Revisiting Guiding Principles

I am so excited to share and use the things I've explored in this class with my students and teaching partners.  It has really changed how I view using technology and the web. In my mind, it's been like going from black and white to technicolor or even 3D... pretty amazing.  I know that it's made me think more about the process of using technology with students... like what skills will they learn not just what content.  That's a big thing.  It didn't really dawn on me until know how much the world is changing and our ways of doing things are changing.  One of the readings talked about educating kids not for the jobs we have now but for the jobs that haven't been invented yet.  Pretty powerful image, isn't it?  That idea really resonated with  me.

So here are my guiding principles... PLUS

1. I will strive to use technology for making learning more accessible, engaging or creating deeper meaning not just because it is "there."




2. I will work hard to make sure my students are safe in the digital world and understand how to interact within it with respect for themselves and others.



3. I will remember that technology is the tool not the answer and endeavor to convey it to my students- because they are the answer!



4. I will learn more about technology from and for my students so I can help better guide their learning.  

5.  I will think about what 21st century skills my students can practice as they use technology and I will try to encourage them to develop these skills.

Best of luck to all! 

Imperiled giant pandas need replanted bamboo forests in order to reconnect

More food for discussion.

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Imperiled giant pandas need replanted bamboo forests in order to reconnect

Giant panda habitats are too fragmented and need to be reconnected in order for the endangered animals to maintain their genetic diversity, a new study shows.

The study, conducted by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, both in Beijing, was published July 23 in the open-access journal BMC Genetics .

[More]

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Discussion Summary

I really enjoyed getting to see what people were thinking in the discussion area.  The support and mirroring of what I've been feeling (overwhelmed, excited, inspired) was neat to see.  A few kernals that I took away were: 
This is a process, we are lucky enough to be lifelong learners. 
Best practice is evolving too. 
Trying a little bit at a time is OK. 
Technology is one tool in the hands of what really matters in education- the teacher. 
Finding the time to collaborate is important for teachers too. 

Thanks,  I'm sorry for the short post.  If, you've been reading the news, you may have heard of a plane crash in Lake Michigan this week.  (It's been in the national news because of a "goodbye" note found in the water after the crash.)  The volunteer medical transport flight was carrying 2 pilots, a doctor, his patient and wife from Michigan to the Mayo clinic.  The doctor was my uncle and one of the best men I know.  The pilot was rescued but all others are still missing and presumed lost.  We are waiting for word that the wreckage has been found and more. It's been a hard few days.  

Digital Science Fair

Here is my final project, ever evolving and hopefully improving with student input..

The science fair really is the final unit of my class and take about 4 weeks of work to come to fruition. I'm planning to have my students make "In Plain English" scientific method videos early in the year and I want to link the best up with the wiki for review. Students will be able to use the Science Buddies site to choose a project and then during the research phase share additional helpful information on the wiki. I've asked them to share their topics with me on a wallwisher.com board. The final digital display I'm thinking I may leave up to students. I plan to introduce- with the help of my awesome teaching partners- some other applicable web 2.0 tools so they should have some basis for making a choice. I modeled Glogster with the "home" page of the wiki because I think that this will probably appeal to most of my 6th graders, being a "poster" type. I have a rubric that I use for the science fair that students help modify each year so the rubric is TBD.  I'm deciding between having them share their projects on Edmodo or a specific blog set up for that purpose.  That will probably depend on access issues at my school.

Here is my wiki: http://cubscientists.wikispaces.com/

Wallwisher

For several years, I've used the "exit" ticket idea with my students.  A closing writing prompt that must be completed before they leave the classroom. We've used sticky notes, journals, the whiteboard, smartboard, moodle discussion areas to do this, but now I really want to try Wallwisher.  Wallwisher is an online notice board where you can leave a digital "sticky note."  Simple and green.  Can't wait to try it and... I think I'm going to incorporate it into my project as a place for students to share what their project choice is. 

Also, in my poking around looking for ideas to modify my current science fair rubric so that it works for my digital science fair, I found this pretty comprehensive list of rubrics.

Oh, also you may have noticed that I've changed a few things about the blog.  I'm trying to make it user friendly for my students and parents so that I can continue blogging here next year.  Hopefully, it will help extend the walls of my classroom and perhaps make them  feel  more "semipermeable" for parents. :)

China's Wars Driven by Climate - Discovery News

Interesting discussion starter!

http://news.discovery.com/history/china-climate-wars.html

China's Wars Driven by Climate

July 14, 2010 8:15:00 AM

Two millennia of foreign invasions and internal wars in China were driven more by cooling climate than by feudalism, class struggle or bad government, a bold study released Wednesday argued.

Food shortages severe enough to spark civil turmoil or force hordes of starving nomads to swoop down from the Mongolian steppes were consistently linked to long periods of colder weather, the study found.

In contrast, the Central Kingdom's periods of stability and prosperity occurred during sustained warm spells, the researchers said.

Theories that weather-related calamities such as drought, floods and locust plagues steered the unraveling or creation of Chinese dynasties are not new.

But until now, no one had systematically scanned the long sweep of China's tumultuous history to see exactly how climate and Chinese society might be intertwined.

Chinese and European scientists led by Zhibin Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing decided to compare two sets of data over 1,900 years.

Digging into historical archives, they looked at the frequency of war, price hikes of rice, locust plagues, droughts and floods. For conflict, they distinguished between internal strife and external wars.

At the same time, they reconstructed climate patterns over the period under review.

"The collapses of the agricultural dynasties of the Han (25-220), Tang (618-907), Northern Song (960-1125), Southern Song (1127-1279) and Ming (1368-1644) are closely associated with low temperature or the rapid decline in temperature," they conclude.

A shortage of food would have weakened these dynasties, and pushed nomads in the north -- even more vulnerable to dips in temperature -- to invade their southern, Chinese-speaking neighbors, the authors argued.

A drop of 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in average annual air temperature can shorten the growing season for steppe grasses, which are critical for livestock, by up to 40 days.

"When the climate worsens beyond what the available technology and economic system can compensate for, people are forced to move or starve," they said.

The study found more droughts and floods during cold periods, but the factors that contributed most directly to wars and dynastic breakup were soaring rice prices and locust infestations.

The Roman and Mayan empires, they noted, also fell during cold periods.

Zhang and colleagues speculated that periodic temperature shifts roughly every 160 or 320 years were related to natural climate changes, namely fluctuations in solar activity and in Earth's orbit and axial spin.

The team said the findings demonstrate that climate change can lead to unrest and warfare.

"Historians commonly attribute dynastic transitions or cycles to the quality of government and class struggles," according to the paper, published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "However, climatic fluctuation may be a significant factor interacting with social structures in affecting the rise and fall of cultures and dynasties."

But the historical evidence they found points to global cooling, not to global warming, as the culprit.

The scientists were cautious about making projections for the future. In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that man-made warming this century will lead to worse droughts, floods, harsh storms and sea level rise, with the potential to inflict hunger and misery on millions.

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Wikispaces

So, I was a bit intimidated by wikis- lots of layers and lots and lots of content.  I've often found navigating them pretty overwhelming.  But after creating my own on wikispaces, I'm actually feeling better.  I can really see the potential for students sharing their research and resources on specific topics.  It really has the potential to grow as big and as deep as the students can take it and that is exciting.  I'm still figuring out the bells and whistles so to speak of setting up a wiki but I may now be a convert.  You can see where I'm headed by checking out the wiki here.    Also, here is a terrific science fair site!  I'm hoping to use it in conjunction with the wiki.

I've also been fiddling with this blog and thinking about how to use blogs in the classroom.  I really enjoyed looking at how other teachers are using them. 

My exploration of Edmodo continues. I'm slowing getting the hang of how things work with it.  I now have a dummy account and a real one for what it's worth.  I'm sure it will be hugely confusing if I can't figure out how to delete the "play" one.  Also note that they've launched an iphone app, yay!  Love the connectivity.

Blogs and Wikis

I am a big fan of blogs.  They have provided a wealth of information and support for me both professionally and in our crazy adoption world life.  Blogs have made me feel less isolated and inspired me.  I really like the idea of a classroom blog but not one that just I blog to but one that we create as a class.

