A GeekyMomma's Blog

What Motivates You?

2009-12-05T12:39:00.007-05:00

WebWorker Daily posted recently on 5 Fast Motivators. The 5 listed are (and my "in a nutshell" summation):

1. Star jumps

Get up, start moving and get the blood flowing.

2. Music

Use music to change your mood. Try something energetic.

3. Change your location

Move to site where you can still work, but provides a change in scenery; another room or local library.

4. Disconnect

What's that? Ok, seriously... I'll start by zeroing out my unread mail in my inbox, check the news, Twitter and FaceBook and then close them all. Ignorance is bliss.

5. Time yourself

Break your project into small bites and time yourself.

For me? I think they are all good ideas and I've used them all except for #5 because once I get started, I'm ok with continuing until I feel I've reached a good breaking point.

Doing something physical and changing locations is very helpful. I'll change locations temporarily, like by walking outside for a few minutes and then return to my desk. If you can find an area where nobody is standing, doing a few Sumo Squats (no weights; just lift your arms out in front on your way down, for balance) is great to get the blood flowing.

As for music, I'll listen to a song or two of something upbeat (Eddie Money's "Two Tickets to Paradise," for example, then I have to turn it off. Noise distracts me. For me, there is no such thing as "white noise." I hear everything (try chewing gum around me).

So, what else do I do to get motivated? I visualize. I will sit in a quiet dark room and close my eyes (hope I don't fall asleep) and imagine the project finished and what the resulting product looks and feels like. If I'm preparing a presentation, I'll visualize myself giving it. This helps a lot, because as I'm imagining it, I'm tweaking it "on the fly" in my mind.

Then (most of the time) I'm ready to make those tweaks in real life. I'd love some more tips. What do you do to get motivated?

Exploring The World via Explore.org

2009-11-15T12:33:00.006-05:00

The Annenberg Foundation has created a non-profit, multi-media organization called explore.org, which features over 200 short, educational videos that make great educational aids in the classroom. The site offers a wide range of topics—from animal rights, health and human services, and poverty to the environment, education, and spirituality. Delivered in short, digestible bites, Explore films appeal to viewers of all ages, from children learning about other cultures for the first time to adults looking for a fresh perspective on the world around them.

When you click to watch a video or view a photo, there are icons below that bring you to related interviews, photos, research and a map. Videos and photos can be downloaded and the links shared, though videos can not be embedded. Included with the resources are related web sites and full-length films, books and articles.

You can search by keyword, or choose a country and/or a cause. There are 20 countries listed and 12 causes including, animals, children, disabilities, environment, music and spirituality.

Here is one where a man driving a camel along a rural road in India shares the secret to living a happy life. A transcript is available for this one too:

SOUND UP
00:00:03: Explore – India
00:00:09: CHARLIE: This is the way to travel through India. (INDISCERNIBLE BACKGROUND TALK)
00:00:12: [GRAPHIC - JAIPUR]
00:00:21: CHARLIE: You strike me as a very intelligent man.
00:00:23: INDIAN MAN: I’m an illiterate man. I don’t know what to say. I know how to eat my bread and drive this camel; that’s all I know.
00:00:32: CHARLIE: What’s the key to leading a happy life? Huh?
00:00:37: INDIAN MAN: The key to happiness is to choose happiness. [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:00:56: END OF FILM

There's a discussion area (login required) with a Question of the Month, general questions and threads. Participants are encouraged to give advice and engage in conversations about philanthropy and film-making.

During this time of year, when many classrooms will be studying holidays around the world and comparing cultural differences, this site offers some great resources in easy bite-size chunks for all grade levels. The only thing I see missing is lesson plans.

All are free for non-commercial use.

You are the Hope of the Future

2009-11-08T21:45:00.002-05:00

I had an opportunity to meet Philippe Cousteau last week as part of a series of events recognizing our district's outstanding achievement in being on the forefront of using technology for instructional integration and for reaching the milestone of one million digital educational videos on Discovery Streaming. The School District of Palm Beach County is one of only a handful of school systems in the nation, and the first school system in Florida, to reach this milestone. Listening to Mr. Cousteau speak is truly a pleasure as he is engaging and his message of environmental defense is inspiring.

Mr. Cousteau is the 29 year old grandson of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He continues his grandfather's legacy by openly speaking and acting on behalf of the environment.

He was kind enough to pose for pictures and sign an autograph for the boys and girls in my 4th grade classes. I was excited to see that wrote "Mrs. Kolbert's Class, You are the hope of the future. Philippe Cousteau" because we've recently learned about ecosystems and the food web, with particular focus on how humans often negatively impact the environment, disrupting the ecosystem and the food web.

Over at my class blog, where I crossposted this blog entry, I pose this question to my students (and readers):

Can you explain what he means by "You are the hope of the future?"

A Model For How NOT to Implement Change

2009-10-24T09:10:00.017-04:00

My favorite quote from a parent speaking at the school board meeting, "This would make a great business school case study on how not to implement change."

There was an unprecedented school board meeting last Wednesday night at which over 1000 parents and teachers showed up to protest the top-down implementation of our new Academic Improvement Plan which includes (among many other things) a one-size-fits-all curriculum, constant assessing of the students, mandatory departmentalization of grades 3-5 (optional K-2), a long list of "highly suggested" classroom configurations such as Word Walls, daily items on the white boards, anchor charts, and scripted lesson plans. This year, highly-qualified, outstanding and award-winning teachers are doubting their ability to do a good job.

Here's an example of a 4th grade scripted lesson plan for writing:

Writing4

View more documents from Lee Kolbert.

This all came to be with the hiring of our new Chief Academic Officer who, in April presented to the board a plan that would be implemented the following school year. This plan caused business as usual in our district to come to a screeching halt as our new CAO collected information from every department and scrutinized what was being done before he made his "recommendations" as to what should be done differently "by Friday."

