Wallwisher

Now with my first field study over .... I now have more questions than ever!  The quality of feedback definitely varied from student to student, and from day to day.  I've considered creating a document for each student and copying over their comments for them to look at and reflect on ... but that sounds like a lot of work for 90 students.  For some, without them getting to see what "convincing" explanations look like, I'm not sure they will ever "get" how to explain in a satisfying way.  I felt I had run into a bit of a road block on this one.  With only 1/3 of the students actually participating, I was feeling somewhat discouraged .... yes most of my A students were engaging in the process, while many of the students who really needed my help were not.  No different than in the past when I would ask them to come for help.

Tonight as I opened my google docs I saw that the slideshow created by Tom Barrett on how to use Wallwisher caught my eye.  My graduate program instructor Tom had used it at one point in the fall term but I hadn't really thought about it again.  Would this be a way to have the students post feedback so that others could see ?  This could be done relatively anonymously .... students could be given a number so that if they chose not to put their actual name, I'd still know they had posted.  Once I started checking things out, I found that you could embed the wall right on your sharepoint!  I've gone ahead and posted a question about the midterm and I'm curious to see if there is any posts during the Xmas break.  I plan on giving this a try in January to see how the students respond to the different approach.

One of the suggestion was to have students post their photos in a sticky ... I think I like this even better than the online album we used this term.  Might have to give this a try too!

"Picturing" Algebra

As I start my unit on polynomials, I wanted to take advantage of a few things I'm learning about. First was the ability to email photos to an online picasa album along with encouraging students to make use of their digital cameras or camera phones. Last Thursday I introduced students to the use of algebra tiles and spent most of the class playing with them. For the most part they seemed to be doing OK and I did see a few have a bit of a light turn on about integers (I wish I had done this in September). The true test would be if they could go home and model 6 expressions, four that I gave them and two of their own creation. As to be expected only a few kids did it right away and the rest left it to Sunday night. These photos were so much more illuminating that any piece of homework that I could take in. There were examples that clearly demonstrated their understanding, but the more interesting ones were those that showed what part they misunderstood. With these I was able to find two ideas that were not clear and I can incorporate them into my subsequent lessons. This may end up being a daily assignment for students as we work through this unit!

Brain is popping with ideas!

I've been mulling over when my next field study will be about - phoned a friend and picked her brain. I realize that I don't really need start thinking about it now but I feel like I need to start brainstorming now so that I can put together something that is meaningful to me. As I was looking through my google reader there was a blog suggestion for changEd and the top post included a video from Brian Mull and Alan November "Myths and Opportunities - technology in the classroom". It was fantastic and the 13 minutes zoomed by ... I found myself scrambling for a pen and paper to write down things as it went by!

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

- What did I learn? What do I need to learn next?
- class researcher
- podcasts downloaded onto ipods
- using collaborative technologies - google docs
- official class scribes
- teach research skills
- ask kids what kinds of assignments they would like to do

I think that I may be getting a seed of an idea for my next project ....!

How to improve reflections?

My students have been filling in the homework check in for now close to a month. I was starting to feel a bit frustrated because the responses had become brief to the point of not helpful and I was wondering how I could get them to expand their ideas. They key I felt was for them to see what good/useful feedback looked like. With the spreadsheet I was able to sort for responses shared for the last class and was able to copy just that column (omitting all names) and print out for students to see. In small groups they were able to read through and identify which ones were the most convincing in terms of student learning. We took a few minutes to go over why they thought specific ones were more convincing than others .... and how others could have been "beefed" up to be more useful to the teacher. This only took five minutes, but I think it was worth the time! Tonight as I check into my google spreadsheet with today's reflections, the responses are substantially improved over what I was getting before. Nice!

