NAEA General Meeting

At our general meeting today we heard from Debra Reed who is the executive director of the National Art Education Association. She was also part of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and is maintaining a relationship with both principals and Superintendants. She spoke about the current situation of the Arts and where America is heading. She indicated that even the Harvard Business Review indicated that companies are searching for leaders in creativity to move American business forward into functioning in the 21st century. That more businesses and MBA programs are bringing artists in to teach creative problem solving skills to their students.

"America is becoming an increasingly visual society." She quoted Daniel Pink - " We are all in the Art business." An interesting corrilation she made, while speaking about advocacy, was an interview with Wayne Gretsky. When asked what made him so good when he was slow and scrawney, he responded, "I don't skate to where the puck is, I skate to where the puck is going." >>>>>>> interesting! Where are we skating?

Autism in the Art Room

I attended a workshop on autism in the Art Room, presented by Linda Carwley from Pinellas County. She has several classes of self contained autistic students and has really done some wonderful work with them, dispite their disability. At this time I am not in this situation, but thought it might be valuable for the occasional autistic child that we do get at Chets Creek. It was enlightening to learn that giving them SIMPLE choices can create a real problem for them and that we must have patience with them while they process their choice. Being very tactile, they enjoy lessons involving texture AND color. Giving ONE instruction at a time can help keep them more focused on the project at hand as well as using "first.....then" statements to keep them on tract with the project at hand. Really received a lot of great info that can be used in my Art Room.

Peeling the Mathematical Onion

This session dealt with trying to close the gap between elementary, middle and high school mathematics. Math is not getting better as the grades go on. Every day,7,000 students drop out of school. There is an early gap – in First Grade. If math problems are noted in that grade, it increases as the years go on. Students may learn about numbers 0-10 but they are not learning about higher numbers 11-20 and their relationship with each other. 10% of the lowest level of eighth grade students are working six grades below grade level.

Algebra is becoming mandatory in the eighth grade around the nation. However, if the foundation for number sense is not strong, students will be lost and frustrated with mathematics. The speaker talked about the challenge for intervention. She said it is not about reteaching missed skills. The focus should be on rebuilding the critical foundation – a core set of knowledge – and connective learning streamlined to the most important topics.

Students should have a robust sense of whole numbers. Fluency equals numbers sense. Fluency is an understanding of place value, the ability to compare and decompose numbers, and grasp the meaning behind the operations (recognize addition and subtraction situations). It is so important that students have the knowledge to apply the operations of problem solving and understanding how to represent a problem (graphic organizers.)

A student was asked, “Do you know what 100 – 3 = ? – Yes, that’s 97. Do you now what 100 – 98 = ? No. That’s too hard. Instead of teaching subtraction as “take away” it should be taught as “distance from.” (Which I was glad that that’s how we teach it at CCE).

Big Ideas of Addition

Ten is an organizer of our number system. Numbers and be composed and decomposed. Students need time to practice and time to internalize. The 10-frame and the open number line is are useful and effective tools for this purpose.

The speaker spoke of pre-assessments and post-assessments, streamline lessons, and review in order keep teaching effective.

Written by Maria Mallon

FCTM: The Bag Ladies Make and Take

The Bag Ladies  are two wonderful classroom teachers, Karen Simmons and Cindy Guinn, from Palm Beach, FL. We learned some great tips for using a paper bag in the classroom for portfolios, projects, study guides, and so much more!

The project that we made was a paper bag folder for students to use to organize their math journal and vocabulary cards. (Check out the picture to the right.) The top pocket will neatly fit a composition book or file folders. There is also a smaller pocket in the front for note cards, smaller paper books, etc.  Basically, you cut the sides out of a paper bag so that it is one long strip. Fold the paper to the desired pocket size and use clear packaging tape to keep the sides together. 

The idea is that this homemade folder will help students get and stay organized with projects or assignments. It's a great, inexpensive way to house student work!

(Check out a project they have online.)

