Chap. 2 - Reality check: Using cell phones in the classroom

High expectations get in the way sometimes, as mine did for this. I was amped up to have my cell phone bias swept back into the 20^th century where, many would argue, it belongs, but “Cell Phones,” the second chapter in “Teaching With the Tools Kids Really Use,” put up a thin argument for doing so. 

Brooks-Young’s suggestions for using cell phones productively in the classroom focus more on the bells and whistles that accompany a cell phone - such as the camera, voice recorder and web access - than actually using the phone as a two-way communication device.  Having read her treatise on the subject, I still think it is safer to have kids use a laptop and share digital cameras than it is to police use of cell phones and risk cyber-bullying and invite obsessive texting into the school day.

Excuse me, while I step onto the soap box:

Since much of parenting has evolved to a “be your child’s friend, not their first teacher” role, and teachers don’t yet have the tools, time and authority to teach/police proper phone etiquette, I’m not ready to acquiesce to cell phones in class.

I can see the plus-side of the designated adult in the classroom using them. For example, I’ve read articles that espouse the rewards reaped when teachers texted students and parents reminders about upcoming tests or homework assignments.  Plus, this role models productive use.

Brooks-Young also failed to address one of the leading concerns of teachers, “What about students who do not have a cell phone?”  There are solutions to this, and here are some suggestions:

ttp://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/10/solutions-for-teaching-with-cell-phones.html

The gold nugget to be panned from this chapter was a paradigm shift in teaching Brooks-Young gleaned from an Australian study:

“It’s more important to measure modern students’ abilities to find information than their abilities to memorize information. "

Now that’s an idea I can get behind.

Web App presentation

After much deliberating over Starbucks' varietals, Chad and I have decided to do our web app presentation on Animoto. Holly recommended I post this so we can avoid duplication, so consider the word out.

Distractions

Wimpy Rutherford of The Queers, 1/24/11

Last Monday night I photographed a rock show in Portland featuring a punk band that hails from Portsmouth, The Queers. Photography of local musicians - and the beach - are two things I find tugging at me when I should be doing my course work. This is an ode to my first profession as an arts journalist, I guess, and occasionally I still sell stories or photos to keep my hand in it. (This week NH Magazine will run a couple of pictures I took when the lead singer of Godsmack was in the area.)

Here comes the sun, 1/10/11

    This made me wonder what acts as siren calls distracting - or providing a break for  - my fellow classmates. Time management is among the biggest challenges I've found with  going back to school.  Anyone else out there feeling that?

A new chapter in my reading life - "Teaching w/the Tools Kids Really Use," Take 1

I read kids books, newspapers and CD/album covers.  Apple’s Mac was being introduced to the world and dirt was still clean when I last cracked a textbook. But Chapter 1 of “Teaching with the Tools Kids Really Use” is behind me, and I leave it feeling optimistic about the pages yet to come. Yes, it’s got jargon and reads with only a bit more luster than, say, a manual to assemble a playpen. But no one expects a textbook read to be a nail-biter.  The redeeming reason to plow forward w/ “Teaching With the Tools…” is that it’s so relevant to our lives and will be useful in the toolbox we lug around as educators re-working a system built to accommodate Industrialization.

The author, a Ms. Susan Brooks-Young, is savvy enough to break down her chapters into short sub-sections for the A.D.D./raised on sound-bites/caffeinated-ferret-like generation we’ve become.  This adds to the book's readability, and I am grateful for it.

Brooks-Young advocates meshing 21^st century skills with some traditional core content to adequately prepare students for the digital age work place.  She suggests sites to visit, such as ISTE and Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. (I liked the assessment strategies page, called Route 21, and promptly sent it to my assistant superintendent, even though NH is not among those signed on as a 21^st Century State.)