Newly created to help support this program were the Capacity Development and School Reform Teams. These teams responsibilities include (you can read more here):

Conduct regularly scheduled meetings of teachers to review lesson and unit plans for the purpose of supporting colleagues throughout the initial implementation.
Identify designated times for the curriculum committee to receive implementation feedback from teachers.
Examine assessment results in the aggregate by the curriculum committee to identify any realignment that may need to occur.
Prepare an Initial Implementation Report outlining suggestions for research-based professional development and/or realignment of curriculum.
WALK-THROUGH classrooms looking for key indicators of effective teaching. What is being "said" is that during these walk-throughs, these teams are looking for these items (however the checklist they use is embedded below. Click on the "Full" button to view the page full screen.):

Classroom Environment is Conducive to Teaching and Learning
Materials Support a High Level of Teaching and Learning
Higher Order Questioning and Thinking is Evident
Instruction Effectively Engages Students
Reading and Writing Activities are Evident Across the Curriculum
Data Analysis is Used to Redirect Instructional Focus and Students’ Instructional Needs
School and District Leadership and Coaching is Evident

9.11.09 Instructional Review Elements With Indicators 08 03 09

View more documents from Lee Kolbert.

Establishing the strategies for school improvement and monitoring classroom teacher effectiveness used to be the role of the school-based administrators. However, with this Top-Down MicroManagement, even our principals have felt powerless to empower teachers with the flexibility we need to creatively meet each students' individual needs. Just when a principal would make a decision, something would change that would cause a ripple effect and a renege on the message previously issued. It's been an extremely distracting environment in which to teach.

Many parents (thousands) are irate and have been very vocal. This caused an uproar and it all came to a head at our last school board meeting. (If you want to watch it, click here and type 10/21/09 in the search field. Don't miss the last 20 or so minutes of the meeting when the board members begin to speak.) Among other things, parents are unhappy about all the testing. They know its a numbers game and that for their kids, it's wasted instructional time. They also see the negative impact on their kids' enjoyment of school and unfortunately, somatic symptoms are starting to emerge in many younger students as well.

In addition to the constant testing, there's the issue of the frameworks, or scope, where all students will learn the same benchmarks within the same 3-week window. 5 days ago, we, teachers of the gifted, were informed that this would no longer be necessary for all gifted students as we can now use what is called "Curriculum Compacting." With (more) testing, if a student has mastered a standard (mastery = 90%) then that student can skip the instruction for that standard and move on. It was unclear to all of us whether that meant we can enrich and/or if necessary, advance the student to the next grade level of standards. Truth be told, it's what we are already doing (and what all teachers across the board have been trying to do - before their hands got tied), except with this plan we are required to test repeatedly on an individual basis and keep meticulous records on the data for each student's mastery of each standard in order to report on the progress. Isn't there something called a Report Card for that? Just 'sayin!

The last thing I want to mention is the departmentalization. At the elementary level, students in grades K-5 typically had one teacher all day (except for fine arts). In some cases, departmentalization for certain subjects takes place. But until this year, it has always been a school-based decision. This year, it was mandatory for all elementary schools that grades 3-5 would departmentalize. Included in that mandate were these PollyAnna "suggestions:"

Students backbacks should be extremely light carrying ONLY a "take home" folder and their planners. Students would not carry home textbooks (they can get them online) or supplies (we would collect those purchased by parents and keep them in buckets on the tables for students to share). - Students backpacks are heavier than ever with one teacher not knowing what the other is assigning for HW, and the students can NOT all get to the online textbooks, nor is that an effective way for ALL students to read/study. As you can guess, the parents are not thrilled with having purchased supplies for their children that are now sitting in communal buckets.
Conferences would include the team of teachers. What used to be a 20 minute conference between me and my student's parent, is now a 45+ minute conference between me, the student's parent and 2 other teachers. Plus, instead of conferencing with my 22 students, I have potentially 65 opportunities to have these 45 minutes conferences. Middle and High School parents don't require all these conferences. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING; WE ARE ELEMENTARY!! Added benefit for parents? They have to wait to schedule until all 3 of us can be there. Or, they can come in 3 different times.
Students will share a desk where all their notebooks, textbooks and folders will reside. We don't, after all, have lockers. Three students can't fit all their stuff inside one desk, Mr. CAO! Additionally, these kids need a space they can call their own. Every day I deal with Sally telling me that Johnny accidentally wrote in her notebook or took home her folder, or left garbage in her desk that she now has to clean out. Johnny tells me he didn't do it so it must be Betty who also shares the desk!

So, now that everyone is clearly upset, our superintendent is speaking on behalf of our CAO and has issued this letter to principals. Principals will now be allowed to clean up the mess.

Our school has made no decisions and will not until some careful thought and discussion has taken place; as it should be. Personally, I'm most thrilled that our principal has regained the authority to make some decisions confidently.

Am I a Presentation Snob?

2009-10-18T11:53:00.007-04:00

The topic of presentations is on my mind lately because I've sat through a series of them recently.

I've given a few presentations over the years. I'd say I've improved a lot, but I'm definitely not great at it and I've got a long way to go before I'm where I want to be "when I grow up." We all have our insecurities and one of mine is my reaching for vocabulary when I'm trying to say something. I've got it in my head, but my mind is already farther along then my mouth. The word I'm searching for as since jogged along a different path and my brain is not looking back.

The other insecurity is that I always want to engage the participants and I know one of the ways to do that is with good visuals on the slides.

I wish I could create presentations as simple and as powerful as this one. A Teacher's Guide to Web 2.0 at School by Sacha Chua.

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

View more documents from Sacha Chua.

The whole stick-figure thing just appeals to me which is probably why I love the CommonCraft videos so much.

My presentations are definitely image-driven. If there are words, there are really just a few. The words come from me, the presenter in the room; which is why I usually don't mind sharing my presentations online. (You can't steal my presentation by stealing my slideshow.) It's just that it takes so long to find just the right image and then to tweak it and all. If I could be as creative as Sacha or the folks at CommonCraft, life in PresentationVille would be so much better. I guess.

This all comes to mind because over the last few weeks, our faculty has sat through a series of workshops. Each one has merit and I don't blame the presenters because as the "One Size Fits All" mandate filters through our district, it has not only hit the classrooms, but has also hit the departments that are presenting workshops. They are handed the slideshows from which to present.