Artist Trading Cards

Judi Evans and I gave an AWESOME workshop today where we taught how to create Artist Trading Card books and how to teach the elements and principles of design through ATC's and bookmaking techniques. We showed student and personal examples of ideas that we have had and then we put out TONS AND TONS of "stuff" and had them just GO FOR IT!!! The books they made were phenomenol!! Beautiful! And the new and improved ideas that came out of it were brilliant! We talked, NOT ONLY, about how to use these in art class, but in reading - using the cards as a visual story but in the correct sequence in the book, social studies - the history of books, math - dealing with arrays, geometry, patterns, and many other ideas and science - nature prints, animal studies. It was just amazing! EVERYONE told us how wonderful it was and that they were glad they had come. Some even asked if we would be presenting a second time. It feels good to spread some good ideas.

Written by: Jen Snead

We've Got Problems

Upon entering the room, the feeling was one that it would be an engaging, hands-on meaningful presentation. The speaker was from the Volusia County School District. She reviewed the Big Idea (Compose and decompose two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometric shapes) and Supporting Idea (Number and Operations). This included solving routine and non-routine problems by acting them out, using manipulatives, and drawing diagrams.

A few points were very interesting. She stated that the Grade Level Expectations used to be that a student could grasp a concept in 2-3 days. Now the GLE is 10 to 14 days. This allows teachers to focus and deepen understanding of concept that is being taught. In their county, there used to be and average of 83 standards to teach, now there are 18. Kindergarten has eleven. In addition, worthwhile mathematical tasks were emphasized in order to engage the student intellectually and to help develop math understanding.

It is important to note that reading is critical to Math. Students need to be able to read and interpret word problems and incorporate reading and math in the world around them. Furthermore, problem solving is a life skill. Teaching students how to go about problem-solving is necessary. Questions need to be asked such as:

ð What do I need to find out?
ð What do I need to know?
ð What is my solution?
ð Was my solution correct?
ð What if…?

We worked on a few hands on activities which included: Shifty Shapes (pattern blocks); Suitcase Solutions (tangrams); Shape Searches (decomposing shapes to identify hidden shapes); What is the One? (identifying relationships in fractions); Blocking Out Fractions (solve problems involving whole numbers, unit fractions, and mixed numbers).

“We’ve Got Problems” was a wonderful session that had us engaged in worthwhile mathematical tasks that I can’t wait to share with my students.

Written by: Maria Mallon

FCTM: Math Party!

The final session of the day was one that Michelle, Ashley and I had been looking forward to.  The Math Party is a program founded by Dr. Stephanie Pasley that promotes learning through music. We sang, rapped, danced, and chanted the session away as we learned fun songs to get our kids excited about math. 

"Dr. Pasley has an extreme passion for educating children, and the performing arts; She was a fifth grade teacher in the Broward County Public School System. It is her work in the school system that has provided Dr. Pasley with a platform on which she has been able to combine her love of music and teaching style into a unique art form that transcends traditional teaching methodologies."

To get a taste of some of the songs and clips we participated in today, click here! I know the kids will be excited about this great program! "If you believe you shall achieve! FCAT, we're going to pass this test! HUH!"

FCTM: Math Fair in a Box

With no time for lunch, Ashley and I grabbed a bagel and rushed to the next presentation, Math Fair in a Box, presented by Carmen Sleeth. The description stated “Boost FCAT scores, increase family involvement and enhance student understanding with a Math Fair in a Box. All components included for a fantastic event!” We were not sure quite what to expect, but we knew it would be good.

We opened with an icebreaker – one of my favorite ones yet, might I add. (I can’t wait to try this one with my kids on Monday.) Everyone at the table holds hands. A balloon is thrown into the center of the table. You cannot let go of the hands beside you. “Balloon in the air, feet on the floor.”  As you can imagine, the room erupted with laughter as 40 adults in small groups tried to keep their balloons off the table top.

On to our learning. We were blown away by this product. The Math Fair in a Box is everything you need to host a successful family night centered around math. They are adaptable game stations that work well for large or small groups.

Game station topics include: geometry, visual and verbal communication, time and calendar, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, values of fractions and equivalent fractions, sorting, graphing, money, and spatial thinking to name a few. For more information on this product, contact Claudine Reece at 727-804-3409 or email at famathdisplays@yahoo.com. 

Great math sites recommended at this session include: FunBrain, Count On, Edu Place, Cool Math, Math Cats, Math Playground, Mathslice, A Plus Math, Play Kids Games

It's Game Time!

