September’s English Journal is all about poetry. What’s great is that the EJ website is showcasing, for a limited time, the "10 Watershed Articles" on poetry from EJ. It’s a collection of articles that span EJ‘s lifetime, all about teaching poetry, as named by two of September’s contributing authors.
If you’re into poetry, teaching poetry, or the history of teaching poetry, then thiscollection is worth a few minutes of your time. I’m continually amazed by how today’s issues are also yesterday’s, in lots of ways.
We don’t necessarily seem to learn everything that we can from the past.
The proposal submission form is up over at the K12Online Conference blog. If you’re a K-12 classroom teacher, or someone who works with K-12 classroom teachers, and you’re doing something interesting with technology that’s making the classroom a better place to be for our students, we need you to share the good stuff with us. Please, please, please consider carving out some time to submit a conference proposal.
I’m so excited to have this opportunity to learn and work with you.
I was asked by a PR firm working for CNN to remind y’all that CNN’s website will feature the coverage from 9/11/2001 tomorrow:
Dear Mr. Hunt,
Tomorrow is going to be a rough day — the fifth anniversary
of the attacks of September 11, 2001. As an education writer and observer, you know the value of a “teachable
moment” — and that it must be used properly. Tributes and recollections will appear everywhere, filtered through the
eyes of analysts, journalists, bloggers, politicians and every other American
with access to a podium – in print, on a street corner, on the air or
online. But five years can muddy
recollections – and for many students, five years ago is an eternity.There is a great resource available for free that can
help. CNN Pipeline – CNN.com’s premium
video news service — will replay, without charge, CNN’s coverage from that day
precisely as happened five years ago, beginning at 8:30 a.m. (ET), minutes
before the first news reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New
York City.CNN Pipeline is comprised of four separate feeds. Through them the rebroadcast will supplement
its coverage with live reports from memorial services in New York City,
Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.One more thing: To be sensitive to those online users who do
not wish to see the replay, CNN Pipeline requires those who want to see the
footage to click on Pipe 4 to launch the program.The people who frequent Bud the Teacher care about
education and are tech-savvy and culturally aware. They’ll appreciate knowing that this opportunity exists. On behalf of CNN, we hope you’ll tell them.
I’m getting more and more of these press release-type e-mails, although I don’t usually respond to them. (Maybe that’s a session for a future conference — Blogger as PR Target: Responding to the Corporate Press Machine.) This one, though, is likely worth passing on. I was glued to CNN for a few weeks during/after 9/11. It was a pretty scary time. And, yes, I know that’s a pretty United Statesian-centric worldview. But it was. Scary.
I probably won’t be using this tool in my classroom — I wasn’t planning a very long remembrance. Our school-wide daily writing prompt tomorrow is "Remember." It’s open ended because I know that some students won’t want to think about 9/11 — and I’m not sure it’s my place to force them to. Then again, it might be, but that’s a post for another day.
I will check in with the coverage with my journalism students — but that’s all. I’m not sure that I like the idea that this footage is being reused, in part, as a promotional tool for a new web-based news service. I do, agree, though, that seeing the original footage has some educational value.
Douglas sent me a link to TrailFire, a new tool that adds a neat wrinkle to social bookmarking — annotation. From his post on the subject:
I am not usually taken in by these social bookmarking things, but I
have to admit I am finding this incarnation of 2.0 widgetty goodness
quite compelling. All the other social bookmarking tools out there
promote the individual webpage as the most important aspect of a good
find. They don’t celebrate the trail to get there.Trailfire celebrates the trail.
Invoking this quick to use plug-in for Firefox or IE I can blaze a
trail through the Internet (they call them ‘marks’, but ‘blazes’ is
more accurate in trail building lingo and has an energy that ‘marks’
and ‘marking’ just doesn’t–I’m calling their marketing guys), at each
stop recording my thoughts on a particular page–why I blazed it. Find a
page, blaze it; find the next page, blaze it; then a few more pages
till I have an entire saved and named trail for others to follow. I
send you the URL that tracks the path I just created or link to it in a
post. This new trail guides you through a particular argument I might
be trying to make or just a series of related topics I have strung
together for your pleasure. And if you happen to think that I have a
knack for trails that suit your tastes you can find them here.My first reaction is that this tool will be a great way for teachers
to organize a guided Internet curriculum for students, but the truth is
that it’s great for anyone who wants to give context to their content
or just to highlight more than one interesting page at a time. Sure,
you could blaze an extended brainfart of unrelated topics and pages,
but why would you? Out here in the real world trails go somewhere or at
the very least by something interesting. I think the natural
inclination of electronic trailblazers will be to do the same thing:
catalogue a series of pages into a contextual setting like an argument
or a tour or a lesson.
I can imagine creating TrailFire marks for lots of different reasons. Here’s one Douglas created that shows the simple power of the service. I really like that the pages this service creates are interactive — I can leave the trail at any point if I find something of interest as I go. Of course, that leads me to wonder if there are some copyright issues here, as I’m wondering if it’s okay to completely mash-up an entire web page and host it on an different server — but that’s another post.