A surprising response

About two weeks ago I came across a blog post about Audiopal on the Free Technology for teachers blog. A free way to post a minute or less audio recording on your website using your telephone or keyboard. If you chose to type in your message there was an electronic voice that read it ... I didn't especially like this so I gave the telephone version a try. Even though I dislike hearing my voice, I thought I'd post daily homework like this for a few weeks to see how things went. There are a few steps ... first phone the toll free number and record your message, second go to audiopal to get the code and lastly edit my sharepoint and updating the code for one of the webparts. Not terribly difficult but more steps than just updating the calendar with the assignment which I'm also doing. Its kind of cool so I figured I'd continue this for a while longer.

Last class one of the students said something about what I said on the website. After further inquiry I found out that he'd been checking into the website daily to "hear" the assignment. To check that he had written it down correctly etc. Cool! When I asked the class there were at least 10 students who indicated that they check out the recording. I guess I've just identified all of my auditory learners :) Its pretty neat that something I was just playing around with has been as useful as it has been (and I didn't even direct any of the kids there to check it out).

Three weeks in

Its been three weeks and I think I now can successfully call each of my students by name! I've had them asking them to fill in the daily check in form since I started assigning work. The response rate has varied on the day and some students are still surprised that they are suppose to be doing this daily. On average I've heard from 35 - 40 students per day (sadly thats less than 50% of the students). I guess my expectations regarding this were not as clear as I thought.

On the positive side, I have noticed that many of the students who are responding are beginning to put more thought into their reflections and are asking specific questions. This has helped to open up a dialogue with me and as a result I've already had more kids come in for help due to a brief email request than in the past as well as the number of emails I field on a regular basis from students has been significant. I have one student who is on a daily basis coming in to check with me after an online exchange back in early September when I mentioned that I'm in my classroom by 8 am. He has been waiting for me most mornings :) I've started using the google spreadsheet to keep track of my email responses to the students when they post a question. In some cases I've cc'd their parents just in case the email they provided was incorrect. I've received some very positive feedback from these parents as they see the online interactions that we are having.

On the negative side, there are still at least 5 or 6 students in each class who have never checked in along with a large number who have only done it once or twice. When I have asked them about it they have provided all sorts of reasons: my computer was not working (I'd be a millionaire for the number of times I've heard this), it wouldn't accept my responses (still not sure what this means), couldn't find the site (I've now created a JING to gently guide them to the website ... next year I'll have to send that right away!) and then the surprised ones who completely ignored what I was talking about when we were touring the site and figured it was directed at someone else. I wonder if there is a way next year to get them into the lab in the first week to have them walk through this with me .... maybe even fill in the contact info form right there. The challenge with that is the students often don't have passwords at that point so would be unable to use the school computers. I'll need to talk to Ron to see if there is a way to handle this.

So as we move forward into October I'm looking to tweak the original form to have them explain in their own words what they understand from the lesson. I need to get them away from saying the same thing every day ... "I understood it all". Not terribly useful. My plan to combat this is to copy of some of the responses so far (poor, ok and good) excluding the names of course and share them with the class.

Day 1 of a new year ... and a small success

With my field study in the back of my mind,I had created an google form for my new students to fill in with basic contact info that I use to collect on paper. I gave them a tour of the Riverside website and showed them how to find today's "assignment". It was really simple with answers they should know and at the end I gave them the option of sharing any additional information with me that they thought I should know. Its 10:30 pm and my curiosity got the better of me so I went into my google account to see just how many kids had completed the survey. At this point 40 out of 100 students have completed it. I'm fairly pleased with this ... especially since I don't see them again until Friday so they still have tomorrow night to finish this off. Of the 40, only one indicated that they don't have a computer at home ... which totally impresses me as they got creative and were able to complete the survey some how. Many kids took the opportunity to write a paragraph about themselves or their view of math, things they struggle with etc. That is making me feel rather optimistic about my plans for the field study!

Livebinders

Figures, a day when I should be working on completing some of the assignments needed for next week, I get caught playing. Here is an interesting use of a type of visual bookmarking that I'm thinking could be quite useful for me personally and for my students.

