Springboards is coming up on Monday and LEARN-CEFRIO is well-represented.

Mary Ellen will be giving a session on Media Literacy: Making Classroom Blogs. She shared her session with several of us in Live Classroom. If you were not able to attend, take some time to visit the wiki she created for the session: http://maryellenlynch.wikispaces.com/ You can learn about how she proceded and discover some of the tools she has found helpful.

Two of our other members, Karen Rye and Véronique Lemay are giving a session on Writing: Cross-Cycle Buddies. While this is not part of their work for our project, it is a good example of collabortion.

I will be taking part in a panel discussion on 21st century literacy. This will be a challenge as I will be 5th to speak. I’ll be relying on much of what I have learned with you.

Take some time to explore the blogs and wikis that are linked at the side. This group has grown so much as learners, collaborators and sharers.

Looking forward to our next LC session.

Susan

It’s been a busy and productive day.  It was great to finally put a face to email addresses and names.  Dana, Shelley and I had a great time planning our upcoming book blog wiki project.  Although we finished with questions still unanswered, we’re one step further in our collaboration journey.  Now that we’ve met each other we’re looking forward to our students ‘meeting’ through websites and Live Classroom.  Keep your eyes open on the LEARNConnect wiki for further updates.

Best of luck in your collaboration journeys.  Travel safely and take care.

Shelley L., Dana, Shelley O

We are both Grade 5 teachers in the ETSB  and want to have our students share their vision of their school community. They will, hopefully, do this through photo essays that they will help each other build on a common wikispace. So far we have planned to have our students brainstorm questions that they would have about the other school (A.D.S or S.E.S.). The students can use photos and text and/or voice-thread to answer the questions and tell the story of the photo. We are also looking at using this project as a submission for our classes in the School Board Arts Festival competition called “Show your Talent”.

That’s it so far. We can collaborate on the wiki as well as through chat on our school board portal and on our days that the school board can give us for the CEFRIO project.

Cathy Watson

Jennifer Palik

Christiane and I had a wonderful meeting on Live Classroom with several of our LEARN-CEFRIO participants. It was exciting to hear the stories of how people’s projects are developing. The interest in learning new skills was evident. Even the most hesitant was willing to try new things in order to get her students’ voices heard in her community.

Each year there is hype about making resolutions, but we all know that most of those are easily broken because we don’t really buy into them. However I have found that it is easy to keep the ones about learning new things because of the pleasure it brings.

For years I have said that I should write more often – “this is the year I will write a journal” “This is the year I will blog every week” and then found that it never happened. This year I have embarked on a new adventure – 365 stories in 2009. There is a group of educators who have started a Flickr photo pool: 2009/365. The only requirement is that you post a photograph each day, taken that day. I seem, finally to have found the hook that makes me want to write. I have often talked about digital storytelling and about how the picture tells part of the story, while the text adds a different layer. I am using my participation in this adventure to explore this kind of writing and have started another blog to post my photographs and write about them. And I am really enjoying it! Writing is not a chore. This reminds me how, as teachers, we have to find the right hook for each student, to draw them into discovering the joy of learning. Once the excitement is there you don’t need to make resolutions, because the pleasure derived motivates you to do more.

I see for some of the teachers involved in our initiative – that hook is your students. While some of you may have been hesitant about learning about technology, once you see the possibilities for your students, learning new ways of communicating becomes a pleasure.

So for 2009, I wish you each to find the path that leads you on pleasurable learning adventures and that you help spark that sense of adventure in each of your students.

Susan

Some of you may know that I am a webcaster on EdTechTalk. I met my two co-hosts when we were in Webcast Academy, an online, informal course which introduced us to the possibilities of webcasting. The three of us, one from Michigan, another from Long Island, NY and I,  have a monthly show where we interview educators from around the world. Recent guests have included David Warlick, Ben Papell and Steve Muth (the founders of VoiceThread), and Wesley Fryer, an educator who is very involved in the K12 Online Conference as well as a new project, StoryChasers.

