#clmooc | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘#clmooc’

A New Language

Posted in Digital Learning, tagged #clmooc, Connected Learning, innovative educator, iphonography, Kim Douillard, makes on August 3, 2014| 5 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

In my thinking and reflecting about digital literacy, I can’t help but mull over the language. I have been teaching my mother-in-law about Facebook. The icons and language are all new to her. Yesterday she sent me a private message, “Is this band along the bottom where I put a comment for your eyes only? Sorry I’m so slow with FB.” I laugh, but this is all a new language for her. It takes us a while to catch on to a new language, and sometimes it intimidates us so much that we resist and don’t learn it. I am proud that she has stuck with it and continues to try to learn the FB jargon.

I have been trying to follow the Connected Learning at Educator Innovator. To start with, the hashtag is clmooc. That is hard to get my head around. It was weeks before I could remember it. I worked hard to get over my intimidation and just did what I could to tag along. Then I got an application for a badge. Oh my, I really want the badge. But I have to prove my worthiness.

This badge is awarded to educators who’ve produced connected learning-based resources, events, curriculum and/or created artifacts that demonstrate Connected Learning principles in action or in theory.
–EducatorInnovator.org

The word Make is all over the Connected Learning ~~assignments~~ challenges. I’m getting used to the term more and more and believe a Make is anything you have created on your own. Makes are not exclusively done with technology. We use the technology to share our Makes.

As I begin to think about how I will incorporate this new learning into my class this year, I am wondering how my discomfort or low level of expertise will affect my use of the vocabulary. Will Makes become a term I use with my students? I feel pretty confident using the social media terms of Tweet, Twitter, Friend, Post, etc. (My children made fun of me for a long time because I didn’t properly use the verb Tweet.)

I’m still hoping for a way to make a Maker Community for our students. We can begin with Sheri Edwards’ site: Connect2Learn. She is till in the brainstorming stage and welcomes our ideas.

What new vocabulary will you be using this year with your students? Does the vocabulary change or heighten the work we do? Let me know your thoughts.

For Kim Douillard’s “In Search of the Unexpected” Photo-a-Day Challenge for August: 1. People 2. Places

A little restaurant in St. Martinville, St. John’s, doesn’t look like much from the outside, but good food waits on the inside. The crowds wait for table.

Link up your Digital Literacy posts here:

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Six Image Memoir

Posted in Digital Learning, tagged #clmooc, 6 image memoir, Kevin Hodgson on July 27, 2014| 4 Comments »

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I never would have expected that I would be thinking about digital literacy this weekend, but here I am in the front yard of my brother-in-law’s house on Capitol Hill in Seattle, Washington connected to the internet. Next to me is my niece focusing on writing essays for medical school applications. My nephew is shopping for ski bindings. My brother-in-law is working on a grant, and his wife is reading Seattle Times on her phone. We are all connected to the world as we connect to each other.

On the Making Learning Connected site, Kevin Hodgson (who is always thinking about digital literacy) invites us to make 6 image memoirs.

This was harder than I thought it would be. I decided to use Haiku Deck. I perused images and tried to pick out ones that reflect my personal life as well as my professional one. They are so interconnected. When I began blogging three years ago, I did not realize just how appropriate my site name is to the purpose of my writing. Reflections on the Teche does not limit me to only writing about teaching or only posting poetry, but I can do both. My memoir includes my active self (teacher, wife, mother) as well as my reflective self.

It is important in this digital age to encourage our students to not only participate, but to also be reflective and thoughtful about purpose.

Click on the link to view my 6 image memoir on haiku deck:
https://www.haikudeck.com/p/BdTRIF9pjf/6-image-memoir

Link up your digital literacy post or your six image memoir.

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Celebrating Through the Pacific Northwest

Posted in Celebration Saturday, tagged #clmooc, #nwpianthology, #through, 5 image story, Bainbridge Island, Pacific Northwest, The Bloedel Reserve on July 26, 2014| 9 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

On Kim Douillard’s blog “Thinking Through My Lens,” she invites us to tell a story with images to the word through.

Today, on Celebration Saturday, I celebrate the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. I am privileged to be here with my mother-in-law a respite from the heat of the south. My sister-in-law is our tour guide. Yesterday she led us on an informative tour of the flora of The Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.

Here is my five-image story/poem from our day trip to Bainbridge Island.

Through the window of the ferry, we sail away from Seattle.

Through a forest of birches, rhododendron reflect on a passing stream.

Pacific angels send a breeze of salty healing air through my lungs to lighten my heart.

Even the root of the fallen hemlock becomes sculpture through God’s eyes.

Follow me through the Japanese Garden to discover gnomes among the moss and fairies in the trees.

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Summer Creative Connections

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life, tagged #clmooc, gifted education, Tapestry, Wonderopolis on July 22, 2014| 13 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

I continue to try my hand at creative endeavors. #CLMOOC Challenge for this week is fairly easy, a 5 image story. I got the Tapestry app on my phone (free), so it was easy to upload 5 silly shots of my cat hiding in a grocery bag. It was as though she thought she was invisible. We are a little nutty about our animals. I took some shots of this cat trick and made a 5 image Tapestry story. Unfortunately, wordpress does not embed Tapestry. Click on the link. I promise it’ll only take a second. Can you add the words?

https://readtapestry.com/s/ZDImIgGiA/

Last week I got my brain fried in pre-AP training. I finally had some time to process and work with a frame that my colleague Beth and I came up with. We want to use the theme of Wonder for our year. I tried Wonderopolis with my students a few times last year and they loved it. In my thinking/planning journal we brainstormed what each letter could stand for and began planning to use this format for our daily language lesson. I’m thinking it can guide my whole week.

I am such a ~~teacher-geek~~ passionate teacher that I spent hours planning out Wonder frames for the school year.

First I selected an interesting Wonder from Wonderopolis, such as Fireflies. Each Wonder includes a video, a nonfiction text passage, vocabulary, links, and interactive quizes. A teacher’s dream website! I mean who doesn’t get excited about learning about bioluminescence?

On Monday, students will read and paraphrase a quote: “All that I know about us is that beautiful things never last, that’s why fireflies flash.”

On Tuesday, they will analyze a Robert Frost poem about fireflies: (Underline the word(s) that fireflies are compared to in the poem and explain how they are similar to fireflies.)
“Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.” Robert Frost

On Wednesday, they will define bioluminescence and use it in a short paragraph.

On Thursday, they will edit this sentence, “Fireflies may be none for there glow power but their knot alone. ”
On Friday, they will read another passage from Mental Floss and make an inference.

I can only imagine how my classroom will be buzzing about fireflies. In the meantime, my students will be able to read their own choices (I am determined to channel Donalyn Miller this year) and will be writing their own pieces during writing workshop. I’m excited to find a way to feel like I am incorporating valuable lessons without sacrificing student choice. Here is a pdf file of the Wonder template for ELA (2).

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ThingLink for Video

Posted in Digital Learning, tagged #clmooc, flowers, poetry, Tapestry, Thinglink, YouTube on July 6, 2014| 4 Comments »

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For DigiLit Sunday, I invited friends to submit flower poems for this Thinglink video. I have been working on Thinglink this summer through their teacher’s challenge. I have also been participating in the National Writing Project and Innovative Educators Making Learning Connected (CLMOOC). Thinglink offered me a preview of their video application. CLMOOC challenged us this week to think about games. Combining the two, we played with flower poems. I want to thank those who took the challenge to write a flower poem and contribute to this video: Sheri Edwards, Diane Mayr, Linda Baie, and Kaylie Bonin. Each flower poem is linked to the video. I used Tapestry to publish the poems.

Use this link to find the video: http://video.thinglink.com/v/132

Click to follow the link to Thinglink video.

Thinglink is offering to you, my readers, an early access code to Thinglink for video. First sign up for a teacher account on Thinglink. Then login to your account on video.thinglink.com This is your unique access code: tlvideo_for_reflectionsontheteche.

Here is a How to video from Susan Oxnevad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmJqgIIealc

Link up your DigiLit Sunday post with Mr. Linky:

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DigiLit Meme Madness

Posted in Digital Learning, tagged #clmooc, cats, Kevin Hodgson, tagxedo, WordFoto on June 29, 2014| 8 Comments »

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I am not a grandmother yet, but this week made me feel old. The CLMOOC make cycle #2 was on making memes. High learning curve for me. For one thing, you must be tuned in to popular culture…not! And another, you had to have something clever to say…another not! So I got a little rebellious and decided that memes were just not for me.

During the week I posted this silly picture of my cat, Mimi. She loves to perch on top of books. This makes her look especially intelligent. My husband made the comment that she was in her literary post. On my Facebook post, Julie Johnson commented that I could make a meme of that. Since Mimi was sitting on top of Donalyn Miller’s books, I created a caption about book whispering. The post only got 5 likes. Needless to say, I don’t think I get this meme thing.