LTT field study

Can you feel the excitement?

Today's class was from start to finish was great! It didn't hurt that it had cooled down enough that I was able to focus in class. So many fun things packed into one day .... finding out how to locate resources on the sfu libary site with the help of Librarian Hope Power, listening to more fascinating tech group presentations (sketchup, google earth, audacity and TED/teacher tube) and then mentor time to discuss projects. There wasn't just enough time to play with each of the things provided. Whats new :) Thank goodness for weekends (and kids with grandparents!)

The icing on the cake was the fact that I think I have nailed down my field study for the fall - How does education technology promote student responsibility through reflection and self assessment? I know, it is a huge mouthful, but it covers what I really wonder about in relation to my grade 9 students. Now its sitting down to figure out just how I might tackle this. It was great to bounce my ideas off of Elaan as well as my tablemates and I'm excited about getting going on the planning. Yippppeeee !

Mission Statement - version 1.0

To create a positive, safe classroom where students learn to take responsibility for their learning and are encouraged to strive for their best.

Summer Institute

Day 3: Another hot day in Coquitlam, but thankfully the plan for the day kept us focused enough that we not cognizant of it. Last night's reading of the Duckworth article was a wonderful change from the previous night - some great examples and much easier to read. I found that I was drawn to the idea of the students creating their own understanding and learning rather than being spoon fed. It makes so much sense but I wonder if it would be possible in a high school math class with the enormous number of learning outcomes and lack of time for inquiry? To be honest I felt a bit depressed as I compared it to my regular classes that rarely if ever has such rich activities that engage students in such a way that they are motivated to make sense of the information. These grade 9s expect me to tell them how to do the question and if I refuse, encouraging them to think, talk, share, then a large number just shut down. How can I restructure my classroom practice to encourage more thinking ? More wonderings .....

Later in the morning we were put in groups to learn about a specific technology which we will present tomorrow to the larger group. What fun! It was so nice to get some hands on time for dabbling with technology, something that was lacking a bit in the first semester. My group was assigned the technology of online photo sharing/editing and we spent much of the time checking out and playing with the different sites. It ended up that I was the only one that had much experience with this online sharing. It was quite interesting to compare the most popular sites, something I hadn't done before. If I had thought about it at the time I should have checked my google reader for some of the tech blogs I follow. There is one in particular that I need to share with the group : Free Technology for Teachers . I'm looking forward to the sharing sessions tomorrow and Friday as well as next week's tech session.

Back to school

Its the first day of the summer institute and I'm finding I'm glad to get back into the swing of things. Today we started our "wonderings" in hopes that we would hit on something that might be appropriate for our field study. The big ideas that came to mind as I was typing related to motivation, engagement and buy in to math by my math 9 students - especially those who struggle and end up failing. Its something I grapple with every year.

- Is it because they come in with such poor skills, work habits, lack of self reliance or is it me?
-Does my use of technology in the class make any difference? Positive or negative.
-Is there something I could do differently that would engage with these kids more?
- If my sharepoint more graphical and less text based …. More like my iPod, would students make use of it more?
- Would setting up a google doc that they reflect on what is going on in class .. the good, the bad and the ugly where I could respond to them in that venue - would it help? Or would it be more of a hassle?

- Would the homework recording iPod app I'm designing have any affect on student sucess? Will the complete work more regularly? Or is this just more spoonfeeding ... and going against my belief that grade 9s need to start taking responsibility for their learning?

After 10 minutes of typing it looks as if there is a theme to my wonderings .... nothing to do with the use of smartboards!

Maybe not a failure afterall!

I should have posted this back in June but I was a wee bit "busy" dealing with end of year things around school. So here is the background: I had a student who took a family holiday for close to 3 months and then reappeared in my class around March. She had missed so much but thanks to technology I was able to provide her with resources on my sharepoint which is full of links and JINGs, and a list of unit tests she needed to write by June. I did agreed that she would not be expected to do every assignment completely, but enough to master the skill so that she could write the unit test ... and I was available for extra help.

Flash forward to June: this young lady arrived in my classroom the day before the final exam to ask me some final last questions. She had managed to catch up and write all tests by this point. I commended her on her dedication and hard work (she had pulled her mark up from 23% to 70% pretty much on her own as I rarely saw her for extra help). Did she get a tutor to help her out? Nope, she said that the 3 days in the computer lab, which she had detested at the time, had been the difference. As she was working through the units and needing some extra help, she remembered the list of websites I had provided for the Measurement computer unit. So she thought she would see if she could find any sites to help her now. Her words .."there are tonnes of good math websites out there!" ... as if she was surprised. Everything she wanted to learn about was there for her and she was quickly converted once she realized this. She didn't need to come see me for help because she figured things out for herself with a little help from google! She went on to explain that she took it a step further and started making use of the internet for her other courses. Even funnier was when she described helping friends with their work and she asked if they had bothered to do any investigating on their own using the internet and that its the teacher's job to teach but it is up to the student to make sense of the information. Wow ..... this completely took my computer webquest experience from a definite failure to a success. I had one student who because of what I attempted to do with technology in the class, walk away as a more competetant learner ready to take on the responsibility for her own learning. As I told her, her sharing this experience with me was a highlight for day and maybe my entire year ... and I meant it.

Now to figure out how to reach more than one student a year! :)

Portfolio Presentation #1

What a great night! I must admit that I have been dreading this e-portfolio presentation since January The uncertainty of what this "should" look like had given me many sleepless nights and upset tummies. I had finally got to a point where I was tired of looking at it … this is what it was going to be. The idea that this was a "baseline" portfolio helped me finally get this back into perspective. I was as ready as I was ever going to be … now lets get it over and done with! Betty emailed me the day before the presentation with some very positive feedback on the eportfolio that I had posted on my website - I had forgotten that I had given her the address earlier. Its amazing how a few positive words from her finally squashed the last of my insecurities. I was ready … she had seen many portfolios before and mine looked good … ahhhh.

The time arrived with our group of eight and Elaan, and as is my nature I volunteered to go first. I prefer to jump right in and get it over with no matter what … I've always been like this. Hopefully my cohort group will continue to let me do this … so much less stress. Things went well except for the 3/4 screen displaying once again and one of the links not working (I'm sure that I tested it all). This screen things drives me crazy and I HAVE to figure this out sometime over the next two years! The group whom I was presenting to were incredibly supportive. As everyone had their turn to share their learning, it was so reassuring to hear that they too felt the ups and downs that I experienced. The not knowing what exactly to do, what was expected etc. This was a shared experience and I no longer felt alone in this uncertainty, though I was surprised by how many contemplated not continuing in the course. Everyone was so candid and honest that I think we all came away from the experience feeling more confident that we could be successful in this course and more comfortable with our learning struggles. I think through this sharing we have created a relationship of sort, we are a team. I'm already looking forward to our two weeks in the summer where we get a chance to work together and bond even more as a cohort.

With sadness I wished Betty good bye. I have really enjoyed working with her over the past months and her enthusiasm and passion has really helped me handle the uncertainty I was struggling with along the way. I feel that even though she is stepping back to spend time with her family, that she will very much be apart of where I will be at the end of the program. I can only hope that I bring the same amount of passion to my classroom … even in May and June!

Wikis - part 2

On Tuesday I asked my students for some feedback on our adventure into the computer lab to complete the prisms webquest. Here was what they said:
- didn't like it ... I didn't teach them how to do the questions
- didn't like doing math (typing math work) on computers (most didn't know how to make a number into an exponent)
- I gave them too many links to explore - would have preferred me to give them one to find the answer to each question
- some liked the change in venue
- a few found it easier and faster to type than write things out
- many LOVED google sketchup (quite a number have downloaded it at home)
- didn't know how to paste their google sketchup into their word document
- signing into the wikispaces took too long
- when they were copying and pasting from websites, they were not really understanding
- some of the websites had confusing vocabulary
Very few felt confident about the material based on their exploring and were not ready for the skills check I had planned for Tuesday. All in all, rather disappointing (but useful) feedback regarding this project.