You can find out more by visiting our blog: http://teachersaretalking.blogspot.com/

Upcoming guests include: Kristen Hokansen (who specializes in copyright issues in the US as a librarian) on December 18 and Helen Barrett (portfolios) on January 15 – both at 7:30 pm

How do you listen to a webcast from EdTechTalk? During shows, listeners can use any common media player (i.e. Windows Media Player, Real Player, or iTunes) to listen to the discussion and use the chat room to make comments and ask questions. The show is located at: http://edtechtalk.com/ Just click on Participate Live, chose the icon for the player you want to use to listen and the audio should start streaming. You can Login to the chat to add your comments.

If you want to listen to past shows, go to http://edtechtalk.com/ On the left is a list of shows. Click on Teachers Are Talking and you will be able to download the shows. Or – go our blog for links to specific episodes.

Why do I webcast? It gives me the opportunity to meet, “virtually”,  people I wouldn’t otherwise have access to. I have a monthly opportunity to learn, discuss and share with fellow educators. It has put me in touch with a virtual learning network of educators who keep me informed, share ideas, discoveries as well as personal stories. It makes me risk (though in a supportive community), something I keep telling teachers they need to learn to do. It makes me try on a role I don’t usually take. Hope to see you in the chatroom at one of our webcasts.

Susan

Crossposted to Reflexions

September is such a hectic time in schools and we so appreciate your taking time to come to a workshop. This project is about connections and collaboration. We each come with different experience both in and out of the classroom, with much to share and to learn from each other. I encourage you to make connections both for yourself and your students. Those who were here before know that I have my online network. They are a source of information and questions which lead me to learn and understand in new ways. I also have met two people through my online community with whom I do a monthly webcast. These online relationships have greatly enriched my learning.

Both Christiane and I are hoping you will experience the richness of opening your class up to the world, to give your students opportunities for communicating in purposeful ways with a broader audience and to collaborate with students on projects. We hope, too, that you will share and learn from your fellow teachers, both in your school and in this community. Some of our returning teachers have discovered online communities and are now participating in communicating on a more global scale.

We hope you will share your reflections so that we all can learn from the experiences of others. We would be glad to open up this space to other writers. You can already contribute by adding a comment.

A comment can be a reflection on what you have read here, a question about how to proceed, a request for more information, a question for us all to ponder….. Let’s make this space a learning space for us all.

Susan

My monthly webcast, Teachers are Talking, took place last night We had a guest panel discussing students and networks. In a discussion with our guests after the show, someone spoke about teachers and technology. He said, “Using technology is a mind set not a skill set.” In our project with you I have seen this exemplified in many ways. People who were not heavy technology users opened their minds to the possibilities and saw how it could make a difference to their students. Instead of seeing technology as a barrier, you have taken steps to integrate it in ways that have enriched your classrooms.

The mind set of being lifelong learners is part of what is needed. And so is letting go and letting our students teach us. My webcast partner, Lisa, keeps talking about telling her students, “Let’s learn this together.”

Working with web 2.0 technology lets us empower our students to share their voices with the world and it is up to us to teach them how to do it in safe and constructive ways. One of our teachers has done just that with her cycle one students. Please visit the blog she set up to keep her parents informed. http://teacher102.edublogs.org/ She has set herself challenges to learn to use some new tools because she saw the value of using them with her students and the school community. It has changed the way she does some things in her class.

Have a look at the delightful animal VoiceThreads. Take a moment to comment on her students’ work. It is a powerful way of telling students that their work is valued and important. I know that technology was not a big part of Mary Ellen’s teaching, but she has embraced the possibilities, not because she wanted to learn the skills, but because she has seen the excitement and commitment on the part of her students when they are involved in projects that go beyond the classroom walls. Bravo!

Susan

I have been thinking a lot lately about the people who have influenced me in my learning and those who play a part in my learning now. It has been an interesting journey.