These slideshows have so many words on the slides, that nobody, not even the presenters can read them. Unfortunately, the presenters seem to need to read them as well, because when you don't create them yourself, you don't own them and are therefore uncomfortable with either the content or sequence. It's sort of like following someone else's lesson plans.

And yet, I wonder if the folks who are presenting to us, here in my district, are struggling with these issues at all!

Does this make me a Presentation Snob?

TokBox on PalmBreezeCAFE

2009-10-11T10:58:00.004-04:00

If you're ever looking for a slick, easy to use video conferencing program that's FREE, I highly recommend TokBox. With ToxBox, you can send video greeting cards and have videochats (with up to 20 people) and you can bring in tools to your videochats that I've not seen with other services. Here I am demonstrating TokBox. What are your thoughts?

A PLN School

2009-10-03T22:20:00.016-04:00

Now that I'm back in the classroom, I'm seeing how much has not really changed. The good news is that 10 year olds are still 10 year olds. Pokemon and YuGiYo is now whatever (haven't figured out yet what is the latest fad). My students are bright and happy, though a bit stressed (typical for Gifted).

Unfortunately, what also has not changed is that each day is rush-rush and now, more than ever, there is less time to build in the creative lessons that take more time than traditional "I Do-We Do-You Do-Done" lessons that can be done, from start to finish, in 40 minutes. Every day I pass the same teachers making oodles of copies of worksheets at the copiers. (They haven't even planned their lessons yet, but they've got tons of pages copied from their resource books.) Lunch is 30 minutes long and most of the talk is regarding the recent controversy in our district. I've yet to learn about my co-teachers' families or what they do for fun. They certainly know nothing about me, nor have any expressed much interest.

Additionally, I can probably count on one hand the number of teachers in my school who use their projectors, a digital or video camera, Interwrite tablets, document cameras, or can name even 5 of the online instructional resources that our district provides for teacher use. My best guess on why is that they are overwhelmed with too many resources being thrown at them and not enough training and time.

This year, our district is providing "suggested" scripted lesson plans for teachers to follow. Most teachers are using these out of concern that if they don't, they will not be preparing their students properly for state testing (at least this is what we've been told so many times we're all starting to believe it). Previously outstanding and award-winning teachers are now doubting their skills and abilities to adequately help their students learn; not to mention their fear of the scheduled teams of district-level administrators that walk through classrooms unannounced to be sure we are teaching the same benchmarks as everyone else in the district at the same time and have the same word-walls up and all the other mandated strategies in place. It's all quite distracting.

I'm feeling very discouraged with not only what I can NOT accomplish with my own students but also because I'm not seeing much potential for a PLN in my school building. I've often thought about how great it would be if my online PLN created it's own district and/or school.

A SCHOOL FULL OF PEOPLE WHO "GET IT."

It would not have to be geographically centralized, since it could possibly be all online. Personally, I like the idea of both. That would certainly allow more of my PLN to join in. My thoughts immediately drew a picture of what the classrooms would look like. I envisioned a teaching hospital where the operating rooms have observation areas (do they really? or was that only on Seinfeld?). There would be a constant flow of visitors; pre-service teachers, teachers from other schools, parents, tutors, etc. Students would be used to that and there would even be a group of students that facilitates these visits.

As a matter of fact, students would be involved in every part of the running the school; from making budget decisions, hiring teachers, to serving the lunches. Students would even be involved with reviewing (overall) test scores and making choices on how the school improvement plans should be written.

Additionally, there would be days built into the calendar where our school would be closed. On these days, every person on staff would be required to go off campus and train others. The dates would coincide with conferences, but attending conferences would not be a requirement. Staff members could meet up with a group of teachers from a nearby school and do some hands-on staff development or provide an online workshop. (There would be laptop mini labs for traveling workshops, of course.) Students would be expected to participate in some of these trainings and staff members would be encouraged to get parents involved as well.

And we will train each other. There will be time built in for our own PLN to nurture itself.

I figured that since I'm now creating new jobs for my PLN, I should probably ask them what they'd like to do. The responses I got were very interesting. First, let me say that I got A LOT of responses which makes me think that I'm not the only one who would jump on this if it could actually happen. The names you see below are from Twitter.

One thing became immediately apparent. As @chrischampion pointed out, there would be no need for technology integration specialists because "we would all be "technology integrators" - teachers, principals, aides, janitors..."

@stevebarkley said, "in my school design there'd be no jobs. Just staff constantly using skills and interests to respond to learner needs and interest" (Note: I could be wrong, but I think he meant instead of "jobs" there would be no specific roles. I can't imagine anyone, even us, working completely for free. Either way, I think that is an interesting concept. Would that be a Jack of All Trades type of situation though?)

Most of the responses were from people who wanted to keep doing what they were currently doing with or without some modifications. They just wanted to be in the presence of great teachers. I tend to agree. I don't think I would care what my role was, as long as I could be there and participate.

A few current technology specialists seemed relieved that they might be able to focus on other things, finally. Then there were those who came up with their own job titles (at least I think they made them up). Some seem humorous, but if you think about them, you can see where each suggested role would have a place in our PLN school.

Social Media and Communications Director (@iteachag)
Innovation Integration Designer (@raventech)
Facilitator of Applied Math Mathematics(@scottelias)
Cultivator of Curiousity (@Librarybeth)
Instigator of Inquiry (@turrean)
Music Technology Integrationist (@cwebbtech)
3D Virtual Immersive Learning space facilitator (@tjmeister)
Facilitator of Outdoor Learning, Marine Biology Department (@stardiverr)
Early Adolescent Learning Experience Coordinator (@twilliamson15)
Social Convener (@shareski)
Cook (@ljohnpederson)
Manager of the "idea shop" where students build and create the answers to the problems posed in the curriculum (@tyyost)

So dream with me here. What role would you play and how would this school look?

By the way, only one person offered to be our superintendent (@canyonsdave). Since Dave is currently filling that role where he lives and he obviously has lots of experience, Dave is hired and can start the ball rolling. Thanks, Dave. My resume is in your InBox.

Twitteleh! Twitter for Your Jewish Mother

2009-09-22T20:34:00.002-04:00

A good friend sent this to me today and it was just what I needed for a good laugh. Having grown up in a Jewish home, I can honestly say there is money to be made if anyone were to start up a real Twitteleh. Watch and enjoy; even if you aren't Jewish.

