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Show Notes:
- My thoughts about how failure should be part of our lessons plans that involve technology.
- Compiling and Creating with iPads.
- Movie Making with Kids Part 2: writing the script.
- App Review: Stick It Action $0.99
Sponsored by Atomic Learning
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How to get the most from Podstock 2012.
- ramblings about why I teach
- link to 9 year old singing at CEC12 in Denver
- the new grant I am writing to get new “learning spaces”
- movie making with kids part 1: gear
- app review: Doodlecast for Kids
- sponsor: Atomic Learning
#edtech
Stopping bullying at school has always been a challenge, more so now than ever. Finding solutions to the bullying problem isn’t easy, but for educators willing to look, there is help.
“There’s good reason that we’re hearing about bullying now more than ever,” says Chet Linton, CEO of PD developer School Improvement. “ Studies show that with the advent of the Internet, incidents of bullying at school are on the rise. That’s why our company has brought in some of the leading experts on bullying intervention to help create a series of professional development videos that instruct educators in strategies for stopping bullying at school.”
The videos, which are now available on PD 360, School Improvement Network’s premier online professional development platform, describe:
- How to identify the characteristics of students who are vulnerable to bullying at school
- How to identify the characteristics of students who tend to act out as bullies
- Key factors in cyber bullying
- Top ten strategies to stop bullying at school
About School Improvement Network
Founded in 1991 by teachers, School Improvement Network provides comprehensive, research-based professional development anytime, anywhere. As the home of The Video Journal of Education, PD 360, Observation 360, the Learning 360 Framework, Equity 360, and Common Core 360, School Improvement Network resources focus on the most relevant topics, feature the top experts, and show educators how to put theory into practice. School Improvement Network works with thousands of schools and districts in every state and around the world and has visited over 3,500 classrooms to document best practices in action.
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I just reserved my hotel room for ISTE 2012 and I am starting to freak out. I don’t know why, but I am really excited about this year’s conference. It might be because I use the annual ISTE conference as the charger for my edtech batteries. Usually by the time I finish the school year I am brain-fried, and I find myself lacking inspiration for what to do next with my students. But then I go to ISTE…
I mostly go to ISTE conferences for two main reasons:
1) First and foremost I go to be inspired, and I never know where this inspiration will come from. Sometimes it happens in a conference session or at a keynote, but more often than not it happens when I am just visiting with fellow attendees.
2) My second reason is to steal ideas, I am under a lot of pressure to be the “Techie Guy” in my school and I need to find some good ideas to steal and make them my own. My principal might ask where I got the idea to use LEGO WeDo or something like that and I just say, “Oh, it just came to me one day.”
So beware fellow attendees of ISTE, watch what you say when you are around me, you never know when I might just be inspired to use our steal your ideas.
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
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Students just see technology as tools -- same as paper and pencils.
Last week I attended the Atomic Learning webinar called “Panel Discussion: Aligning Curriculum and Technology” that my wife participated in as one of the panelists. She works in my district as the person in charge of tech integration and training, so she is very passionate about this subject to say the least. As you can imagine, this is a really current topic with a lot of school districts across the country as we try to catch up with our students and their own tech skills.
The discussion focused on how to use and integrate technology in our everyday lessons to engage our students more. There were examples given on the success that many schools have seen. I was impressed with the examples that showed academic growth through the use of technology — we could all use some of that. They did talk about the challenge of getting a district’s curriculum people to work with the technology people on common goals. The webinar viewers submitted questions that the panelist took the time to answer — and relate too as well.
Although my wife and I talk about these different ideas at our dinner table most nights, it was interesting to hear how these ideas bounced around the panel of participants. By the end of the webinar you could feel the sense of urgency about the desperate need that we have to get technology into most aspects of education. Technology is no longer a separate subject being taught in it’s own room. Instead, it should be everywhere, that’s what students want. The problem is that until we stop looking at it as a separate subject, it is hard for us to more forward.