This is definitely a tool worth some exploration.
It’s only a few weeks into the school year, and I know that I need boosts to keep my energy up. Two such boosts are recent additions to my learning network. Thought I’d share.
The first is one David Warlick mentioned recently — the Geek!Ed! podcast. The four folks that do this podcast are laugh out loud funny, which was handy this evening when I needed a chuckle. They’re also thought-provoking — which makes for a nice combination.
The second is a blog that I’ve been reading for a while, but I only recently stuck it into the sidebar of this blog. (Does anyone look at the sidebar anymore?) Not All Who Wander Are Lost is a blog written by a true master of language. I enjoy the glimpses into family, nature, music, and other details of the life of this stranger who writes with such detail and crispness that I have to pause and savor the words. Here’s a recent entry that is almost prose poetry, a true pleasure to read:
Cassia couldn’t sleep, so I took her outside in
the damp night to listen to the bugs buzz, the peepers peep. Her
year-and-a-half eyes glowed wide with wonder as walked down the
driveway, the pitch black before us, the garagelight fading behind us.
Afterwards, she gave me a snuggle and said my daddy clear as a bell before asking for Mama, and bed.Meanwhile,
Willow had a hissy fit out at the stream this afternoon, so we cut the
fishing short and fumed back through the woods together, though if she
were old enough to make her own way back, she would have. She pulls at
her sister, and natters loudly if we try to talk to anyone else in her
presence. Tonight, on the phone with my mother, of all the wondeful
things we did this weekend, she chose to share did you know that we were pulled over by a policeman in the car?Once,
the wee one was practically prehuman, cute but essentially object.
Once, the elderkid was sweet, generous, gracious and gentle by default.
I suppose they’ll forever see-saw, too, on their own wobbly curves,
sometimes in sync at high or low, sometimes like today, just a study in
opposites.Ah, who am I kidding. I love ‘em, God bless ‘em.
Even if their reaction to my daytime absence were to remain forever
diverse and unpredictable, I miss them terribly when I’m working. So
long, summer vacation. Hello again, teacher’s life.
One other addition to my sidebar is that of Dawn Hogue. She’s a frequent contributor to a listserv that I frequently lurk on. She’s also a CyberEnglish teacher, which is a flavor of language arts instruction that many who read this blog would find valuable, and one that I’ve always been interested in, even though I can’t say that I completely understand it. I’m looking forward to learning more.
What new reads or listens have you discovered?
In November of 2004, I won an iPod at the NCTE conference. That was a good thing, as I don’t know that I would’ve spent that kind of money on myself, especially for a "gadget." Within a month or two, I was listening to podcasts. Within six months, the radio was off and I was listening almost exclusively to podcasts. Eventually, I was making my own.
My iPod has been grinding to a slow halt for six weeks. After a few weeks of rest and vacation at Camp Junk-Drawer-in-My-Kitchen (a place where lots of great tools and other stuff goes to get away from it all) she seemed to be returning to normal.
Until this morning.
I’ve lost a good friend. And, in lots of ways, my connection to the larger world of podcasting. I feel a little lost, to tell you the truth. My small family of iRivers is doing some of the work that my iPod was doing, but not as well, or as easily.
Remember her fondly. I sure will.
(Via Josh)
Google has now put together a News Search specifically for archived news from the last 200 years. According to TechCrunch (and my quick scan) the information available is spotty, but I was blown away by a few quick searches. I imagine this is a resource worth exploring further.
Wow.
In this podcast, my first in a while, Darren and I discuss going back to school, what we’re up to with technology, and our thoughts about some plans that we have. The podcast ends with Darren’s announcement about the K12 Online Conference.
As always, we’re both interested in hearing your thoughts, reactions, comments and concerns. Please let us know what you think by leaving a comment here or at Darren’s post.
Enjoy.
I’m pleased to report that I’ll be giving one of the keynote presentations for the first "K12 Online 2006" conference/convention/virtual meetup/really neat-o mashup of smart folks sharing interesting things. Please read the rest of this post to learn more and to see how you can participate. Thanks in advance to the conference organizers for all of the hard work they’ve done so far — and all the work left to do.
——–
Announcing the first annual “K12 Online 2006″ convention for
teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in
the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This
year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27
and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme “Unleashing the Potential.” A call for proposals is below.
There will be four “conference strands”– two each week. Two
presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday -
Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the
course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in podcast or
screencast format and released via the conference blog (URL: TBA) and
archived for posterity.
THE FOUR STRANDS ARE:
Week 1
Strand A: A Week In The Classroom
These presentations will focus on the practical pedagogical uses of
online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers
are using the tools in their classes. They will also show how teachers
plan for using these tools in the delivery of their curricular
objectives.
Strand B: Basic/Advanced Training (one of each per day)
Basic training is “how to” information on tool use in an educational setting, especially for newcomers.