The Google Salad Bar

2009-09-19T10:34:00.006-04:00

I know I should stop being amazed but I can't help it. I'm always surprised when I speak to teachers who only know Google as a search engine. It's almost like they've been at a salad bar and have only been eating the lettuce. Google has really done a lot to provide teachers with resources to make using their online tools specific for the classroom.

Here I am giving an overview of Google for Educators. Keep watching as Lee Keller explains PuzzleMaker.

Hurricanes at PalmBreezeCAFE TV

2009-09-15T22:14:00.003-04:00

Crossposted @ Mrs. Kolbert's Class Blog

As we prepare to make our Public Service Announcements, our students are in the process of organizing their thoughts and creating Hurricane Preparedness brochures. Last week, I shared some interesting hurricane tracking sites with them and one of them has since become my latest favorite. The day I shared it with my class was also the day we taped our first show of the season for PalmBreezeCAFE (our web and tech local cable TV show). I decided to ditch what I had previously planned and show this site instead. Here I am with co-host, Lee Keller, showing the site from National Geographic.

In addition to the National Geographic site, some other useful sites are:

Ready Classroom from Discovery Education

Hurricane Maker (Sun Sentinel)

FEMA for Kids
StormPulse

We Interrupt This Blog for This Public Service Announcement

2009-09-13T19:50:00.002-04:00

crossposted @ Mrs. Kolbert’s Class Blog

In class we are studying hurricanes and my students will begin to create preparedness brochures and Public Service Announcements. I think it will be a great learning opportunity for them to condense all they've learned and prepare a few points to share and help others. I'm not sure how familiar they are with PSAs but they most likely will have seen a Safety on the Internet PSA while watching TV. When I was really young, I can remember watching Smokey The Bear tell me that --only "I" could prevent forest fires.-- That PSA actually had the unintended consequences of making me feel guilty because I wasn't in the forest and I wondered who would prevent them if I wasn't there.

After we spend a few minutes discussing what a PSA is, the students will be divided into small groups, storyboard their ideas, write a brief script and shoot their videos. I own two Flipcams and have asked my students' parents if they have any they'd be willing to loan us for the project. At some point, I hope to raise some money to buy 5 or 6 for the classroom to do projects such as this.

Below is a PSA some of us might remember. Do you know of any PSAs and if so, what did you learn from them?

The Winner Is...

2009-09-08T19:53:00.006-04:00

In a recent post, I offered an opportunity for anyone who was interested to win a free VoiceThread classroom account to blog about how they would use it in their classroom. Those who submitted all showed much interest, and very specific ideas, in how they would VoiceThread with their students. David Cosand submitted the clearest and most thoughtful post and so is the winner of the free classroom account. Congratulations, David!

In addition to David, there were blogposts by:

Jen Wagner, who is now incorporating VoiceThread into her O.R.E.O projects.
Mr. Glyn, who wants to start using VT with his 2nd graders.
Signorina Clerico would use it with her 3rd year Italian students.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about the great projects that ensue.

We'd Like to But...

2009-09-05T15:22:00.007-04:00

So maybe the next thing on Secretary Duncan's list can be to encourage schools to unblock the very tools he is encouraging us to use. Just sayin'...

What's Your Guilty Pleasures?

2009-09-01T18:33:00.006-04:00

I love being back in the classroom. I love being able to talk with and get to know my students and planning lessons and enjoying watching them learn. It's no surprise though that this is my first blogpost since school started. I've not posted here for a few reasons. First, I've concentrated my blogging energy over at my classroom blog lately. I'm very happy with the way it's developing. I've received wonderfully positive feedback from my students and their parents and I invite you to follow my class blog as well as this one. Secondly, I'm just exhausted!

So as I tiredly sit here, there's nothing better than giving in to some Guilty Pleasures. Right now, I'm enjoying some Oreo's Double Stuff (eating them from the inside out, of course). I thought it would be good to share our Guilty Pleasures, after all you can never have too many, right? Here's a few of my mine:

Watching General Hospital (Tivo'd - a week's worth at a time)
Eating pickled mushrooms and greek olives
Reading magazines like People, Fitness and Soap Opera Digest
Twittering until 2:00am
Watching Dancing With the Stars
Eating caramel sauce (are you supposed to put it on something?)
Taking a nap only 2 hours after I wake up
Going to bed at 7pm
Buying a new purse when my old one is perfectly fine

What are your Guilty Pleasures?

I'm a Born Again Teacher

2009-08-16T11:52:00.014-04:00

I'm on day 5 as a Born-Again Teacher. To say that my head is spinning would not do justice to the way my thoughts are processing, however I must say I'm feeling much better about everything today. I'm convinced that support from others is the key to staying sane!

My former team not only sent me on my way with a lovely goodbye party at the most quaint places in all of Lake Worth (along with the most useful gift certificate of all time for a Born Again Teacher - can you guess?) came to my rescue and totally pimped out my room with the technology I'll need and (perhaps best of all) organizing the labyrinth of wires that encompassed the front quarter of my new room. I
may be "techy" but one thing my new family should probably know about me right away is that I don't/can't do wires or hardware (much to the chagrin of my former team).
My 16 year old son came to help me every day with cleaning, organizing and helping to input student names into databases to get me ready to Rock-n-Roll on the first day. What a kid! Home from college for the weekend, My 19 year old son and his girlfriend will be there with me tomorrow where they'll take pictures of each student as they come in. Tomorrow is the day before school begins, but students and parents come in to "Meet and Greet" the teachers and I want a photo of each student while they hold a name card under their face (like a mugshot). I don't know; bulletin board? seating chart? thoughts on this?
My new team has been very welcoming with offers of their valuable time, materials and their warmest sentiments. I already think they're wonderful and I hope soon, I'll be able to give back to them as much as they've given to me.
My new administration is not really new. The principal, Pat, and I go back 25 years when we taught together at my first school, Coral Sunset, that was also brand-spanking new. We've kept in touch over the years as have many of us from that original at Coral Sunset. Sometimes life hands you an amazing group of friends that stick with you for life and even though you may not see them very often, you'll find each other in that special place in each other's hearts.
Parents of former students have already contacted me with offers to volunteer. Rumor has it (and I know it's true because I taught at this school before) that the community here is extremely supportive. I know I won't have any trouble finding volunteers to help out as needed.
Of course my online Personal Learning Network where I've received oodles of ideas and recommendations for where to go for grants and I've even received messages from companies about easy applications to fill out where you can win money for your classroom. NACD is already sending my science materials for our labs.