We need to all be technology teachers!
-Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
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Like many educators, the reasons why I teach vary as the school year progresses. It is now spring in my area and the students are starting to get squirrelly, which means classroom management goes into overdrive. I usually start in August with high hopes and ambition but by April, that gas is starting to run low and is being replaced with pure survival instinct.
I was starting to run on get-to-the-end-of-the-school-year mode when I started to do more work with a digital band that I had been playing with throughout the year. Since December I had been working with a few students in my tech class and with only digital instruments on mobile devices to put together an actual song. For weeks we had been getting together at lunch a few times a week to practice the Katy Perry song “Firework.” Sometimes things would come together and other times it was a mess. Anyone who has worked with 9 year-olds know what I am talking about.
Things were looking bleak.
Then a 9 year-old girl named Logan offered to sing the song. Let me tell you, she got up to sing with all the confidence of a seasoned rocker and she belted this song out. I sat back in my chair, mouth gaping open in shock, amazed and the talent of this girl. At the end she looked around at all of us and asked how she did. I was without words, and I had goose bumps on my arms. “That was amazing!” I finally said. Nobody knew Logan could sing.
Which brings me back to my reasons for teaching: I teach to be inspired – inspired by my young students. My tech students shock me most every day with hidden talents that I never knew they had. They make me want to be a better teacher. My tank is now full again and I am ready to “bring-it” every day until the end of this school year.
So thank you Logan for inspiring me, your teacher, and I hope I can do the same for you some day.
Link to Logan singing on YouTube.
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
Two experiences encountered by Mr. Schwartz and his blues-loving first graders truly illustrate the phenomenal effects of this program. Early on in the year, a non-English speaking student who had moved to San Diego from Mexico in August struggled with communication and classroom involvement. For months, she had been too shy to speak with her teacher and he had struggled to find ways to reach her while working with her parents and the school’s support staff. One day, a fellow student convinced her to join the classroom’s recently formed “1st Grade Blues Band” and the result was shocking. As Mr. Schwartz says, “…here she was singing ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ in front of the whole class with a HUGE smile on her face. Her peers and the music had emboldened her and she took the leap, speaking English aloud for the first time in class.”
A few months ago, Mr. Schwartz faced a similar situation when an Asian girl moved to San Diego and entered his first grade classroom. Unlike his Spanish-speaking students who have the advantage of interacting with many bilingual teachers and peers, this girl had no one and faced severe cultural and language barriers. As he again worked with the school staff and the girl’s parents, Mr. Schwartz began to recognize the same amazing phenomenon with this girl. She was getting into the Blues and it “had enabled her to overcome her shyness, and she sang with enthusiasm and joy.”
Today, both girls are integral parts of Garrison Elementary’s “1st Grade Blues Band.” In addition to putting on a great show, this band demonstrates irrefutable evidence of the positive role that music plays in education. To find out more about the pedagogy behind music and Mr. Schwartz’s use of music in his classroom, please visit the KidsLikeBlues.org website. And you don’t want to miss watching these incredible kids get their Blues on with a rousing rendition of “Sweet Home Chicago” at their recent talent show. (Click here for the YouTube video and get ready to rock!)
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I know that it is 12 years into the 21st Century and you would think that my lessons would be full of 21st Century Skills, but I still need help with a few lessons. So the other day when I was logged into Atomic Learning I noticed that they had an area where I could search by state standard or, hold on to your seat, by 21st Century Skills.
So I searched for the standard I was stuck on…
Use digital-imaging technology to modify or create works of art for use in a digital presentation.
Sure enough, the search came up with a few different lessons that I could do.
I had totally forgotten about PhotoStory3, so I checked out what they had and it worked perfectly with what I needed.
No. 14 on my 28 item to-do list is now done. Now if only I could get Atomic Learning to do an oil change on my car, I could get another thing done.
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary
