready, I can relate to Ryan Bretag’s post A Letter Asking for Help.

A third obstacle is lack of modeling by administration on the new tools. We do have computers in our classrooms and teachers are expected to check their email several times a day, all memos are delivered through this form. We have electronic report cards and I’m sure electronic grade books will come our way in another year or two. All teachers have been trained to update a web page on the school website. (But since it’s not mandatory many teachers update so infrequently they forget how to do it. I offer a drop in help session each month, so far no takers.) So teachers do have some computer knowledge and the administration encourages us to use the computers but they aren’t out there in front modeling by using blogs, wikis, Google Docs or other tools. I am trying to encourage them and have sent our administrators links to blogs by other administrators. I’ve also invited my building principals to look at Google Doc and add to it, neither has tried it so far. However, the administration is very supportive to me. The fact that our elementary schools have a tech teacher is rare for our area. So far this year they have sent me to NYSCATE, The Symposium-a one day local conference showcasing technology, and they are sending me to NECC. This type of support tells me that they are willing to be open to new ideas and will continue to take babysteps to becoming a district that is preparing our students for the 21st century at the elementary school. I am very grateful for this support.

I agree with Will Richardson that we need to get teachers using these tools first. At my last district tech meeting it was announced that we’ll be writing up a document on minimal competencies for teachers. We have competencies for the students and we want to make sure the classroom teacher has these same competencies. I jumped at the chance to be on this committee. Student competencies are mainly Microsoft based competencies. I hope we’ll have some other competencies for teachers as well and I plan on taking the ISTE’s NETS for Teachers with me to the meeting. Once this plan is in place we’ll decide what type of training is needed to help teachers meet these competencies. I think this is going to be a good starting point to help teachers with technology.

Now that I’m on the other side of the fence I, like so many others, am trying to figure out how to get the teachers to use more technology tools and begin reading blogs. I can honestly say I understand when they say they don’t have time but I have to find a way to convince them they need to make time in their busy schedules. I like Katt’s idea over at the Techno-Rhetoric Cafe. She is hosting a Technology Club for interested teachers. This year I’ve tried drop-in after school sessions on a variety of topics, I think 3 participants is the most I’ve had per session so far. So maybe I’ll try the club idea next year. I know I’ll never get everyone on board but I would love to have a core group of teachers working together to try new tools to help the students. Hmmm one more idea to add to my growing summer to do list. Another way I’m trying to help the teachers is by setting up a wiki with teacher resources and student links. It is a work in progress. I’m also using it as a place to show what we’re doing in the lab. Another area of strength for us is our local Model Schools organization. They offer training on a variety of topics including such things as wikis. I need to find ways to stay updated on their latest offerings and get the information out to our teachers and encourage them to attend and continue to attend workshops myself.

I love my new job and the challenges that it brings. I look forward to learning more ways to integrate technology and continue to support and help the classroom teachers as well.