This session was presented by Angela Phillips and Rick Pinchot. Their session was about using instructional games to create an engaging and powerful forum for the development of students' strategies in addition and subtraction. A few minutes prior to the session beginning Angela and Rick went around the room to get to know the participants and find out where everyone was from and their backgrounds. This helped create an easy going atmosphere in the room. As the session began it was clear that everyone was spell bound by their presentation. The audience happily participated in the discussion and games. I believe the reason for this easy demeanor of the room is because of the dynamics of Angela and Rick. To watch them teach other teachers is a treat.

They began the session with a conversation about Dominoes. They wanted each table to add up the dominoes found in the middle of the table. This seems like an easy task with few differences. However, each table organized and counted their dominoes differently. It lead into a discussion of strategies and organization.

Next the room discussed the plus/delta's of using games in the classroom. Some of the plus': games are interactive, students are motivated, reinforces lessons already taught, multiple strategies are used. The delta's discussed: parents have misconceptions about games, missing pieces, noise level, preparation. Things to remember: recap the game to talk about what they have learned and play each game multiple times.


Rick and Angela also showed videos of students playing games from classrooms at Chets Creek. After watching a clip, the audience had the opportunity to discuss the work they saw and play the same games. It was a powerful session. I am sure all of the participants walked away with a new understanding of the importance of using games in math.

Math Activities for the Special Student in the Regular Classroom

Shirly Bradsby from Lakewood, CO presented a session on activities you can do with students with special needs or any student. She believes in a process approach to teaching. First you need to define the skill or objective. Then diagnose student needs. Provide appropriate activities and evaluate student learning. If needed reteach or corrective instruction. Lastly maintain student records on their progress.
She has written a teacher manual called Math Rescue: Whole Number Computation. The activities are presented in three categories: Concept Manipulative Activities, Practice Activities and Problem Solving Activities.


One concept manipulative activity she shared was Criss-Cross Multipliers. To play the game you would need spaghetti or sticks and overhead projector. You would create the array from the above picture under the overhead. You would ask the students what multiplication problem this array shows. (4 sticks X 3 sticks) Ask, "How can we determine the answer to 4 X 3?" (Count the places where the sticks cross.) You would have the students continue modeling a variety of multiplication problems. Someone thought this might be confusing to students if they tried to count the squares instead of the cross sections. Mrs Bradsby said you would need to make sure the students understood to only count the places where the two noodles crossed.

FCTM: Putting Place Value in Context

The first session Ashley and I attended, Putting Place Value in Context, was presented by Wendy Bray, Ph.D. from Rollins College. She presented on using real world contexts to support development of place value concepts. We explored problem types, student thinking and instructional strategies through base ten thinking. We also explored the idea that children can successfully solve a variety of problems with two digit numbers prior to understanding of base ten concepts.

We began by looking at the new Sunshine State Standards for first and second grade exploring place value. The standards are getting harder, but our goals are well defined. We looked at models of each state of the learner’s development as well an analyzing several student work samples. 

Check out the handouts below. Do your students fall within the base-ten strategies discussed? 

To zoom in, click the down arrow (second icon from the right) and click the plus sign. All handouts reprinted with permission from author.

FCTM - The Ants Go Marching

Today I had the opportunity to attend the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference that is being held in Jacksonville. The first session I attended was The Ants Go Marching. The presenter was Dr. Karol L. Yeatts from Warner Southern College.
Her session talked about using a study on ants to teach math and science. Some of the pre-number concepts she talked about were sorting and classifying, seriation, patterning, comparisons, counting and number relationships. She shared a list of ant facts she likes to teach her students. Did you know that ants can appear in shades of green, red, brown, yellow, blue or purple? Also an ant brain has about 250,000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human.

Dr. Yeatts also shared many games like Hide and Seek with an ant to teach spatial awareness, matching ants to number cards using raisins for one to one correspondence and singing and marching while singing The Ants Go Marching to teach seriation and Counting.

Dr. Yeatts shared a list of her favorite books to use during her ant study. Some of the stories are books that are familiar. Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros, One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor Pinczes, and Hey, Little Ant by Phillip Hoose are a few she showed us.