So, as I meet my students and jump into our first week I can tell you I'm very excited. I've got some great activities planned for my students and I've already planned the first homework assignment which is based on our class blog. I want to give my students and their parents some gentle exposure to the blog and the world of blogging. Take a peek and please share your thoughts.

First Week HW Blog Response

View more documents from Lee Kolbert.

I wish all my educator friends out there best wishes for a great school year. Those are my plans too.

And remember to ask questions. Lots of questions.
~Lee

Is it Crowdsourcing or Shirking?

2009-08-09T21:42:00.009-04:00

I stumbled across Cathy Davidson's blogpost, How To Crowdsource Grading, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about the method of grading she is about to try. You need to read the entire post but I'll summarize just a bit here. Cathy is seeking a more authentic method for grading her Duke University students.

Cathy says, "I can't think of a more meaningless, superficial, cynical way to evaluage learning in a class on a new modes of digital thinking (including rethinking evaluation) than by assigning a grade. It turns learning (which should be a deep pleasure, setting up for a lifetime of curiousity) into a crass competition."

She goes on to say that currently the goal for most students becomes to figure out what's the least amount of work they can do to get the best grade. She's convinced (and I don't think any educator would argue with this one) that most of the students are not taking personal pride or ownership in their work and will simply do the bare minimum that will earn the best grade. She is, therefore, turning the grading over to her students; thus crowdsourcing the grading of her course. She stresses that it is class peers that must deem each others' work satisfactory in order to receive grades:

"Since I already have structured my seminar (it worked brilliantly last year) so that two students lead us in every class, they can now also read all the class blogs (as they used to) and pass judgment on whether they are satisfactory. Thumbs up, thumbs down. If not, any student who wishes can revise. If you revise, you get the credit. End of story."

Now, let me first say that her course, This is Your Brain on the Internet, sounds fabulous. She has the students blogging, using wikis, Twittering, etc. and she offers options for those who feel they lack in "tech skills."

My problem is simply in one area. That is in her completely turning over the evaluation process to her students. Isn't it expected that her students are still learning and that she is the ultimate "expert" in her classroom? I'm all for students evaluating and offering collaborative critiques, but doesn't she have a responsibility to oversee that final decision on whether a student has satisfactorily mastered the criteria?

I'm pretty sure we're ALL fed up with the system as it is and the way students must be evaluated but is the answer to throw up your hands and pass it off to those who are still figuring it all out?

VoiceThread: Where do you fit in?

2009-08-06T19:04:00.020-04:00

One of my BLC09 presentations was on using VoiceThread. Although so many in the online and blogging community know about VoiceThread, it's so easy to forget that it has yet to go mainstream and so there are still SO many educators who still don't know what VoiceThread is. I'd have to say that the participants at the Building Learning Communities 2009 Conference were far ahead of the curve than most, and it was a real pleasure to engage with those who were present in my VT session.

Where do you fit in?
If you'll humor me on the following generalizations, I'm starting to see how educators, who see potential in integrating VoiceThread into their lessons, can fit into certain VoiceThread categories:

There's the newbie. Never heard of VoiceThread and just stumbled on your session because your description sounded interested or someone else recommended it.
The Emergent VoiceThreader has heard of VT and has seen others' and might have even commented on someone else's VT. This person wants to know how to replicate what he/she's already seen.
The VT Dabbler has created threads and loves using it, sees the potential, but is confused about how to use it with students and/or how it really differs from other online publishing services.
The VT Hero understands that it is not just another publishing platform such as PowerPoint. The VT Hero is creates teacher threads and engages students in many opportunities for valuable conversation. The VT Hero most likely uses his/her own account, with multiple identities, to have students comment. This works well for the VT Hero and students.
VT Evangelist is passionate about using VT and helping others learn as well. The Evangelist "gets it" and creates and engages others in creating threads and may even create collaborative wiki's and Nings in an effort to share educator resources and/or conduct workshops or presentations at conferences. The Evangelist probably knows everything there is to know about VT but may still not be totally as comfortable with all of the sharing options/managing students as the PowerUser.
The VoiceThread PowerUser may or may not also be a VT Evangelist but definitely has mastered groups and sharing. Students and teacher create threads and teacher knows how to manage student-sharing by using groups and advanced sharing and publishing options. By using the extensive sharing options and communicating the purpose and results of each, the PowerUser understands how to meet the needs of the nervous parent or administrator while not losing a beat of instructional bang!

Are there other categories that I haven't thought of? In which category do you fall?

How would you use a free classroom subscription?
For my BLC09 session, VoiceThead CoFounders, Ben Papell and Steve Muth, generously allowed me to give away a $60.00 classroom account. How great that would have been, if only I did it! The reason I didn't was because I forgot!!! So, not to let something so valuable go to waste, I'm going to offer it to you here. if you are interested and would make good use of it, I propose the following:

Create your own blogpost where you explain how you would use your new classroom account (if you won). Consider addressing the following - just some ideas here: What is your comfort level with VT and why do you need student accounts? If you've been using VT with your students, how have you been using it and how will your students' experiences be different with a classroom account? What are some of your instructional big ideas and how can VoiceThread fit in? Do you have a specific lesson in mind to get your class started?
In your blogpost, link back to this post.
Come back here after you've published your post, and leave a comment letting me/us know that you've blogged and want the classroom account. Be sure to leave the URL to your post and a way to contact you.
Complete this by August 31, 2009.

After August 31, I will create a new blogpost linking back to all of your submissions and announcing the winner. I'm sorry I can't give you an exact date; I'll try to get to it quickly. The last time I asked for contributions where I promised to blog back the submissions, I was pleasantly surprised at how many responses I got. The huge number of responses, of course, took longer for me to compile.

