Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

Can you sum up anything in 6 words? Coonley students were asked to do just that!  Chicago Public Schools has a lonnnnnng end-of-year with students in classes through June 19th.  As a challenge for the month of June grades 1-7 were asked to write 6 Word Memoirs based on the following prompts: Tell something you like about Coonley What activity did you really enjoy this school year? Write about yourself Give advice to others The results were fantastic!  All memoirs were combined into one giant slideshow resulting in over 470 slides ranging from 6 year to 13-year-old student perspectives.  Each day three memoirs were selected and featured on Coonley's Twitter feed.  We hope our work inspires you to create your own! Direct link:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qD3_1UaWp7LEUSGAVwcDFGKQPSln1iqtzCT-kC4A4z4/edit?usp=sharing   (See 2016 version here !)

Our students are quite expressive.  Many are great writers.  In two of our 3rd grade classrooms students expressed an interest in writing reviews online about books and movies they enjoyed.  After a conversation with the teachers about how to do this I thought Quadblogging would be a perfect fit for them, allowing them to reach a greater audience of their peers.  For those that don't know the term, Quadblogging consists of 4 classrooms (in our case 4 schools with 5 classrooms) taking turns blogging. One school hosts and writes posts for the the week and the remaining three classrooms reply.   I encouraged the teachers to sign up at the "official" Quadblogging website.  They received no response so I emailed the site manager. Again, no response.  Next I took to Twitter, tagging the manager of the quadblogging site.  And again.....nothing.  I am disappointed that no one had the courtesy to reply. Had I been a brand new teacher and gotten...

As students learn about history teachers often test knowledge through discussions and quizzes.  How about using technology tools to demonstrate what they've learned?  This year in Ms. Malhiot's classroom students became very comfortable using PicCollage and Audioboom to demonstrate learning.  Following are some great examples of their knowledge of the American Revolution.  Look closely at the PicCollages...students embedded themselves in various scenes! Follow Ms. Malhiot's Class on Twitter listen to ‘Declaration of Independence’ on audioBoom listen to ‘The Constitution of 1787’ on audioBoom listen to ‘the battle of sarrotoga’ on audioBoom listen to ‘Benedict Arnold’ on audioBoom listen to ‘NEW the french and indian war’ on audioBoom listen to ‘patrick henry’ on audioBoom listen to ‘samuel adams’ on audioBoom

Earlier this month I accompanied Karen Malhiot, a 4th grade teacher to Illinois' state capitol in Springfield.  Karen has been doing some great things with technology this year so I encouraged her to apply for an advocacy opportunity where students from around the state are invited to show examples of projects in the capitol building rotunda to demonstrate to state government officials how technology is enhancing their educational experience.  The program is sponsored by Illinois Computing Educators (disclosure: I am on ICE's executive board). Ms. Malhiot had many students that were interested in participating in the event but was only allowed to bring three.  She held an essay contest and the selected students worked after school to create their display board and practice presenting.  They did a wonderful job and represented Coonley well! To find out more about Tech2015 please visit:  http://www.iceberg.org/TECH_2015 Follow Ms. Malhiot's class on Twitter:...

This month an article that I co-wrote was published on eSchool News.  The Article is titled 7 Tips for Teachers Building Collaborate, Fearless PLNs.  To view the article online:  http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/03/16/teachers-fearless-plns-547/ 7 tips for teachers building collaborative, fearless PLNs By Randy Hansen and Nicole Zumpano March 16th, 2015   Don’t be daunted! Try these best practices for finding and collaborating with fellow educators Ed. note : Innovation In Action is a new monthly column from the   International Society of Technology in Education   focused on exem plary practices in education. Research indicates that nearly 50 percent of educators will   leave the field within the first five years   of entering a classroom. This is an astounding number that costs the U.S. more than $2 billion annually. Why the high burnout rate? Many cite isolation and lack of support as reasons for exiting the field. Sometimes new ...