Building Learning Communities

1. Building Learning Communities Howie DiBlasi “Emerging Technologies Evangelist” Digital Journey howie@frontier.net www.toolsfortheclassroom.com Presentation : July,2008 Projects for the Global Classroom

2. Small Town …Durango Colorado

3. Conference Links:Tools For The Classroomwww.toolsfortheclassroom.comBLOG:http://toolsfortheclassroom.blogspot.comWIKI:http://toolsfortheclassroom.wikispaces.com/e-mail: howie@frontier.net

5. Site of The Week http://bypass.net

6. Why? B.L.C. …..What is it? • The term professional learning community describes a collegial group of administrators, school staff and PARENTS who are united in their commitment to student learning. • They share a vision, work and learn collaboratively, visit and review other classrooms, and participate in decision making. (Hord, 1997b). • The benefits to the staff and students include a reduced isolation of teachers, better informed and committed teachers, and academic gains for students (AND A CONNECTION TO THE COMMUNITYHord (1997b) notes, • "As an organizational arrangement it is seen as a powerful staff-development approach and a potent strategy for school change and improvement."

7. The following projects have the following criteria associated with each and our goal is to teach our students how to:

8. 1. Deal with massive amounts of information2. Become self-directed3. Create global communications and connections4. Create life-long learning skills5. Collect and/or retrieve, organize and manage information6. Interpret and present information7. Evaluate the quality, relevance, and usefulness of information8. Generate accurate information through the use of existing resources9. Information and effective communications skills10. Thinking, problem-solving & interpersonal skills11.Self-directional skills12. Use digital technology tools 13. Teach and learn in a 21st century context.14. Understand Digital Age Literacy15. Understand Inventive Thinking 16. Produce High Productivity content

9. If you want change …be the change

10. The ones that think they can change the world..are the ones who do…..

11. Have we changed in the last 20-30-40 years? • Starbucks • McDonalds • Your bank On-line banking-bill paying • Malls • Sports stadiums • Cameras • Pay phones • Travel agents • On-line shopping • Cars-motorcycles • Schools – classrooms • Churches

12. Why should we teach 21st Century Skills?

14. ePals Projects A.Habitat B.Maps C.Global Warming D.Natural Disasters E.Water F. ePals: Language and Learning Portal This I Believe My Hero The Best Part of Me Five Frames My Town – Version 1 My Town – Version 2 Our Town My Family The Way We Are Journey North A Day In Our Neighborhood Let Them Be Little This Is My Country Small Town Pink Houses Me and My Family Pictures A Look At me My Country The following are the projects contained in this presentation:

15. My Hero

16. Who is your hero?

17. Groups of 3 • What is a hero? • What qualities are common in hero's? • Pick one Hero for the group • Why are they a hero? • Be prepared to share with everyone

18. Define a Hero…

19. Definitions of hero on the Web:a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength; "RAF pilots were the heroes of the Battle of Britain" the principal character in a play or movie or novel or poemchampion: someone who fights for a cause Greek mathematician and inventor who devised a way to determine the area of a triangle and who described various mechanical devices (first century) (classical mythology) a being of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits; often the offspring of a mortal and a god (Greek mythology) priestess of Aphrodite who killed herself when her lover Leander drowned while trying to swim the Hellespont to see herbomber: a large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

20. My Hero Project http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=marco_torres • http://www.myhero.com/myhero/go/directory/index.asp

21. The study of heroes applies across the curriculum in all grade levels.It can be an integral part of character education, media arts and computer literacy and a tool for reading comprehension and the development of writing skills. MY HERO can be used to enrich thematic studies in the arts and sciences.

22. Step One: • Introduction Step Two: • Definition/Description Step Three: • Identification/Naming of Heroes Step Four: • Read a MY HERO Story to the Class Step Five: • Analyze Characters in the Story Step Six: • MY HERO Website Scavenger Hunt Step Seven: • Descriptive Pattern Organizer

23. Objectives: • Students are expected to be able to: • Describe the characteristics of a hero. • Recognize the hero in a story. • Name heroes in their lives and express why those people are heroes to them. • Use a computer to access the Internet, find and read stories on the MY HERO Website. • Distinguish between a hero and a celebrity.

24. Google Page Creator

25. My Hero Sample Project:My Grandpa Said….

26. My Grandpa Said….

27. Google Docs • At the top of the section put your names • Answer the 3 questions • Put a break line with the ============= at the end of you answers • What is a hero? • What qualities are common in hero's? • Pick one Hero for the group • Why are they a hero? • Be prepared to share with everyone

28. To complete the project • Make a PhotoStory using photos and music

29. This I Believe

30. This I Believe in the Classroom • Hundreds of teachers around the country—in almost every state—have embraced This I Believe as a powerful educational tool. Many have told us that our project was the most enriching writing assignment they have given in many years of teaching. To help teachers guide students through exploring their beliefs and then composing personal essays about them, we offer the following tools:

31. This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here and featured on public radio in the United States and Canada. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.