In the end it was slightly reassuring that they had to admit that they value my presence and what I do up at the front of the class on a daily basis. I'll take the backwards compliment!

Day 2 ... Wiki learning curve

After being introduced to Wikis a couple of weeks back I was keen on giving them a try while I was in the lab ... when would I have the chance again. The kids were suppose to create an account, then request membership in our class wiki, then in groups edit a page (one for each group of 4). Even with all of my pre planning - I experienced a MAJOR bomb of this part of the lesson :( But as I told one of the students, if I hadn't had this experience, I wouldn't have come to understand the workings of wikis quite so well. And then I thanked them all for being an important part of my learning. Things I learned today:

- have students obtain membership PRIOR to class .... this took forever as most of them didn't READ the instructions and failed to "request membership" to the wiki ... which ended up taking up way too much time (though now that they all have access, I could better use this in the future, if I was lucky enough to get back into the lab)

- only one student can edit a page at a time ... otherwise when the next person saves the previous person's contributions all disappear. I had edited the pages for the second group, so that each person had a line to answer on and that their additions would some how merge. Nope that is NOT how it works.

- to do this in a class situation, you need to arrange the tasks so only one person is working on their wiki page at a time, saves, and then the next person starts to edit the page.

After the thrill of last days class, today was a bit of a downer. Thankfully even with that, my students didn't skin me alive for not knowing why things were happening. I would have liked it to go better but I'm glad I've learned some things. Now I'm wondering how you would know if someone else was already editing the page ... so you could wait until they were done? More questions .....

April Fools!

My first foray into the computer lab with my students during the measurement unit. I had been asking for YEARS to get in during this time, but had been denied until now. So hours went into creating a webquest about Prisms along with getting google sketchup installed and a JING made on how to use it. I was ready! With the entire lesson based on using the web .... if there was no web access ... I was hooped! I voiced that the night before to my husband - what were the chances?

Wednesday rolls around and off to the lab I go with a huge smile on my face. This was going to be a great lesson with kids all actively involved for the whole 70 minutes ... I couldn't wait! After getting everyone logged in there started to be cries of "I can't get to the sharepoint" echoed throughout the room. It had happened, connection had been lost. Serves me right for even voicing the possibility of no connection coupled with trying this on April 1st of all days! I didn't have much of a backup plan but was thankful the sketchup is a local program, so I directed the kids to open this up (while I prayed feverishly) and walked them through the most important buttons (my JING was not available for them to view). In under 10 minutes there were students creating some of the most amazing solids .... it was really cool to watch. They were not satisfied with making just boring prisms, but taking the idea and running! There haven't been too many times this year where this class has done much more than the minimum ... but today they were inspired! I sat back and watch, listening as they helped each other do this and that with the tools.

Thankfully, before long we were back online and the webquest was started. A few minor issues, one student started writing over the question template (I quickly learned that I needed students to copy and paste into a blank document before proceeding), but for the most part it was quite smooth. Some students chose to just go out and google the questions rather than check out my links ... and ended up at sites that I had eliminated due to poor or confusing content. I was seeing that some students were good at copying and pasting BUT they weren't reading carefully enough to make sure that it made sense. I don't think there is any way to avoid this ... maybe having them in partners so that they have to check and compare their answers might have been a good idea. Guess I'll have to give that a try on Friday.

The cool part about this class, besides sitting back and watching students helping students, was that I still had some technology skills that the kids didn't have. Instructing them on how to use the "print screen" button to copy the screen to clipboard then paste into their document - everyone seemed so surprised! What other keyboard short cuts are there that I should know about and could share? It is so easy, but powerful at the same time. I was able to trouble shoot a few other problems and there were kids that started responding to me like I knew what I was doing - amazing! She's not just another teacher with a tablet! Another huge bonus was hooking a few of my math resistant students .... I heard one talking to himself as he played with sketchup ..."this is so cool - I can't believe this is math!".