I can't wait to read your posts!
~Lee

My BLC09 Story

2009-08-02T17:52:00.021-04:00

This past week, I had the good fortune of attending and presenting at The November Learning Building Learning Communities Conference - BLC09 - in Boston, MA. I must say that the conference was the richest and warmest educational conference I’ve ever attended. The collective vision of the attendees and the presenters was incredibly focused. Unlike many conferences, you couldn’t tell the attendees from the presenters. As a matter of fact, I had quite a few conversations with people who impressed me so with some of the things they were doing in their classrooms/schools/districts. I was quite surprised that they were not presenting. There is only so much real estate for scheduled presentations, so Alan November strategically provided plenty of opportunities for those other equally valuable learning experiences to take place. Those took the form of included breakfast, lunch and evening socials. Additionally, the choice of venues was brilliant because there was a cozy lobby and comfy chairs and sofas spread out which lended themselves to the enriching conversations that were taking place.

Because I was presenting and planning my sessions (it doesn’t matter how much time you spend planning beforehand. We were all up late re-working our presentations ~ my presentations were "done" 6 times), I did not get to attend as many sessions as I would have liked. I took something away from each of those I did attend as well as from my own. I will blog further about my own Lessons Learned.

One thing I would like to note is the opportunity I had to sit in on a planning session that Alan held with one particular group; an option for groups that attended. Paula White and Becky Fisher graciously invited me join them. BTW; I enjoyed hanging with Paula and Becky. Besides being the sweet, giving ladies they are, Paula is also the gifted resource teacher at her school and I know I will get to pick her brain a bit in my new job. It was during that conversation that I tapped into the (might I say, brilliant?) mindset of Alan November. What specifically stuck with me was how to be strategic about getting the most out of a conference. He listened carefully to what were their goals and noted some specific sessions that he thought would meet their particular needs. He also suggested they break up into groups based on desired outcome. They would then attend every session on that topic. Of course, they would then come back together and share their knowledge. His knowledge of the presenters, their experiences and their styles, along with his experience with the topics had to have been extremely helpful to the group. I was impressed with how well he knew each and every presenter. (I suppose that should be expected when presenters must be invited to present with no application process.) He emphasized this strategy of “pick a topic and focus on that one throughout the conference,” even for those attending solo. I had never considered that approach. I tend to try to diversify and thus end up with too much to process.

I’d also like to shout out to David Jakes who took a chunk of time to teach me about Google Earth, when my silly little brain didn’t quite get it from a Practioner’s Strand I had attended earlier that day. Like all good teachers, David started with the question, “What do you want to do with it?” If you haven’t seen David’s Google Earth website, you must check it out. You may never have to search for another resource again.

Having dinner and spending time with Joyce and Emily Valenza was a gift. Joyce made me think about what my presenter "voice" truly is. I'd never considered that I present a different side to myself when presenting, but I've been mulling this over since our conversation.

Darren Kuropatwa is an incredibly nice guy and knows the "Canadians-who-visit-friends-in-U.S.-Must-Bring-Ketchup-Chips" drill. See? He's very smart! Darren also impressed me with the particular type of activities he does with his students using Wikis. He's inspired me to try the same with my upcoming students.

Bob Sprankle is such a gentle, nice, creative and smart gentleman. Bob sat in on one of my sessions and podcasted it. Being a nervous presenter, it was comforting to have Bob sitting right in front of me with his warm smile. A little aside; The night before, Bob and someone-else-who-shall-not-be-named, were exchanging contacts by bumping their iPhones. When (I have to say, I saw it coming) his iPhone ended up in a drink. Everyone had a panicked moment, but it all turned out well in the end. I’m sure he can laugh about it now. Speaking of which;

Lisa Thumann and Liz Davis are so fun, knowledgeable and organized a ROCKIN’ EduBloggerCon. The NECC09 EduBloggerCon was my first, so I was so looking forward to this one. I was not disappointed. They are perfect additions to organized conferences.

Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged when teachers have no choice but to “Teach, Test and Hope for the Best.” If there’s anyone who can help you see the light at the end of the tunnel; it’s Angela Maiers. She just oozes positive energy. I want to be Angela when I grow up.

As I was sharing with Tony Parkin that I was heading over to my room to revise my presentation once again, he offered (in his delightful British accent), if you must keep changing it, cut stuff out. Don’t over plan. Know your time limit and slow down. Your participants will appreciate it. Thanks, Tony. Good advice. I “tried” to remember to slow down.

Beth Lloyd shared with me the XtraNormal video she created for her autistic students and generously allowed me to use it in my Standard Students / (Top 10+ Tools) presentations. It was the best part of my session.

If you missed attending, I encourage you to check out the Twitter search for BLC09 so that you can catch up and continue to learn from the ongoing conversation. You'll also learn about some great educators to follow on Twitter. Additionally, you will find links to many of the presenters resources on that Twitter search and on Slideshare.

Kudos to the November Learning team for putting on such a bang-up conference and making us all feel so valued as professionals.

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Back To Teaching for Me

2009-07-22T22:44:00.010-04:00

I made a big decision recently about my professional life. I decided to leave my current job and return to teaching. It wasn't an easy decision. It meant earning a lot less money, leaving a great group of people and leaving a few projects of which I was very fond. But nonetheless, in the end, it was really the teacher in me who made the final decision:
I miss teaching kids.

So, now I've finally started sharing the news and its beginning to feel not only real, but pretty scary. After all, a lot has changed since I've been in the classroom 5 years ago.

I just shared the news on Twitter and FaceBook and already the responses I'm receiving remind me that I'm never really alone. Already I have friends offering assistance and opportunities for collaboration. The last time I was in the classroom, things were very different. My PLN was confined to the walls of my building, the fibers in my phone or the community where I taught. I'm so looking forward to teaching now on a whole new level.

Twitter in Schools; What Does it REALLY Look Like?

2009-07-11T23:40:00.010-04:00

Twitter is the new black. Everyone is doing it! Well, everyone except, of course, our schools. For most, the issue starts and ends with the firewall departments. Twitter is blocked and therefore no further discussion is necessary. But even if Twitter is blocked, isn't there still value in using it after hours and with those who have a vested interest in school-based updates?