The discussion points she tosses out at the end of the chapter are a nice touch. She tries to nurture the seeds she’s sown by asking questions such as, what are the most important new skills to teach?  While it seems counter intuitive to separate any from the pack, or create a pecking order, her query does promote the sharing of ideas. I’m a big fan of critical thinking, though viewing failure as an opportunity to learn (a part of creativity and innovation) is a great one as well. Anyone else out there got a favorite?

When Google Earth needs directions

Tried some apps I'd never played with before  - Google Earth and iWeb. I hoped both would help me add a community service element to a N.H. history unit, and that my webquest project could be anchored on that. My focus was on White Island, and the lighthouse there, currently owned by the nonprofit organization, Lighthouse Kids. Only Google Earth, with that majestic globe that awes the viewer with its dynamic drops and sweeping views, says there is no White Island in N.H. and places it in Kittery, ME. I sent their "Help" department a note, so, with any luck it will be cleared up before I do a presentation with my class and take the kids out there in the spring. (If any of you have been at the mercy of a GPS only to be lead to a snowy, mountainous goat path like I once was, you are not bowled over by this.) I'll be curious to see how quickly they respond to the note.

First a tanka poem, now this...

OK you people who gave me a tanka to write the other weekend during our maiden voyage on The Webquest. I'm on a roll! I expressed my students' delight for the Books of Umber  recently, but I have to admit I was taken with the series as well. Not only for their intrigue and wonder, but especially for the unusual characters the author crafted. They range from truly disturbing to achingly vulnerable and I, who has read much and become hard to sate, now remain at the table waiting for the 3rd and final installment to be served. Instead of slamming my fork and spoon up and down impatiently, I entered a contest the author hosted on his Facebook page. He asked for short poems inspired by his books. Winning authors would receive a signed 1st edition of the final book when it comes out. My poem got picked!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1078675731&ref=profile#!/PWCatanese
Will I ever be able to cultivate a techie mind with my wussy poet's heart? My finger's are crossed.

New books currently winning over the 9-to-12 crowd

  While I'm not sure he can take down the "Wimpy Kid," "Captain Nobody" is showing his literary muscles in the Rye Elementary School library.
  The book follows the adventures of Newt Newman, a young boy who feels like sliced white bread in the bakery of life. When his football star brother falls into a coma, Newt devices a Halloween costume out of his  brother's old clothes, and a new identity emerges.
  "School Library Journal" says the humorous novel "reads like a summertime feel-good movie. Kids who have longed for their own superhero will eat this up."
All hail the power of white bread!

  There will be beaucoup tears to dry when that last "Harry Potter" movie comes out this July. What will little Muggles do without the Hogwarts crew to conjure excitement? They could venture into the world of "Umber" - if they dare. P.W. Cantanese has written a 3-book fantasy series that brings readers from one run-in with widely imaginative characters and creatures to the next at a heady pace. In a starred review of the first book, "Happenstance Found," "Publishers Weekly" said, "Cantanese packs a lot in... rich characterizations, well-choreographed action sequences and genuinely surprising twists." If you're not floored by the stunning beasts of book two, "Dragon Games," than your imagination has dried up and blown away, or you are not  of this world. Book three comes out Feb. 8.

As part of their environmental unit, fifth graders viewed the migration of a plastic bag as it makes its way to The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I don't want to be a spoiler, but use your own clothe bags at the grocery store kids!

Where are the starfish going?

  During our fifth-graders' studies of sustainability and the environment, publisher Deb Cross spoke about her book "Wallis Sands Beach Revisited." She commented on the vast amount of starfish children collected decades ago. Several students noted that they rarely see starfish there now. How might this change tie into our unit? Where have the starfish gone? Any guesses?

Source: Flicker.com/kevinzim

Self-portrait

I have a dream...

I work in a well-funded elementary school where the majority of kids come to school dressed, fed, and ready to learn. But a revolution is going on in the world around us. The world is changing and our school is not changing with it.  It’s a broad goal, but what I hope to learn in this course is how to engage in the revolution so my students are prepared for a world reeling with rapid-fire change. I want my classes to engage their minds and senses of wonder, humor and curiosity.