We're on the Road Again...

Just In Time Professional Development is back as crews from LIVE from the Creek are on the road again. So...in the new few days, look for posts from:

Angela Phillips, Melissa Ross, Rick Pinchot, Ashley Russell, Maria Mallon, Cathy Daniels and Michelle Ellis as they attend the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference.

AND Jennifer Snead as she attends the Florida Art Education Association's Conference

iTunes K-12

Did you know iTunes offers a K-12 resource section for teachers, parents, and students? Ready for the best part? Most of the things offered in this section are free! This is part of iTunes University or "iTunes U."

iTunes U has a large variety of podcasts available for download. One of the things I stumbeled across in my search was "Ask a Biologist," a program from ASU's Life and Sciences department. The podcasts episodes revolve around interviews with a scientist and his work in the life science field. Another interesting find was from Utah State. They actually have language lessons for the Navajo language. Montclair Public Schools in New Jersey has an entire section on various literature studies.

How do you access iTunes U?

Once in iTunes, click on the iTunes Store link on the left side of the screen. Then, click on iTunes U in the top left corner of the screen. This will take you to the main iTunes U page. Under the Find Education Providers about midway down the page on the left side, click the K-12 button. This will take you to the listing for all schools participating in this program. Happy hunting!

Apple - Engaging Today’s Learners with Innovative Technologies

This session was so much fun! We used many different technology tools to complete an experiment. (Some I have already and the others Melanie and I are dying to purchase after getting to use them!) The activities we did all centered on the topics of Global Awareness and becoming a 21st Century Learner. We explored the health of Wolf River, a river in Tennessee. This lesson can be adapted to any river/body of water. The tools can also be adapted to any subject area. Oh, the possibilities…

We began with hands on exploration of water samples and specimen samples from different parts of Wolf River. Each group was equipped with a Mac book, Proscope, a probe to analyze the water, and samples.

The sample items in our group included flowers, pine cones, small branches, etc. We had the opportunity to use the Proscope (I am dying to buy this one!) to take pictures of all of our items. Of course we all know how easy Macs are to use, but this was just a breeze. Plug in the Proscope, touch it to the object you want a picture of, “pull the trigger” and your picture is automatically on the Mac ready to use. No memory sticks, no discs, no formatting the pictures – just point and click and you are ready to go.

After we gathered all of our data and pictures, we compiled it to make a photo book using iPhoto. If you haven’t experimented with this program, you will love it! We simple dragged and dropped the photos we took with the Proscope into an album in iphoto and created a digital book of our findings. The digital books can either be printed from your classroom or created professionally and mailed to you with the click of a button. For this lesson, the books were printed to be presented to the local water authority so they could see the health of the river.

Next, we used iChat to hear from a local expert. We had the opportunity to interact with him – asking questions and sharing files – to gain more information about the river.
We used a Wiki to collaborate with other groups as we researched and to share our findings. Each group had their own page on the Wiki to which we uploaded podcasts that we created through GarageBand as public service announcements and asked each other questions. We explored blogs on water quality all over the world and shared our findings with many other classrooms. (You can also use a Ning for this type of sharing.)

My mind is racing with a million ideas for these tools in the classroom!

Apple's Tour of 21st Century Learning

Apple team members started out our session today with a startling mashup of facts.

* In Today's edition of USA TODAY it was reported that this is the first time we are having a higher number of births than the record in 1957. What does that mean for us as educators? More teachers will be needed! States across the country are rehiring the retiring teachers and reconsidering their DROP programs.


THE WORLD IS CHANGING:
* The number of college graduates each year per country:
US 1.3 million
India 3.1 million
China 3.3 million

* How many searches are done on Google every month?
Approximately 2,700,000,000 !

* 50% of 21 year olds have created content on the web
they have: played 10,000 hours of video games
spoken 10,000 hours on the phone
have sent 250,000 emails or instant messages

Students shouldn't have to power down when they come to school. Are we preparing students for a global, digital economy? Will they be ready?