But I do like that I am out there in this digital world taking a dare. Trying to be brave. Trying to be digitally literate. In all honesty, I will not be using memes with my students; they are only elementary age. Then comes this question from the Connected Learning team, “How do we turn the principles of Connected Learning into memes that spread in an educational setting?”

The CLMOOC principles are important for education. See Why Connected Learning. These principles should be spread. Am I responsible for spreading them in my small corner of the universe? As responsible as I am to any principle that I believe in, so whatever I may personally think about memes and my ability to create a clever one, I should find a way to express the principles of Connected Learning.

Read more about serious memes on Kevin Hodgson’s site and another one from Beth O’Connor.

So Mimi begs the question, “Am I a Meme or a Mimi?” Sorry, just had to have a little pun fun.

Made in WordFoto

Link up your DigiLit Sunday post with Mr. Linky.

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DigiLit Sunday: Reflections on Make Cycle #1

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Teaching, Writing, tagged #clmooc, Animoto, Canva, Connected Learning, Innovative Education, National Writing Project, Thinglink on June 22, 2014| 6 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Please join in this meme designed to share our digital learning and challenges. Just as a teacher of writing needs to be a writer, a teacher of digital literacy needs to be a digital learner. Use this button on your blog post and leave a link with Mr. Linky. Please read and comment on other posts. That’s how connectedness and collaboration begin.

Reflection is another means to apply the Connected Learning principles of being Interest-Powered and Production Centered by considering what you’re making and interests are now, and what your orientation is for the immediate future. –Chris Butts, CLMOOC team

I have jumped right in to the waters of two digital challenges: The Thinglink Teacher Challenge and National Writing Project’s Making Learning Connected, a.k.a. #clmooc.

Yesterday’s email from the CLMOOC team asked us to make a list of three things and to reflect on two questions.

1. What I’ve made so far…

How to pick blueberries: Thinglink
Self avatar: Bitstrip

Digital Self: Thinglink

How to be water: Animoto/YouTube

2. What I’m working on:

Poster about writing in Canva: This is a higher learning curve than other apps I tried this week. I struggled and gave up. But I am determined to try again and conquer this!

3. What I want to work on:

Prezi is a presentation site that I am daunted by. I have seen others do great things with it, and I’m sure my students would love it.

Reflections:

What did you learn from what you’ve already made? I learned to be more confident in my digital self. The Thinglink challenge for this week was to make a digital self. I thought I had to draw something. I started working on my ipad with a new stylus and became quickly annoyed. Then I googled avatar and low and behold, there’s an app for that! I was surprised how easy it was. So many online apps can make you feel stupid, but some, like Bitstrips, made me feel smart.

What do you see as the purpose of making this week? The purpose for me always goes back to my teaching and being able to support my students in their digital learning. However, I also discovered that making was fun, and I was compelled to share (and show off). I want to invite you to take the plunge. Jump in the deep end because there are lots of supportive floatie people out there.

I wanted to make a blog icon for the Connected Learning values, so after writing this post, I tried Canva again. It worked better for this purpose. You should try it.

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Celebrate Connecting and Creativity

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Digital Learning, Teaching, tagged #clmooc, Animoto, Creativity, Laura Purdie Salas, video, water on June 21, 2014| 9 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

This morning I have weeded the flower bed, swept the floor, and made spinach balls for tonight’s poetry reading and book signing. I am sitting down now and enjoying the rest. I wasn’t going to do a Celebration Saturday post, but why not? I’m happy in my home and should celebrate that in itself.

Because it’s summer and because I like to connect with other educators, I signed up for the Making Learning Connected Community or #clmooc.
Of course, I already feel behind. I participated in the Twitter chat on Thursday night. It moved so fast. But I got a little encouragement about my first make: a How To. I also learned about some new tech tools that I am saving for tomorrow’s DigiLit Sunday post. The best part of any PD challenge such as this is the connection you make with other teachers and makers. (Julie Johnson is a blogger who is also doing the #clmooc challenge. Check out her blog post here.)

I believe that in order to teach my students to be brave in the tech world, I must be brave. Just do it, as they say.

I waited for inspiration. It came late yesterday evening after my dinner was cooked and cooling off. I thought “How to be water,” inspired by Laura Purdie Salas’ new book Water Can Be. I downloaded the Animoto app on my phone, made a video of my cat drinking from the faucet as she wants to do almost all the time, and uploaded water images. This was quick and satisfying.

Today I celebrate connecting and creating. Have a wonderful summer solstice day!