As I sit here preparing for my 2nd day in the lab, I'm both excited and saddened. Excited for the chance to get them to collaborate more, saddened by the fact that it most likely will be the last time I'm in the lab this year. It is completely booked and it was sheer luck that I was able to get in. Next year I HAVE to make more of an effort to get my classes into the lab so that this kind of fun with learning can happen again. Maybe I should be starting to ask for a class set of netbooks so we could do this in class .... I could just ask :) .....

Digital Storytelling ... what is my story?

Last Wednesday we had a fascinating presentation on digital storytelling. It was really cool and something I'd love to play with BUT for fun ..... I am really struggling to find a spot to use it in my math class. Without an idea as to where it would be useful in my teaching, I am feeling somewhat resistant to spending much time playing. Would students be willing to work with it outside of class time? Looking at the lack of buy in on homework .... I'm guessing not :( (And maybe I'm just seeing the cup half empty today due to the fact its Monday). I must admit though I got excited about the digital storytelling from a personal perspective. My daughters, both of whom are quite creative would LOVE to play with this. As a teacher/mom, I love being able to share some of these cool things I'm learning about with them, so that they can incorporate them into their own education. Whats the saying ... all kids deserve a special education ... I'm just glad that I am able to take advantage of these "teachable moments" at home.

As I listened to people in the program talk about their ability to take a class to the lab and be able to finish complete projects like the ones she presented I start feeling really frustrated with the current situation in my own school. With a school that is supposedly a leader in the district I really have to wonder.... the lab is often booked months in advance by classes (there is ONE lab next to the library) and all the others have classes in them which means you need to make arrangements with these teachers to swap teaching spaces. Not always an ideal situation. If its only a class here or there, making these arrangements might work, but I'm finding that having 3 blocks of math 9 is close to impossible to include them all. Attempting to complete a multi-day project would be close to impossible. This is coupled with the fact that everyday from now until June I've already planned lessons just to address the learning outcomes for the course, I just don't see where I would be able to replace lessons with ones that actively involve the student and technology. This just needs TIME, and time is not what I feel I have lots of at this point in the year. Is this where having netbooks in the class would help - assuming I could get the wireless to work there? Will the new grade 9 math curriculum with its reduced number of learning outcomes actually free up some time so that kids can get the opportunity to play and explore using technology? As always, I seem to have come away with more questions than answers.....

Wondering ....

As I drove to class tonight I started thinking about all this great technology that I'm learning about and hoping to bring into the classroom. Even just two months into my LTT course I'm excited about the things that I've been introduced to - its quite obvious that there is tonnes I don't know about yet! So as I start thinking about my grade 9 math students - how do they factor in to all of this? Am I to spend hours researching, playing and developing something for them so that they are more engaged .... with the real possibility that they just don't access it and thus not benefit. Or am I trying to create situations where they can interact and contribute in some way to learning process using technology? Or both?

A perfect example is the amount of time I have spent creating my sharepoint site with calendars, links, online video and copies of all of the assignments to have students emailing me to ask what the homework is (if they even do that). Being able to check the logs to see that only a very small number of my students actually go there makes me wonder about the time I spend maintaining it. Is it worth it? What can/should I do differently so that students see the website as a resource and go there first? Hmmmm ... more thinking required on this one.

So many questions ... how do you choose just one?!