The Requirements and Rewards of a 21st Century School:

1) Figuring out the right questions and using skills to solve new problems
2) Working in teams
3) Working across discipline
4) Learning to find, communicate and apply information

5) Initiative and leadership in flat organizations and taking responsible risks
6) Merging time and commitments and prioritizing flexible time

These are just a sampling of some of the discussions we had in our tour of 21st Century Learning today. Many of these things seem centered upon Karl Fisch's Did You Know? video, which was an eye opener for me a year ago when I first saw it. As our school begins to take the shape of a 21st Century learning environment, I will use these suggested guidelines to help me in brainstorming, planning and following through with what we do as we enter this new frontier in learning.
What steps are you taking in your school?

Virtual or Face-to-Face...It's all about Relationships

Those of you that know me know how much I love technology. If I have a free moment - I'm logging in to see what I can learn and to practice what I want to learn.

Over a year ago now, I stumbled across twitter and became connected with other educators around the world who have pointed me in a direction with my professional development that I couldn't ever have imagined. Those relationships have led to professional growth, personal growth and a new direction in my career (looks like I'll be full time in technology next year). I have never felt more energized and connected about what is new in my practice and how it could be implemented. I truly can attribute all of that to the educators I meet
and follow online.

When I arrived at NECC and saw how many of the people I know virtually were there literally...I wanted to try and document it visually for you and give you the way to connect with some of these amazing educators also. So here are a few I tracked down for photos.



Jeff Utecht
Formerly of Shanghai American School
Next Year will go to Bangkok
The Thinking Stick
jutecht on twitter





Stephanie Sandifer
Houston, TX
Change Agency
ssandifer on twitter


Maria Knee
Deerfield, NH
The Kinder Kids' Classroom
MariaK on twitter





David Jakes
Naperville, IL
Strength of Weak Ties
djakes on twitter


Dean Shareski
Moose Jaw, SK, Canada
Ideas and Thoughts from an Ed Tech
shareski on twitter







Kevin Jarrett
Northfield, NJ
Welcome to NCS-Tech!
kjarrett on twitter










Ginger Lewman
Kansas
Gingersnapz!
Ginger TPLC on twitter









Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Virginia Beach, VA
21st Century Learning
snbeach on twitter









Nedra Isenberg
Holland Patent Schools, NY
My Journey into the World of Elem. Tech
hockeymom1788 on twitter










Adam Frey
Co-founder of Wikispaces

Vicki Davis
Camilla, GA
Cool Cat Teacher
coolcatteacher on twitter



Thanks to you all for being a part of my network and inspiring me on my journey. :)

** cross posted on Once Upon a Teacher

A Grateful Student

My last and final session caused me to be reflective and appreciative.

Leadership 2.0: Using Technology to Lead Others
The presenters were from Nashville Public –Schools Tennessee.
The first 10-15 minutes of the session the presenters were troubleshooting technology problems. This particular piece of technology has caused me problems in the past and I totally related and it just made me grumpy. The appreciative part for me came when they excitedly announced they had just received laptops for their principals and teachers last week. They were elated and my heart sank. We are so fortunate in our school. We have had our laptops for over 10 years. Yea, I know we have had minor issues but can you only imagine just receiving technology tools to increase student achievement? Last week?
Before I left for the conference one of my colleagues had pulled up the blue screen of death. She was in a panic and quite frankly so was I. I didn’t know if it was even possible to recover the stuff (tons of stuff) on her hard drive. I jumped on my computer and typed the words “helpdesk”, placed the work order and followed up with a phone call. My knight in shining armor arrived to take care of everything, our tech, Mike Roberts. I can tell you he has taken care of our team numerous times. In the past I have moaned when something didn’t work properly and lesson plans had to be changed. Well, you will see a new attitude of gratefulness in me; for our tools, our tech department and most of all for the opportunities given to my faculty. I am a thankful girl.

Finally, if you choose do nothing but follow the links and videos that Melanie, Susan and I gathered for you, you will be rich in resources and information.
I am so overwhelmed that my feet are still not touching the ground with all the gathered information. We couldn’t attend everything and we couldn’t speak with everyone, however we did gather as much as possible to bring home to our CCE family and I hope you will find the tools as priceless as I have. I am so appreciative to all of you for allowing this technology dream to come true for me.


