The EduBlog Awards

In my last post, I talked about the Edublog Awards or the Eddies. An annual event since 2004, this is where the best education blogs of the year are decided by other educators. While I didn't get a chance to talk more about this before the event was over, voting ended on Saturday; I would like to talk a little bit about the blogs I voted for and some others that might be interesting for others to view. There were 16 categories overall, so if you don't want to read this long post, now's the time to get out!

For lifetime achievement, I voted for Will Richardson, "the father of blogging". I've talked about his book Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms before; I highly recommend his book and his blog if you are looking for more information on any recent technology. However, I also have to mention both the blogs of David Warlick and Nancy White. White's blog was new to me, but after viewing it I felt right at home reading her posts and felt this would be a good one to add to my Google Reader. I've been in PDS sessions with both Richardson and Warlick and they both are great educational minds and make me think about how I can better use technology with content areas.

For best class blog, I voted for Learning Area 20 from Australia. In this blog, the teacher writes about subjects or adds pictures and then asks questions. The students respond on their own blogs, which are listed in a blogroll on the side page. One of my favorite posts on this blog asks the students to come up with a list of things that are uniquely Australian. The kids came up with some great responses such as Kangaroos, Crocodile Dundee, and my favorite Koala Bears! I also liked Risley Roarer's Blog in Brian Crosby's class. There was a good post addressed to Senators McCain and Obama about the issues important to them. Then the students needed to brainstorm issues important to themselves and write a post about it.

For social network, I couldn't have voted for any other group than Classroom 2.0. I am a member of this social network and get a lot of good feedback from members when I need it. I looked at many of the other social networks and struck by how similar they all look, in most cases I felt I was looking at the same pages. However, Classroom 2.0 is more knowledgeable to me and don't see myself registering with another group.

For best wiki, I voted for eToolbox. It's actually the Wissahickon School District's wikispace in Ambler, PA. Wikis are great for storing information and research and provide a great place for collaboration and this wiki has it all! What I liked best about it was that it was very organized, didn't overwhelm me (as some wikis can do) and provided great ideas using blogs, Comic Life, and Google Earth, some software I am currently working with teachers on. But I also liked Educational Origami, which had great ideas about Bloom's Taxonomy and incorporating it with technology and Learning in Maine, which has a wealth of topics on it's wiki for both Mac and PC.

Best use of video, came down to Flickschool and TEFL Clips. Flickschool won out with my vote, but only barely. It has some great design and creativity going on here and it helps highlight some of the great ideas in the posts, especially one on GarageBand. I liked TEFL Clips because it has lesson plans on it that can help other teachers who don't have as much experience with using video in the classroom.

I wasn't as impressed with the best use of audio nominations, as I guess I was looking for more basic ways of using audio. Most of the blogs I viewed had a quick post with a link to a podcast. I was looking for more of a blog entry with a podcast playing less of a role. While these blogs are very inventive, they just weren't quite for me. So I voted for Project Xiphos, which was more to what I considered to be a traditional blog. I also liked Wicked Decent Learning as well, because it wasn't overwhelming me with the use of audio, but instead gave me a good balance between reading and audio.

Best elearning blog was a hard decision for me as there were some great nominations, but it came down to Elearning Technology and Presentation Zen. I went with the first blog as I felt that there were some great topics here and much information for anyone looking for help with educational technology. I feel the best books and now blogs, are the ones that make me do something and Elearning Technology has some challenges involved that will make me learn something. Presentation Zen had this same feeling going on, but more from a design stand point for me than from an educational stand point.

Best Tech Support Blog was a great category too! I had several blogs I liked and while I voted for Teach42 by Steve Dembo, another one of my regular subscriptions; I also enjoyed Teachers Love SmartBoards, GeekED, and Langwitches. The last one was completely new to me, but I was very impressed with it and think I might add this one to my reader as well.

The Best Librarian Blog surprised me as I figured there would be a lot of information about books and technology, but there really wasn't. I voted for the blog that best captured my idea of the category which was the one by Joyce Valenza. She had a good amount of both books and technology and I wouldn't mind catching up on what's she's doing. I also liked the Blue Skunk blog as well.