Here are some I love:

GeekyMomma http://macmomma.blogspot.com/

Get your hankies out for her classroom blog and digital goodbye to her class http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/mrskolbert/2010/06/03/a-digital-goodbye/
 
and on the adoption and asian culture front:

Laugh out loud funny adoptive family fun http://salsainchina.blogspot.com/

Grace Lin (the chinese american children's author and illustrator... careful... it's easy to fall in love with her!) http://www.outergrace.blogspot.com/

OK and perhaps not too popular with this demographic but... I was raised by hippies and... feel strongly about this issue... it's about the right balance, people ;)  She has some wicked good "unplugged" ideas.
http://unplugyourkids.com/

and of course I blog at http://www.lalaandpie.blogspot.com/

Wikis... they get more complex.  My teaching partner has used them mostly to discuss classroom issues (behavioral primarily).  I really like the idea of using them to develop a supplement to learning materials available in the classroom.  They just seem a bit too complex for my middle school kiddos.  I'll have to play around before I make a final judgement. 

Generating an Argument

I really like this lesson format.  It is one that I've been trying out with varying degrees of success for the last 8 years.  It is authenic and student centered.  I like the article's suggestions on on line data sources.  Using real data is even more meaningful.  Tom Snyder Productions makes "kits" for middle school that follow this format and my students love them!!!  I'm thinking about a project about polar sea ice and polar bears.  My students were captivated by the idea of "pizzlies" or "groler bears."  We do live in brown bear (grizzly) country! That makes it pretty high interest to them.  Every kid will have a bear story to tell, I'm sure. :)

Reflecting on Online Data and Sims

So, I alway worry when using models and simulations with middle school students. For the reasons discussed in some of the readings. I think that it is SO important to be constantly asking what does this do to enhance or support what my students are learning hands on? Thinking of sims as parallel to traditional hands on science not a replacement makes sense to me. Keeping sims student centered and getting students to use higher order thinking skills within or as a result of the sims is key as is pointing out limits to models...Ask your students to do this. They will see it, but you have ask them to look. It isn't intuitive yet.  The final challenge for me is keeping the focus on content not tech- it can be hard with MS students. They like to play!  Overall, sims allow you to see something that you might not otherwise. Like this.
This one could be extended to then ask students HOW or what causes eclipses... a common misconception is that an eclipse happens once a month.


Using online data can be tricky, as well, mainly because the math and reading skills of middle school students are often so divergent. Here is a resource that looks pretty great that helps middle school student use real data to solve problems... Problem based learning or inquiry :) 

Participating in Citizen Science

Now I thought I was going to get to introduce this here but I see that Eric beat me to it by mentioning it on the wiki.  My husband is a scientist and also works with non scientists through his volunteer work with Audubon and he turned me onto the idea of "citizen science."  My students have participated in Audubon's Christmas Bird count for several years and eagerly follow and submit data to the Journey North website.   It's great.  It's real and meanigful "work" for students to do and they really dig doing it.  I love the authentic-ness of it and the fact that it isn't a simulation.  The data that they collect and the learning  (both content and process skills)  that they do in the process is connected to their lives and their community.  It helps to prepare them to be thoughtful engaged "citizens" someday.
Poking around this spring for more ideas... since I mostly teach earth science and ecology I stumbled upon scienceforcitizens.net.  Science for Citizens connects students (or just plain you or I) to projects that involve collecting and submitting real scientific data to help solve real scientific problems.  Some projects require analysis and some are pretty straightforward data collection.  Here are a few that I'm thinking my 6th graders could participate in next year: 
Snowtweets
The Quake Catcher Network
Those make sense for Montanan students and I'm also quite taken by What's Invasive! since we already to a project on our city park- a mile high mountain that we can walk to from school- Mt Helena City Park and some terrific folks at the Prickly Pear Land Trust graciously help educate our students on this wonderful resource. 

QUIZ: Tech Savvy Teaching: How Do You Rank? | Edutopia

QUIZ: Tech Savvy Teaching: How Do You Rank? | Edutopia