32. TABLE OF CONTENTS • Introduction • Lesson 1: What is a Personal Essay? • Lesson 2: How Is a Personal Essay Different from Transactive Writing? • Lesson 3: What Do Students Really Believe? • Lesson 4: What Quotations Guide Students’ Lives? • Lesson 5: How Do Students Get Off to a Great Start? • Lesson 6: How Do I Support My Personal Philosophy?

33. I also urge teachers NOT to bypass prewriting and guided discussion activities that prepare students for producing a quality personal essay. Proceed slowly. Invest ample class time in front-loading, soul-searching, and model-reading. Your students’ first drafts will be far more effective and require less revision time. • Dottie Willis, Jefferson County Public School Writing Specialist and author of the This I Believe curriculum

34. Contributor: Kitana Location: Highlands Ranch, CO • Country: United States of America Series: Contemporary • This I Believe…I believe in discipline, compassion, responsibility, integrity, courage, and leadership. I’m a 14 year old student at an outward bound school, and these character traits have helped me succeed, not only in school, but in life. As an 8th grader in a "crew" of 6th, 7th and 8th graders, my role is to be a leader. I will admit I’m not a leader 24/7 but this is only because I believe that my younger classmates need to learn and grow from experience. However, as part of my final contribution to my middle school crew, I did work hard to demonstrate responsibility and leadership skills by planning our spring 2006 backpacking trip. I showed responsibility by using maps of the Colorado State Forest to plan a route, mathematically finding the miles we needed to hike each day to reach that evening’s campground and tabulate the total miles of the trip. Other trip planning needs I considered while planning the route included access to water, layout of the terrain, and elevation. I showed leadership by helping the 6th and 7th graders organize their packs, practice setting up and tearing down their tents, and giving them tips on how to make the trip as safe and enjoyable as possible.I believe that for every action there is a reaction and this is where integrity is crucial. Over the years, I have learned to take accountability for my actions. Last year, in 7th grade, I accidentally hit one of my teachers with a “wasp.” (A wasp is a folded up piece of paper that you fling using a rubber band and its impact feels like a bee-sting.) None of my classmates knew that I had done it, but my whole crew was about to be penalized for my mistake. Even though I was nearly petrified, I worked up the courage to confess that I’d flung the wasp at a classmate and missed. I felt it was important to admit my guilt so that others would not be punished for my actions.As a citizen, I believe that responsibility is big. I know a few people who don’t vote - and that’s their choice - but it’s important to me because I am living under these laws. If there is a bill that I don’t agree with or I don’t want to live under, I will take a stand instead of complaining. Complaints don’t promote change. Even though I’m a teen, there are still ways I can take action. Because I’ve learned to take responsibility even in times where it requires a lot of courage (as in the “wasp” situation) I can commit myself to participate in attempting changing public policy by calling one of my state’s representatives. That is why the character traits of responsibility, integrity, courage, and leadership are important to me.

35. Personal essay: Focused on belief or insight about life that is significant to the writer Personal narrative: Focused on a significant event Personal memoir: Focused on a significant relationship between the writer and a person, place, or object

36. Tips for Writing Your This I Believe Essay

37. Tell a story: • Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. • Be brief: • Your statement should be between 350 and 500 words. That’s about three minutes when read aloud at your natural pace. • Name your belief: • If you can’t name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be about belief. Also, rather than writing a list, consider focusing on a core belief, because three minutes is a very short time.

38. Sample mp3 of “This I Believe”http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89755019

39. Type it in Word and edit..save it • Copy and the paste it into the Blog

40. Voicethread http://voicethread.com/#home

42. Use the Blog to post your comments • http://mytooltest.blogspot.com/

43. Five FramesUsing Memories On The Web

44. Tell a Story in 5 Frames • Has two important parts. • The first part is creating and telling a story through visual means with only a title to help guide the interpretation. • The second part is the response of the group to the visual story. The group response can take many forms such as, a poetic or prose rendering of the visualization, a critique on the structure of the story, comments on the photograph, or other constructive forms of response. • Telling and enjoying stories should create entertainment for the group as well as offer insight into the universal elements that help create a story for an international audience. • The more people who respond, as either storytellers or respondents, the greater the reward for all.

45. Sample: 5 Frame Project…Time

46. A good story has characters in action with a beginning, middle, and an ending. • Title – words or a photo with words • 1st photo: establish characters and location. • 2nd photo: create a situation with possibilities of what might happen.3rd photo: involve the characters in the situation.4th photo: build to probable outcomes5th photo: have a logical, but surprising, end.

47. Sample photos are in the 5 FRAME Folder on the CD • Use Memories On The Web • Or PhotoStory to tell you story • Insert Free Play music sample • www.freeplay.com • You can export for the site 10-15-30 and 60 seconds • Lets practice

48. Memories On The WEB

49. Memories On the Web