Tonight's LTT class had us attending a few mini workshops related to technology and learning. As always, there never seems to be enough time to do these things! The first one I attended was presented by Collin Midwood about using the smartboard. Yes its true that I've been dabbling with the smartboard this year but after this presentation I realized just how true that really was. There were so many features that I was not aware of. Granted some of them may not have been in the 9.5 version that I currently have, but I'm guessing that there was still a lot that I was missing. I will definitely have to check out the screen capture feature ... this looks a lot like what I'm doing with JING. I wonder if there is an advantage to creating my own wmv files and hosting them, or sticking with JING and having them hosted on screencast's site. Guess I'll need to do a test run in both and compare the output. The interactive templates that he demonstrated were so cool! I've been looking for something like this - I've tried creating them - but the ones he showed looked so much nicer and the feedback students get is just what I need. My head was spinning around how I could try some of these out right away ! Having the students get the chance to manipulate and play either in class or at home is very appealing. One of my beliefs about learning is that one must be an active participant and this would be a fun way for students to get active. Now my only challenge is that I have to wait until tomorrow to get the ID code off the side of the board so I can download the new software! Probably just as well, because if I was able to do it tonight I'd probably have a very short sleep and teaching tomorrow would be a challenge. The other piece of info that Collin shared that was news to me was that the passcode that I will end up getting can be shared with anyone in the district ...even my students. Wouldn't it be cool to create a project where a group could make use of the technology! Even without getting my hands on the software tonight I think my mind is going to be racing anyways :)

The second session was with David Brear on Second Life. Since I have zero experience with this it was rather eye opening just how much can go on in this virtual world. It sounds like one could spend lots of time in there .... once you have mastered walking :) Who has time? Not many teachers I know! Could I make use of this for educational purposes? My first reaction to it is that its just an online game .... though David did discuss educational places you could go. Sounds like something fun to check out but I think I'll hold off until the summer when I have a little bit less on my plate. Gives me some time to think of a really cool name too!

This was another great evening of LTT - I love being able to walk away with something that I see myself trying to make use of in my classroom right away.

Lightbulb ... or camera ... moment

I was at a presentation today and saw the keynote for the pro-D day use a little camera to project a photo of his paper up onto the screen via the projector. I have no experience with webcams .... is there special software installed to run it? Can they be wireless? Was this document camera the same as a webcam ...?

Last week I had an ah-ha moment when I handed my wireless mouse out to the class and had them manipulate something on the screen then passed it around from group to group. [FYI - I was using the smart notebook software and they were drawing lines between like terms] It was a HUGE hit - all the kids were focused and engaged. Not an easy task in an adapted math class! I'm just sorry I didn't think of it sooner. Grade 9s just don't want to come to from of the class to write on the tablet OR play with the smart board (which is shocking to most primary teachers) With some sort of document camera, ideally wireless, I could roam around the room and be able to take a picture of someone's work to project onto the screen .... how cool would that be. No longer would I have to be doing all the work ..... I really think trying to get away from the talking head at the front of the class is really the way to go. Does anyone have an ideas or information about webcams/document cameras that could help me with this? This could be a really neat inquiry project for this first semester of LTT!

Time ....

With the first month or so of my Learning and Teaching with Technology graduate program completed, I've now even more questions that I had started with initially! After James McConville's presentation back in January I set out exploring the digital landscape .... a completely different one than I had been previous. I joined twitter, set up google reader, registered for NING and generally spent tonnes of time lurking around. Following one link to the next until I completely lost myself ... thank goodness for delicious bookmarking! I thought I spent lots of time on the computer surfing around before but this past month has been over the top. I've completely swamped myself with any free moment checking out blogs, posting comments and generally trying to get a feel for these new technologies. I'm so glad my ah-ha moment came during the second class when I realized that this graduate program was not so much about mastering all the technology that was out there, but rather using the technology to develop my own learning (not just my students!). This came as both a shock and surprise when this fell into place. If I am able to utilize these technologies to expand my own horizons, then it will naturally translate into what I do in my classroom. So now I'm on the hunt for networks that I can join where the questioning and sharing can begin. How will I keep on top of all these ... I'm still working on that one. My only experience at sharing has been face to face among colleagues so this potentially world wide collaboration is both daunting and exciting.