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Comment by Marcia McCrea Braden on August 7, 2012 at 6:24am

Congratulations Malia!  I'm so glad that T-cubed worked for you!  It's the way we can continue to grow as learners and teachers when the SOTF grant runs out.  See you at a KCCL meeting soon!

Comment by Malia Busekrus on August 6, 2012 at 7:58pm

This summer I had the opportunity to conduct a 2 day Institute for Excellence in Writing workshop for several teachers at SJV as well as 3 community members.  I was quite nervous about having people outside of our school attend as I didn't feel like I was enough of an expert to be teaching on this subject. However, each of the teachers as well as the community at large members were so enthusiastic about the program and could quickly think of ways this program would work with their current curriculum. As nervous as I was, in the end, I was extremely excited about the results as people left with a vision and instant ways to apply their knowledge to the students they work with. The "Teachers Teaching Teachers" concept proved to be a beneficial method for these 2 days of my summer and I look forward to the next time I have the opportunity to do this.

Comment by Alana Busekrus on July 12, 2012 at 1:29pm

I am enjoying learning about the Promethean board at the 2-week long Punahou Lab School.  I am very glad this is happening over summer as there is a LOT to learn--it's not difficult, it just requires a lot of practice and troubleshooting.

Today I attended an info session on the Common Core.  It was an informal Q & A that seemed to point to a general emphasis on content, rather than specific benchmarks.  For example, instead of former Hawaii State Standards breaking down each step of learning to tie a shoe, Common Core would focus on how to tie knots.  For me, this raises once again the idea that it would be ideal to teach students based on interest and ability, rather than by age groupings.

I attended the myON information session on innovative reading solutions.  In discussing with other SAS attendees (Christine Isham, Nicole Jones, and Becky Cheman) we see both benefits and disadvantages to potential subscription to this program.

Benefits: 

*individualized lexile leveling of students generated automatically every 3 hours OR every 5 books on myON;

*access to non-fiction texts (65% of their books are non-fiction);

*ability to test anywhere, anytime;

*option to have myON books read aloud to you (similar to TumbleBooks);

*ability for students and teachers to view progress reports, create favorite lists, teacher recommendations, and make student reviews.

Disadvantages:

*only 2,600 books on this program.  Most are non-fiction, not popular readers;

*testing could be done at home with parent help, thus it would probably be best to use this primarily to ENCOURAGE reading rather than to assess comprehension;

*seems focused/targeted for lower or struggling readers...

Interesting presentation. 

Comment by Marcia McCrea Braden on July 6, 2012 at 1:51pm

Attended Ted Lai's Learning Environments and today's tools session on Thursday

He taught us two hands on skills

1. Enhanced Podcasts using Garage band
   1. he also gave ways to teach students to find images that are able to be used
2. How to make narrated Keynotes and also how to design better Keynotes or power points.

I would be happy to share at a T-cubed (Teachers Teaching Teachers) meeting

My notes can't fit here :(

Comment by Christine Isham on July 5, 2012 at 9:35pm

What a great summary, Alana!  Like you, I truly enjoyed today's keynote speakers. Ted's description of a systematic approach to change really made sense to me. His examples were simple yet inspiring. 

On another note, the Promethean workshop was just as exciting.  It was amazing to learn about and explore ways to use the Promethean board.  We were even given the opportunity to create our own flipcharts and now I have one ready to use on the first day of school!

Comment by Alana Busekrus on July 5, 2012 at 7:40pm

To clarify #2 below:  there are 3 types of people/responses to technology.  They are as follows:

Early adopters--quick to embrace change

Hesitant middle--those who slowly but surely accept change

NFWs (No Frickin' Way)--people who avoid any/all change at any/all cost.  They eventually go through stages of 'grief' when required to accept technology.  They at first deny that tech is necessary (ex: I didn't need tech when I was learning and I turned out fine), then they become angry at being required to make change, then they bargain (ex: I did one computer lesson this month; I'll wait until next month for another), they then become depressed at being required to change, then they finally accept the changes required.  :)  Funny, but true!