Some school districts and individual schools ARE using Twitter to issue updates to the community. There certainly are many teachers who use Twitter and we've all seen many presentations where the benefits of using Twitter in the classroom are sung with great praise. What's missing is what it all really looks like.

Administrators
How do you get administrators on board? How do you get your principal or other administrators who may be nervous, to allow you to give it a shot?
Parents
How do you get parents on board? Do you explain how Twitter works at a Parent Night? Do you create a white-paper or video tutorial? Face it, if it looks too difficult then we've already lost most of them. Signing up for Twitter and entering your cellphone number is a pretty scary thing for many. How do you ease people's fears about this (in the few minutes you have to address it)?
Content
How do you determine what you will tweet? Obviously, a school district and school will have many more generic tweets, but what about individual classes? Do you tweet about upcoming quizzes, projects, and lunch menu changes? What about Author of the Week or other happenings that might involve individual students?
Privacy
Do you protect your updates? If you do, how do you determine who you let follow you and if you've gone to that much trouble, how do you determine who those folks really are?
Conversations? or Announcements?
Do you follow back? If so, why?

What does it all really look like?

Whenever I venture into new territory, the first thing I do is seek out those who are already actively involved. I've created a few collaborative documents to try to compile information on those who are currently using Twitter in our schools. The first is for school districts on Twitter. The inspiration for this was when I learned that the school district next door to us (where it's blocked BTW) was using Twitter to issue updates to the community; but we were/are not. I wanted to find out if there were many other districts trying it out as well. This spreadsheet has since proven helpful to many educators as we all continue to argue for reasonable awareness as it relates to our school districts using Web 2.0 and social networking tools. If you have something to contribute, feel free to edit it here.

The next document is specifically for classroom teachers who use Twitter with their students and/or their parents. Feel free to edit this one as well.

The last is a wiki site I set up in a manner of minutes thanks to a tweet sent out by Liz Kolb (@lkolb) Here, I'm looking for some concrete examples of how teachers are using Twitter with their kids or parents. Please add or glean ideas here as well.

If you're someone who has never considered using Twitter in the classroom, I encourage you to check out a few of the Twitter names on the last spreadsheet and check out their tweets. I've already learned a lot about the different ways teachers can not only keep parents informed but motivate students to stay involved.

Txt Me When My Favorite Blog Updates? OMG!

2009-07-09T20:55:00.015-04:00

I've now reached the point where I don't even check my RSS reader anymore because it's too overwhelming. With over 1000 unread items, I've just given up. And yet, I know I'm missing some great blog posts and unfortunately, when you miss the posts, you sometimes miss the great conversations too.

I'm guilty of relying on Twitter to alert me of new blog posts and yet I know I'm missing plenty of great posts. Using Twitter as an RSS aggregator is not the most efficient way to consume blog feeds anyway, in my opinion.

So, I know I need to trim my reader but there are a few blogs that I would really like to read right away when they update and I don't check blogs often enough to join in the conversations in a timely manner.

I was very excited today when I ran across Pingie! Pingie is an RSS to SMS solution and will send you a text message when the blog (whose atom feed you enter) updates with a new post. All you have to do is sign up, add your cellphone number then add the atom feed to the blog(s) you want alerts from. You get a 2 line text message with a weblink to the actual post so, if you're on a smartphone, you can read the post from your phone.

There's even a widget you can add to your own blog to allow others to subscribe on your own blog.

I love this idea because because not only will it help me stay on top of my favorite few, but parents can remain on top of class blogs more easily too. I already subscribed and got my first alert!

Whose Conference is it Anyway?

2009-07-04T20:20:00.027-04:00

Reflecting on NECC09 has apparently taken me a little longer than many others. There are so many blogposts out there about NECC09 that there hardly seems anything left to blog about. Although there were many F2F and online conversations regarding this, I've not yet seen a blogpost addressing this issue. That is; the role of companies at educational conferences, particulary NECC.

It used to be very clear what a company's role would be at a conference. They'd be in the exhibit or vendor hall and teachers would walk through to pick up as many goodies as possible. But things are changing. Companies are re-thinking their participatory roles in conferences and therefore our experiences are taking on a new shape:

Companies in The Vendor Hall
In my job I deal with vendors almost on a daily basis. I don't find them nearly as annoying as others, apparently, do; maybe because my team at work puts on a great (if I don't mind saying so myself) conference every year and we depend on the sponsors and vendors to finance the entire event. We don' t charge for our conference but knowing what it cost for our small event; I can confidently say, that NECC could not succeed by simply charging what they do for participant registration. The vendor hall is not just a place where vultures are dying to scan you. We can and should use the hall to OUR advantage!

The vendor hall is the perfect place to take a peek at what's new and to talk with the people who make the products we use or would like to use. I'm not sure most teachers are aware, but if (for example) you were to visit the Discovery Education booth, you would have seen (in addition to the sales folks) a few of the people from the back end of Discovery who truly want your feedback. There were product developers, customer support managers and professional development directors. All willing to answer questions and listen to your concerns. Now, this is not to promote Discovery Education. The reason I use them as an example is because of my close ties with them as part of my job and as part of being one of their DEN Stars. I know who these people are and I know their roles. Most people walking by see everyone at the booths "merely" as sales people who will tell you anything to make a sale. Not true.

I believe we should seek out the people at these booths who can make a difference in the products we use, the way we use them and then modify their product accordingly. They are typically there at these conferences and they do listen.
Companies not in the vendor hall:
There were a few companies, of which I was a aware, that did not take a booth or sponsorship but instead had a presence at NECC anyway. VoiceThread was one of them: A few months ago, Ben and Steve (co-founders of VoiceThread) were tossing around ideas for how they wanted to participate in NECC; if at all. They were toying with the idea of taking a booth, or instead perhaps sponsoring some teachers to attend. They were kind enough to run some ideas by me (again.... companies DO listen and I was thrilled to be in on the conversation) and I loved the idea of sponsorships. Beth Still started a campaign to bring a conference newbie (Richard Byrne) to NECC and after Twittering, blogging about it and promoting it on other social networks, Beth collected approximately $600 in donations from individuals in her personal learning network. This seemed like the perfect sponsorship to suggest to Ben and Steve and they jumped on it quickly. VoiceThread chipped in the remainder and Richard attended NECC09! Kudos to Beth and online pals!

