kBlog

My grandsons are a constant amazement to me and the best teachers I’ve ever had.  Whenever I attend an educational conference or stumble on an insightful blog entry about learning I end up in conversation with them about it.  After all they are the blank slates that we as educators are looking to build upon.   They are students of tomorrow, the digital learners and other terms being thrown around in ed publishing these days, so I feel lucky to have this opportunity to learn from them.  The photo seen here is from the water park in Asbury Park;  they were very interested in the inner workings of the system – how the huge teacup was timed to dump onto the crowd,  how the water pumped into the various gadgets.

I’d like to begin a series of blog entries about my learning experiences, so here’s entry #1.

What Patrick and Jack taught me this week:
(oh, by the way, they have a little brother who is 2, we’ll bring him into the mix soon)

1.  Don’t be afraid to keep going onto the next level when learning something new, even if it is labeled outside of your age group or ability level.

2.  Ask alot of questions – some examples from this week were  – why aren’t cars made of wood?  why do clouds disappear?

In my frenzy to tidy up my home workspace before the school year starts, I was faced with a pile of plastic binders containing some valuable “handouts” distributed at conferences, meetings,  classes, and other f2f experiences over the past year.  I decided to transfer the best of the bunch onto the web.  One rule of thumb, NO SCANNING.  I’ll only transfer the information into my online stuff if it resides somewhere already.

OK, here’s the process:

• All links will be organized into my Diigo Account and/or Google Reader (I’ll be sure to do some smart tagging and lists)
• Things worth blogging about or additional reflection will appear in this blog, simple enough.
• Anything which presents itself as attachments I’ll post to the teacher resource area if appropriate, or to one of my google sites that fits the topic.

How did I end up with so much paper?  Much of it is from conferences and workshops (yes even ed tech ones!),  but the bulk of the pile is from my educational leadership program which I just finished.   If/when I do assume a leadership role,  a paperless working environment will be a priority goal from day one.

Yesterday I attended a team leader session for an upcoming project facilitated by Kean University’s Center for Innovative Education. Representatives from the University, the State Dept. of Ed., K-12 districts, the NJPSA and some other “fellows”, were hosted by Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach to discuss the upcoming PLP Project. Will tells it better, so I’ll direct you to his blog post.

The day left the entire room full of energy and optimism for education. It’s an honor to be part of this project.

I always enjoy trying out web 2.0 tools – there is certainly a host of designs and products out there….something for everyone. But which are best for teachers? It’s a matter of personal style and preference, so I usually show teachers my favorites and hopefully some of them stick. If groups begin to understand the implications for classroom learning and information sharing, they can move forward as a teaching and learning community.

As discussed by Brian Benzinger in Solution Watch, some specific services for educators include: organizers, gradebooks, research tools, document managers, diagrams, and more. Certain Wiki and blog products are finding a home in schools, organizers, and grade programs as well. One of my favorites that was shared with me lately by my daugher is “Remember the Milk” aka RTM. It’s a simple reminder tool (in beta), but very slick. Users can easily have their memory jolted by typing in a tag and being reminded certain details for a specific topic, meeting or person. The program carries the “to do” list up a level. It interacts with online calendars and added a task list to my gmail window (Firefox only).