Copyright & Technology: Helping Students and Teachers Understand the Issues [Session : Lecture]
Tony Jongejan, Western Washington University Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 2:00pm–3:00pm; HGCC 103 A
Explore copyright rules for classroom media (e.g., music, video, software), resources, and activities to use with students and teachers when discussing copyright issues.

His lecture notes.

Closing Keynote. Dr. Idit Harel Caperton preented her recent invention in 1:1 computing—the Globaloria Networks complete with cases of how today’s social media technology is creating opportunities for student collaboration and global exchange never before possible.

Marzano and Web 2.0: Ed Tech that Works

Marzano and Web 2.0: Ed Tech That Works [Session : Lecture]

Marzano’s Classroom Instruction That Works is a collection of effective strategies, organized into nine broad categories, culled from a meta-analysis of decades of research on what works in classrooms to improve student learning and increase student achievement. This meta-analysis was conducted by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. In this session, we will explore Web 2.0 tools and strategies such as blogging, wikis, and other web-based interactive tools that align with and support these research-based instructional strategies in the classroom.
This was a standing room only session that could have lasted all day. Believe me I would have stood for a couple of days to learn from her.
Stephanie D. Sandifer serves as an instructional coach at a Houston, Texas high school, is author of the Change Agency blog, and also writes for the LeaderTalk blog. She is an extraordinary presenter with her expertise and understanding of the time limitations of teachers however she also encouraged all of us to use the web 2.0 tools to save numerous hours of planning, producing, and organizing to increase student achievement. I really could write a lot about this session but Stephanie allowed us to have her NECC handouts, notes, and more via the wiki Web2ThatWorks. It can’t get any better than this.
I bet you won’t be able to tear yourself away from all of these valuable tools.

Who Can Make a Video in 10 Minutes? Us!

Who Can Make a Video in 10 Minutes? You!
Rushton Hurley, Nextvista for Learning
You and your students can use free software to do powerful projects with video—learn how, and receive resources and project ideas. Using Windows Movie Maker on PC or iMovie on Mac.
Who is Rushton Hurley? He introduced himself as Rushton Hurley…teacher…trainer…non-profit guy, however he is so much more.
This idea of helping students become more engaged in and confident with their learning is one that drives his passion and resources to make his project succeed.
NextVista

Oh my goodness, I was truly in my element when I walked into this room. Mr. Hurley opened his session with such a dramatic flair and of course hooked all of us. He simply started out showing a video. Click on the link, after you watch the video, come back and read on. Trust me, you feel like you there in person.

His point : Video has power! I’ll say.
Video production pushes a student to go for excellence where in other projects it is like pulling teeth to just have the student turn an assignment in. He believes kids need to know each one of them have something to teach to others and this is a great way to establish that. The process of video production allows the exceptional student to shine. Rushton shared his personal experiences of his students who were ranking at the bottom of the class completely turned their peers’ opinions around about themselves through video production. They felt they had something to offer the class. Isn’t this interesting?

To begin to use this powerful tool all that you need is the following:
Windows Movie Maker
or iMovie
Computer w/ the free software
Still camera
Camcorder with firewire and an microphone input or a Flip camera
He suggested a great supplier-BHPhotovideo

Microphone
Planning is the key when using video as a teaching tool!
For example:

• set 1 minute time limit
  
• no violence or martial arts
  
• start small (ex. Podcast/slideshows)
  
• present the option of working alone or 1 or 2 others
  
• even give alternatives- (they could create a poster)
  Always look for the free options for video production like Photostory for PC
  
• Audacity-PC
• Garage Band-Mac
  He told us to encourage the students to use their own creation of music using Audacity used on a PC or Garage Band used on a Mac if not using a copyright friendly site.
  Copyright friendly sites:
• Flikr
• Morguefile
• PodSafeAudio
• Jamendo
• Partnersinrhyme
  Why should an educator use this powerful tool?
  1. It is another way for a student to say, “I belong in this class too”.
  2. To build confidence.
  3. Improve quality of student work
  4. Great for LD students
  5. Impact it has on their lives as an accomplishment
  6. They produce for an audience
  Remember when a kid produces a video he is saying “this is my world”.
  He was most impressive when he started the timer and he literally completed a project in 10 minutes right before our eyes and you can too.
  I hope that you will consider using this amazing way to engage student learning.