I wasn't quite so impressed by the Best Teacher Blog either. I voted for ICT in my Classroom, which has a good amount of ideas for teachers, but I also liked Clif's Notes, The Journey, and Box of Tricks. The Journey has a great post on the Top 100 Educational Tools for 2008, while Box of Tricks seemed to be for those who like to think more "outside the box". It has an unusual look to it's front page, but one that grabbed my attention and made me look further at this blog.


Most Influential Blog Post was a great addition to these awards and I really liked 10 Tips for Growing Your Learning Network, The Time is Now, and Planning to Share Versus Just Sharing, the one I voted for on the EdTechPost blog. I voted for this because it exemplifies what I've been doing most lately, planning to share instead of just sharing. I need to take the time to share my knowledge instead of saying I plan to share this. Yes, it's a tall order and I don't always have the time, but it's a necessary part of my job. The Time is Now post on the Bit by Bit blog was also very influential in this day and age. I don't want to ruin it, so briefly, the post describes the change in television and technology and how necessary it is to keep up with those changes. 10 Tips on the Power of Educational Technology blog is also a very important topic as teachers need to keep learning. With the incorporation of PLC's, PLP's, and Social Networking, it's never been more important to keep that learning up!

My vote for the Best Resource Sharing blog went to that of Larry Ferlazzo. I really liked the way that Ferlazzo presents information, so that I don't feel bogged down by all the information, instead learning in a lighthearted way. His post on his Best posts of 2008 was a great way for me to see what else he has been up to throughout the year. He also has a post for sharing your idea for the Best Education-Related Book You've Read in 2008. The deadline is December 31st if you would like to add your own. I also enjoyed reading Teach J, a blog for teachers and students of Journalism, one of my favorite subjects, and Edina Public Schools NUA Program, which has great ideas for writing.

I voted for Angela Maiers as the Best New Blogger. I've seen her name pop up more and more recently and she's got some great ideas, such as ChalkTalk. Every Friday, Maiers writes about some of the best resources on the blogosphere. She also writes about resources for 21st century literacy. However, I would be amiss without adding that Huzzah and Dkzody's Weblog were very good too.

There were several good nominations in the Best Group Blog category and while I enjoyed Scholastic News, 360 got my vote and it's a math blog! Everyone knows math is my least favorite subject, but this blog is excellent and made me want to share it with others!

Finally, for Best Individual Blog I voted for Jennifer Dorman's Cliotech. I met Jennifer at a Discovery Weekend in Valley Forge, PA in 2006 and was really impressed with her ideas and educational philosophy and have really enjoyed her blog posts and the great websites she has found. She keeps me very up to date with all the new educational websites out there! I also very much liked Mobile TAFE from Australia and The Edublogger.

Now, if you've been paying attention, that's only 15 categories, not the 16 I said there are. The last category was the Best Use of a Virtual World in a blog, like Second Life. I know very little about the Virtual World environment and feel I just don't have time to keep up with it or really the desire to either. So while I looked at the blogs, I didn't really feel I understood what these were for and decided not to vote in this category.

Here's the link to see the winners, I hope you find a blog you like and subscribe to it!

Oh Gosh!

Yes, it’s been almost two months since I last posted! The blog was never far from my thoughts, but I never really got around to it either. There were plenty of ideas, but no time to write! However, the 2008 Edublog awards have inspired me to get back to my blog and share, share, share! I will try to post a few of my thoughts from November and December and get back to posting weekly. I am in the process of writing up my picks for the Edublog awards and should have that posted soon as well.

Now for today’s topic, let’s talk about Teqsmart.org. I found this website around Halloween as a way to help me in the training of using the Smart Airliners. What a large resource of Smart Notebook files! One of the first things I found was an airliner practice file in the "How To" section. What a life saver for all of us! I had previously watched our librarian use the airliner with 6th grade students one day and while most of them did well, a few struggled with moving objects and writing and I knew we would have more people struggling as soon as the airliners became available. This file gives you the chance to practice moving objects with the stylus. You can learn to move a basketball through a hoop, hit targets, guide a whale through a maze, move rocks to rescue a trapped dog, connect the dots, and move the bones from the guy on Operation. The idea is to help with your hand/eye coordination as you learn to use the airliner. I’ve seen a few teachers around the building using it, including Ms. Ivory, who used it with her math classes before completing an exercise on proportations. The kids had fun taking turns and trying the exercises and then gained skills they needed for using the airliner with the content.