Advanced training is for teachers who have already started using Web
2.0 tools in their classes and are looking for: (a) advanced technology
training (eg. how to write your own blog template or hack existing
ones), (b) new tools they can make use of in their classes, (c)
teaching ideas on how to mash tools together to create “something new,”
(d) a pedagogical understanding of how technologies such as Weblogs,
wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking sites, RSS feeds and others can
deepen learning and increase student achievement, or (e) use of
assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of Read/Write Web
technologies in their personal practice and with their students.
Week 2
Strand A: Personal Professional Development
Tips, ideas and resources on how to orchestrate your own professional
development online; the tools that support Professional Learning
Environments (PLEs); how to create opportunities to bring these
technologies to the larger school community; how to effectively
incorporate the tools into your personal or professional practice; or
how to create a supportive, reflective virtual professional community
around school-based goals.
Strand B: Overcoming Obstacles
Tips, ideas and resources on how to deal with issues like: lack of
access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for
online safety, and other IT concerns while trying to focus on best
practice in the use of Web 2.0 tools.
CONVENORS & KEYNOTES
For organization purposes, each strand is overseen by a conference
convenor who will assist and coordinate presenters in their strand. The
first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a
well known educator who has distinguished his/herself and is
knowledgeable in the context of each topic. This year’s convenors and
keynote presenters are:
A Week In The Classroom
Convenor: Darren Kuropatwa
Keynote: Bud Hunt
Bud Hunt teaches high school language arts and
journalism at Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, Colorado. He is a
teacher-consultant with and the Tech Liaison for the Colorado State
University Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing
Project, a group working to improve the teaching of writing in schools
via regular and meaningful professional development. Bud is also the
co-editor of the New Voices column of English Journal, a publication of
the National Council of Teachers of English. A consumer of copious
amounts of New Media, Bud blogs and podcasts about his practice and
larger educational issues at http://www.budtheteacher.com.
Basic/Advanced Training
Convenor: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Keynote: TBA
Personal Professional Development
Convenor: Will Richardson
Keynote: Ewan McIntosh
Ewan McIntosh is an educational technologist and teacher
of French and German. Based in the Edinburgh area of Scotland he
frequently works around the UK and Europe, leading student and teacher
workshops and conferences. He is an experienced workshop facilitator in
the area of Web 2.0 technologies in education across stages and
curricular areas. Ewan blogs at http://edu.blogs.com
Overcoming Obstacles
Convener: TBA
Keynote: Anne Davis
Anne is known for seeing the educational possibilities
in the use ofweblogs with students in classrooms, having implemented
wonderful ideasand weblog projects with students and teachers in K-12
classrooms and atthe university level. She currently works at Georgia
State University inthe Instructional Technology Center in the College
of Education as anInformation Systems Training Specialist. Her weblog,
EduBlog Insightsis a co-winner of the Best Teacher Blog inthe
second international Edublog Awards, a web based event thatrecognizes
the many diverse and imaginative ways in which weblogs arebeing used
within education.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
We’d like to invite you to submit a proposal to present at the
conference. If you have something you’d like to share with the
community, both people who are new to blogs and/or experienced bloggers
please email the appropriate conference convenor above with your ideas.
The deadline to submit a proposal (just the proposal, not the finished
product) is September 30, 2006. One of us will contact you to finalize
the date of your presentation. Your presentation may be delivered in
any web-based medium (including but not limited to…podcasts, PowerPoint
files, blogs, websites, wikis, screencasts, etc.) and must be emailed
to your assigned conference convenor one week before it goes live, (see
above strands) so that it can be uploaded to the server.
The conference organizers are:
Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of
Mathematics at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave
the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his
pedagogical practice and for “child safe” blogging practices. He has
more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and
13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren
has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for
the last 10 years. Darren’s professional blog is called A Difference (http://adifference.blogspot.com).
Sheryl is a technology/education consultant for the
National Education Association (NEA), the Center for Teaching Quality,
SRI International, the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia
Department of Education, the Miami-Dade Public Schools, and the Alabama
Best Practices Center. She has had several journal articles and book
chapters published, been featured on public broadcasting television and
radio shows, and is a regular presenter at local, state, and national
conferences speaking on topics of homelessness, teacher leadership,
virtual community building, and 21st Century learning initiatives.
Sheryl blogs at 21st Century Collaborative (http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/).
Will Richardson is known internationally for his work
with educators and students to understand and implement instructional
technologies and, more specifically, the tools of the Read/Write Web
into their schools, classrooms and communities. A public school
educator for 22 years, Will’s own Weblog ( Weblogg-ed.com) is a primary
resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on
the K-12 level and is a leading voice for school reform in the context
of the fundamental changes these new technologies are bringing to all
aspects of life. Will is the critically acclaimed authour of the
best-selling book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for
Classrooms (March 2006, Corwin Press).
If you have any questions about any part of this, email one of us:
Please duplicate this post and distribute it far and wide across the
blogosphere. Feel free to republish it on your own blog (actually, we’d
really like people to do that 
) or link back to this post (published simultaneously on all our blogs). Please tag all related posts with k12online06.
