March 31-April 4, 2008 Monday-Friday

Shhhhh….it’s almost April, then May, then June!.

Ruby — Oregon Trail Business plans due by Thursday

Sapphire, Emerald, Sapphire — Into the studio to record the Oregon Trail Cds. After listening to dress rehearsal on Friday, I realized that these Cds have some serious potential to be exemplars for the rest of the classrooms on the planet who are looking for a fun, informative, funky, collaborative project. I suggest that we take our time and do these right — let’s not rush the recording and if we need more than a couple of takes we do it. I say we also scrap the cheesy sounding midis and do all the music ourselves. I will bring in my guitar and percusion instruments, please bring in any instruments you would like to use. Honestly, I have no idea how long this will take. I will assume it will take three days. Thursday we will take a “test” on the Oregon Trail, and then Friday have a CD release party.

Blog post due Friday:

The next three word video will be done with Highland School in Alabama. You must answer the following question: What three words of advice would you would give one of the Presidental Candidates? The three words will be posted as a blog post and be handed in for the video. You may email me a jpeg image or hand it in on a piece of standard sized paper. I will have my camera in school on Thursday and Friday to take video or still images of any three words that “don’t fit” on a standard piece of paper. Post and words for video are due on Friday.

March 24-28, 2008 Mon-Fri

I know, I know….This is up late again. But here is what I have been working on instead of updating the blog…

This week Amethyst is having a video conference with two of the classes that they are sending their CDs to. TPLC in Kansas and Denton Avenue School in New York. We will have another video conference with Highland School in Alabama to develop a new three word video and in two weeks will start another one with Indian Mills Memorial School in New Jersey. This morning more War of 1812 books was sent off to another school collaborating with us on this project, Monarch Academy in Oakland, CA. And last but not least, we just set up a project for a small group of 8-2 students to start working with an AP Psychology class from Lindbergh High School in St. Louis, MO on a project they will start in May. Oh, and one more thing, another group of ten student will start working on a project on Frederick Douglas in which they could potentially have an impact on the outcome of a new movie about his life.  Pretty cool huh? : )

This week Amethyst is finishing up the writing and designing of their CDs. Next week we go into the recording studio and lay down the tracks. Ruby is working on their Oregon Trail Business Plans which will be published next week.

Sapphire and Emerald- use this link for Thursday’s class

March 17-21, 2008 Monday-Friday

Monday — Ruby and Amethyst are doing a podcast in response to an invitation from Turning Point Learning Center School in Emporia, Kansas. They just started their state mandated tests and posted a podcast on their thoughts regarding the value of standardized testing. In the next couple of days they will be edited and posted to one of our podcast channels.

Tuesday — Drum roll please! Ruby will be starting their own businesses along the Oregon Trail and Amethyst will be designing, writing, and recording CD’s on the Oregon Trail for elementary students across the country.

Wednesday-Friday — Students will be working in groups to complete the projects

Blog post due Friday:

RUBY — The blog post this week is a response to a post from Tim Holt. Read his post and answer on your blog. After you post on your blog, go back to his and leave a link to yours. See my comment on his blog if you need an example. It might be helpful to read some of the comments and listen to some of the examples left in the comment section of his post. If you need help figuring out his post, he is basically asking: Why should we use technology? Why do you think it is important? Who is listening(or reading) to you? Think before you write. It was helpful for me to break my answer into three parts/reasons, and then start writing. Please be thoughtful and SPELL CHECK your answer. His blog has been getting a lot of publicity and your post will be read by many people. If you are typing you response in a word document first, go to tools, word count, and it will tell you how many words you have written.

AMETHYST — You will be responding to a post from Tom Escott who wrote about the challenges of setting up a virtual classroom. He has left an “assignment” at the bottom. Do the assignment as your blog post. Then go over to his blog and leave a link to you blog in his comments. You might write something like “Great post Mr. Escott. I have responded to your post on my blog http://blogush.edublogs.org. Please everyone do not use those exact words…it would look silly. It you read his post and are confused…don’t think of the assignment from the perspective of a teacher, but from the perspective of a student. The words would be changed to the following:

Assignment:

Your teacher will be absent from your classroom for one week. Being the dedicated student that you are, however, you want to be sure that the momentum you have established is not lost. You would like your classroom to continue as if the teacher were still there.

1. Describe an activity that your teacher can direct as a virtually during their absence.

2. What are the objectives of this activity? What do they want students to accomplish?

3. How would they assess student performance? How could they know what the students learned?

4. How can they meet the needs of individual students and encourage their participation?

Please enter your response as a comment on his post or leave a link to your blog.

Assumptions:

1-An adult will be physically present at all times in the classroom to handle any emergencies.

2-This person will not provide any academic support to you.

3-There are no technical obstacles to prevent communication with your teacher via the Web.

4-All students will have access to the necessary technology for any assigned activities.

March 10-14, 2008 M-F

First I apologize for not getting anything up this week. We are at the end of a major collaborative project with another school and in the plannning phases of projects with three other schools. Believe it of not, I spent about 10-12 hours on school stuff each day and something had to be cut and updating the blog fell into that category. Yes, it does take more than our 40 minute prep period to get everything ready for the kids. Wow…I think this was my first official whiny post! So this will serve more for a record for me, than to inform everyone of what went on this week

This week classes were short because of CMTs, so progress was a bit slow : ) Kids were given a couple of days to draw their political cartoons, and a couple of days to put them into their voice threads:

http://collaborationnation.wikispaces.com/Student+Editorial+Cartoon+Pages

March 3, 2008 Monday-Friday

This week we welcome a new addition to our team 8-2 family, Mr. George Bikakis who will be student teaching in our class for the next ten weeks. He will start off with Emerald and Sapphire and then five weeks later take on Ruby and Amethyst. Welcome Mr. Bikakis! Mr. Bikakis will start posting his classes’ learning adventures on this blog next week.

This week we are starting CMTs! Yea…I am excited too…can you feel the excitement…oh baby….Each class will be a bit shorter — around 35 minutes each. Since it is hard to do a “normal” unit during CMTs we will be doing a special unit on Editorial Cartoons with a focus on the candidates running for President and the current events that are making the news…maybe even do a few on the CMTs : ) The cartoons you draw will be added to the Art Snacks website.

Monday Ruby will be binding books and Amethyst will help in the last minute packing. Tuesday we will start the editorial cartoon unit. Friday Ruby has an interview with James Cullen, CEO of Gaylord Hospital.