Some of the other examples I found were graphic organizers and templates for Deal or No Deal and Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? I also found an interactive map for the Electoral College, that even helped me understand it a little better! For teachers in my building, all of these are also located on the staff shared drive under Teachers Resources, Technology Resources, and then Airliner. I started reading their blog too and enjoyed the details of how teachers are using this website too. I need to subscribe to it and see the updates, as well.

A review of this website from my November 5th Technology Newsletter is located on my wiki archives page.

Enjoy!

Story Structure Rubric

Here is the other rubric I used with this lesson plan:

Rubric

Here's one of the rubrics I used for this comic life lesson. It was created in trackstar.

Comic Life Lesson Plan

A few weeks ago, I talked about the two classes I am taking in my county. I couldn't get the lesson plans to come into blogger the way I wanted then, but I think I have it figured out now. Here's the language arts lesson I created for Comic Life:

Unit/Lesson Title: Story Structure/Main Idea

Step 1: Desired Results
What important concepts, content, skills, or vocabulary will students learn in this unit? In other words, what should students KNOW by the end of this unit?
Students should know how to plot out and organize a story and understand setting, theme, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

What should students UNDERSTAND and be able TO DO by the end of the unit?
Students will understand the importance of planning and organizing their stories before beginning the writing process. By the end of the lesson, they will have completed their story.

What SOLs or competencies are addressed in the unit? Are there any cross-curricular links we can make?
Reading 8.5b, 8.5c, 7.5a, 6.4a

Step 2: Assessment of Understanding
How will you assess student learning?
Students will need to complete both parts of the comic series to receive full credit for their work. They will also need to have the setting, theme, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution for both parts and have them clearly identified in the correct place. Students will be graded on content, not artistry.

Step 3: Learning Plan
Learning Sequence:
Hook/introduction:
Students will be introduced to the concept of story structure and plot. To better help them understand this concept they will be creating a short comic series on story structure. This comic series should involve characters describing what rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution are and how the students are going to setup their own story. The next part of the comic series will have the characters describing the student’s plot points about a story they will be writing.

List instructional sequence and timeline:
1. The teacher will introduce the concepts of story structure and plot.

2. The teacher will give students a printed storyboard from one of the panels in Comic Life.
Students will fill this out for both parts of the comic series and turn in for teacher approval.
However, students will work on this one part at a time. They will need to complete the first
part on the story structure devices before writing their stories. Once the teacher has given
approval, students will be ready to fill out their panels in Comic Life.

3. Once in the computer lab, students will be introduced to Comic Life and its features.
Students will then begin filling out the story structure panel from the storyboard they created on the first part of this series only.

4. Once the students understand this concept, they can then begin working on their stories
using this structure. They will again fill out a storyboard around the characters
describing the important points of their story and then return to the computer lab to
complete their comic series.

5. Once their comic series is complete they will move on to writing and completing their
stories.

6. Students will be able to share their completed comic series with their classmates.

Glogster

This is my first attempt at creating a glog or digital poster. I am using this with my differentiation instruction workshop on Monday.

Ay Espanol!

I took some time to observe some classes today after my training class this morning (more on that later) and wandered in one of the Spanish classes. They were learning the alphabet today and I had so much fun watching the kids pronounce each letter. I was very impressed with the class and surprised at how much I remembered from my classes! One of the activities they did to learn and remember the pronunciations was "Sound Off", the rhythmic chant you hear in most military movies. Again, the kids did a great job, hitting a bump here and there, but getting it all the same. Then they each received a card with a letter on it and they learned how to spell words in Spanish. Whenever the teacher said a word, the students had to come to the front with their letter cards and spell the words. I even got in on the action and had the letter "rr", a double "r" when they spelled perro or dog. It was a great period and I hear they are using the Classroom Jeopardy game soon-our first class to do so! I can't wait to see how they use it.