I taught for 18 years at a private school in Montreal where I was the computer teacher. I am grateful to my colleagues there and to the environment that was fostered by the administration. We talked education frequently and they became a part of my learning and growth. We debated whole language, grappled with what it truly meant, planned and implemented many projects together and always questioned our practices and approaches. However, as the only computer teacher in the school, there were areas of what I wanted to know for which my colleagues could not be my mentors. I had to go elsewhere. There were books and certainly Seymour Papert was a huge influence in my becoming a more constructivist educator. But I did not have contact with him directly except on a rare occasion when I heard him speak at a conference.

I often think of Frank Greene, a professor at McGill who encouraged and nourished me. He spoke of walking the floor at a conference – that the contacts and conversations were as important as listening to the speakers. So true.

As I attended and spoke at conferences, I met people from outside my city and, through e-mail was able to start expanding my circle of mentors. I learned that people, even those on the conference circuit, are approachable and are truly happy to share what they know. People in the education business seem to want to share, to see the changes they are hoping for multiply.

When I left teaching and joined LEARN, my new colleagues were as collaborative and supportive as those whom I had left. Our conversations have forced me to think and rethink about my beliefs and to read and reflect about what I would like to see in education. As we do not meet often face to face, our conversations were often through e-mails and my personal learning network expanded.

However, it has been through the advent of web 2.0 that I have been able to have access to the people in my field on a regular basis and my own growth has been exponential as a result. I regularly read blogs (though I have learned to limit the number), listen to some podcasts and through online communities have come to know people as friends and collaborators whom I have never met face to face. I have many people I can call on to answer my questions, reflect back my thinking and to expose me to their explorations and ideas. Now I can walk the floors virtually and carry on conversations or just listen in on them to nudge my thoughts and point me to articles, new applications and exemplary student work. It has been an exciting time.

I know that teachers have limited time, but I also know that we want our students to be lifelong learners. I feel we have to model this and continue to learn ourselves.

So here are my questions
Who have been your mentors?
Who is part of your personal learning network (face to face or virtual)
How can you use the people in this group to expand your knowledge, share your ideas or create community?
Challenge
Choose one new thing to learn this week.
Where are you going to go to learn it (real world or virtual?)
Who can help you?

Don’t keep the answers to yourself. Share them by commenting on this entry.

Susan

I spoke to the October 5 group about my own learning adventures. I have become part of Webcast Academy. Aside from the fact that I love learning new things and I am intrigued by what technology can help us with, I feel that I have to model what I am asking others to do – to put myself out of my comfort zone. It has been a steep and fast learning curve for me. But most importantly – I have become part of an incredible group of educators who are learning along with me. We support each other in many ways and I can honestly say, that despite the fact that we have not met face-to-face (though we have seen each other through video on the Internet) some have already become my friends. I am going to be streaming live (like a radio show on the Internet) on Wednesday, October 17 at 8:30 pm at Webcast Academy with two of the “interns” I met through this experience. Our show, Teacher Talk, is about all aspects of communication in schools. If you decide to listen, go to the site and then click on Listen. This will open a window

We will be streaming in Sandbox A or B (we’re still playing in the sandbox). You simply click on the speaker to listen through iTunes, the blue icon to listen through RealPlayer or the third icon to listen through Windows Media Player. You can also join the chat room by typing an ID (any name will do!) into the space beside username. Beside Room scroll to Webcast Academy. Or – even scarier to me, you can watch our experiment with video at Teacher Talk Studio.

The show will focus on communicating about math. We’ll be interviewing the founder of Mathplayground and we will talk about some other math ideas both on the internet and in books. If you listen, let me know.

It is really scary for me to share this with you and I know for some of you being part of this LEARN-CEFRIO project is a challenge and a bit scary. So be assured that I understand how you feel. I hope you will find in this project the support you need for your journey as well as the excitement of the journey. It takes work, but the thrill of success makes it all worth it.

Susan

PS – Learn about the K12 Online Conference from my blog

If you want to learn about technology integration – go to the K12 online conference
This is an asynchronous (you don’t have to go at a particular time) online conference. It would be great to use this space to discuss some of the sessions. The conference “begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. ” There are also some live sessions which use some of the collaborative tools available for education. It is well worth taking some time to participate.

Susan