Comment by Alana Busekrus on July 5, 2012 at 7:35pm

I really enjoyed the keynote speakers today (day 3) of the Punahou Lab School.  Ted Lai of Apple had some great ideas for both leaders and teachers trying to entice others to accept and embrace the rapid changes in technology.  Below are notes (taken during his talk;therefore in summary format) of portions of his presentation that I was struck by:

Tips for systemic change/adoption of tech (apply to students & teachers):

1. Create a common understanding! (same vision)—focus on students, digital natives learn fear of tech only from teachers; 4Cs-communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking
2. Highlight success!—technology acceptance range-early adopters, hesitant middle, NFWs( No Frickin’ Way!) (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance); look for success, even basic proficiency (start with a camera if they’re afraid of a computer—require a photo essay ‘I am happy when…’)  We are a visual society (video killed the radio star).  ReTHINK basics.  Bring in hesitant middle to share their success-this is easier for the NFWs to accept.
3. 3.   Make it systematic! (less scary)—progress slowly through this approach: *VISUAL (digital), *AUDIO, then let teachers and students add *VIDEO as comfortable…remember the art of letting go…let students help you, inspire you, teach you,* PUBLISH

Visual: see idea above re: camera.  Start with images.  Ex: Identify shapes around the classroom and create a book in iPhoto Ex: a comic book plus images to explain something Ex: poem plus image self displaying emotion described.       

BigHugeLabs to create a poster

A picture is worth a thousand words—let kids focus on detail and description to model detail before requiring it in writing

Audio: ex: podcast of a tour of Kailua with visual and audio (sound effects included narrator, kids’ comments, etc.)  Start with teacher asking kids to write down three + things you like about your community, turn it into a podcast.  Include SONGS!  

Ex: SchoolHouseRockLive! Music helps kids relax and concentrate

*Have kids create own curriculum songs as a group write; start as a poem and add a beat to make a rap.

*As students progress…sing songs to a melody (beware copyrights)

VIDEO—give students easy projects that can be done in one period, give students time to reflect and comment on video quality, etc. to improve future projects

PUBLISH-Celebrate!  Challenge! Build on Success! Theory of different learning spaces by David Thorton…campfire (gathering, instruction), watering hole (constructivism, social meeting place), cave (students on own to reflect), mountain top (celebrate, showcase academic successes)

The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to PREPARE TO WIN!  --John Wooden

 

*Add a twist of creativity to all projects (ex: instead of reporting on a planet, you ARE a planet…tell us about yourself)

*Personalize learning through student choice

Comment by Marcia McCrea Braden on July 4, 2012 at 9:10am

Attending Punahou Lab School with a gang of other SAS teachers.  Tom Dacord of EdTechTeacher.org spoke Monday and Tuesday.  He made some points that resonated with me.  First of all he challenged us all to define our mission: what do we want our students to be?  Terri and I came up with "confident, optimistic, willing to risk", others responded with"compassionate, empathetic, love learning and value mistakes"  It is interesting how closely these themes are reflected in our SAS SLEs.  Tom reviewed the Bloom's taxonomy, with an upside down pyramid and emphasized that the highest thinking skill is TO CREATE.  He also emphasized that: students must be in control of their learning, skills are more important than knowledge, learning can happen every where and that technology must be in the hands of the learner, not the teacher.  All of these points reinforce the relevance and imperative of implementing both project based and challenge based learning in our classes.

Tom also gave a brief overview of some cool apps and web sites.  Here's a short list

EdTechTeacher.org : great resources for teachers check it out!  Sigh up for the free, monthly news letter.

Thinglink.com: a site where you can upload an image and implant all sorts of information into it to make an interactive experience

Fotobabble.com: audio can be linked to a photo'

Others were: wix.com, issuu.com, and aurasma.com

Comment by Earleen Victorino on July 3, 2012 at 8:40pm

Last month I had the opportunity to attend an all day session on the Promethean Board and the two day Tech Conference hosted by the Kamehameha Schools.  The speaker was absolutely fantastic!  David Kootman spoke on "Sound Classroom Management" and "Planning Smart, Learning More."  He shared a variety of materials from the internet,camera tools to Doc cam images and more.  Craig Crisler also shared on building your academic resource library.

The Tech Conference hosted by the Kamehameha Schools was a mini ISTE but on a personal level.  Loved the IBook session and guess speakers.  I walked away excited for the new school year with the basic belief that it is of the utmost importance to give my students a story--help them relate to the subject or topic spoken while always remembering to link the information given to prior knowledge.  Making that  Connection!

Comment by Caryn DeMello on June 20, 2012 at 9:52am

How exciting!  I look forward to hearing about all of the neat new things you've all learned as well as seeing it.  Enjoy your summer! 

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