Ben and Steve attended as well and were there to have conversations with the folks who helped make VoiceThread so popular. They attended some sessions and actively sought out those folks who are passionate about using VoiceThread. Ben also took a few of us out to dinner. Ben was thrilled to meet everyone and the conversation focused mostly on teaching, learning, online safety and the future of our students. No sales pitch, no promos, just good intelligent conversation from all around. This was one of the highlights of my trip because I got to be a part of some great discussions with some of the most widely respected educators without the hubbub of the conference madness. (In photo - top left- from left to right: Steve Muth, Me and Ben Papell / In photo - top right - from left to right: David Cassinelli, Ben Papell, Collette Cassinelli, Wes Fryer, Me, Richard Byrne and Beth Still.)

CommonCraft was there as well.When Lee and Sachi Lefever were "spotted" in the Blogger's Cafe, the tweets started flying. Such superstars they are with the edu-community. They were posing for pics and shaking hands and having real conversations. They also sponsored a meetup at a local bar. I enjoyed chatting with Lee about how they make their videos. Lee explained to me how the most important part of their production comes in writing the script. A good lesson for those of us engaging our students in digital storytelling.

What a great opportunity to learn from the experts! (In photo - above - from left to right: Lee Lefever, Me and Sachi Lefever.) (Photo - right - Lee Lefever)
Private Workshops such as Constructivist Celebration:
I had the pleasure of attending Gary Stager's Constructivist Celebration on Sunday and enjoyed it thoroughly. The cost was minimal (can't remember, but approx. $35.00) and included lunch and a handful of various full versions of software products. Gary had representatives from FableVision, Inspiration, LCSI, and Tech4Learning, SchooKiT and Generation YES in attendance to assist us with our projects. They handed out their software along with some flyers. I thought it was perfect. Who better to assist us with technical or How-To issues than folks from the companies themselves? Everyone seemed ok with it and I didn't hear any griping that there were vendors in attendance. Was that because we were getting so much "free" stuff? Was it because that we were all aware that without their sponsorship, Gary couldn't have pulled off the event without charging us all an arm and a leg? Or was it because it was a truly engaging opportunity to learn something new and simply create as if we were kids ourselves? (Scott Mcleod did a great job of summing up the key speaking points of the day.) Or were people put off by their presence and I was just not aware? (In photo-above-from left to right: Cheryl Woolwine, Me and Peter Reynolds. Photo credit: Gary Stager's Flickr stream.)

So above are some examples of companies who approached the whole NECC-thing from a different model. As more companies find it's not cost effective to spend their money on vendor booths, is this a glimpse of things to come? What are your thoughts about companies attending as "regular people" and mingling and conversing or having a presence at a private workshop? or is it just a stealth move on their part that "shouldn't be allowed?" Should they be required to wear signs that say, "I represent XYZ company?"

Are there benefits to us? Are we able to adequately represent the hundreds of thousands of other educators who aren't in attendance while speaking to these companies with our shopping list of Do's and Don'ts for their products?

What are your feelings about companies at conferences? I'm interested to hear what are your thoughts on all of this. ccdc09

Twitter in Real Life

2009-07-03T11:57:00.001-04:00

Thanks to a Tweet from Lisa Thumann, I started my day today with some Twitter humor. Enjoy!

30 Places to Find Free Books, Book Summaries, and Book Reviews Online

2009-06-26T17:11:00.009-04:00

Guest post by Karen Schweitzer

You don't have travel to the local library and scan shelves in hopes of finding free books to read. A simple trip to your computer is all you really need. There are a lot of different websites that offer free books as well as free book summaries and reviews to help you choose and delve into enjoyable texts. This list of 30 places to find free books, summaries, and reviews will help you as you begin to build your own digital library:

Free Books

Free ebooks - Readers will enjoy the hundreds of free books and magazines that can be downloaded from this website. Books are sorted by category and author so that you can quickly find the book that matches your mood.

FullBooks - FullBooks houses thousands of full text books that can be read for free online. Simply browse through the titles or categories to find the book you need.

Authorama - Authorama provides a wide variety of free books from classic authors. Books can be read online or offline.

ManyBooks - If you're looking for something to read but don't know what, visit ManyBooks. This site offers popular books, recommendations, and reviews from others to help you decide what to read.

Bored.com - People who are bored online will enjoy Bored.com. The site offers thousands of free books in every category imaginable.

IPL - The Internet Public Library is a good online source for free books, magazines, newspapers, and reference materials. You can peruse through the titles yourself or use the site's "Ask a Librarian" feature to find the texts you need.

Librivox - Librivox is a free audio book site that records books in the public domain. The books are read by volunteers and can be played on your mp3 player or desktop.

SimplyAudioBooks - With new titles listed each month, Simply Audiobooks is a wonderful resource for free classic audio books.

Public Literature - Public Literature offers free classic books and a modern book blog. The blog features an array of poetry, plays, and short stories from a variety of authors.

Open Book Project - Aimed at the educational community, the Open Book Project offers free online textbooks and educational material for everyone.

Lit2Go - This online collection of audio books features stories and poetry. Lit2Go works with (or without) iTunes and allows you to listen and read at the same time.

The Literature Network - The Literature Network is a good place to review works and read biographies for an assortment of authors.

ReadPrint - With over 8,000 novels, books, and short stories in their collection, ReadPrint is a great place to find free books to read online.

DailyLit - DailyLit offers free books through daily email or RSS feed. This site features a long list of categories that will please even the pickiest of readers.

Chest of Books - Chest of Books offers tons of free books for reading enthusiasts. A few of the categories you can expect to see include travel, outdoors, society, real estate, and novels.

Free Book Summaries

Bibliomania - Anyone looking for in-depth book summaries needs to try Bibliomania. This free online book resource offers summaries for their most popular books as well as discussion topics and commentaries for a wide range of texts.

PinkMonkey - Perfect for readers of all ages, PinkMonkey is a G-rated site with more than 460 book summaries to choose from.

CliffNotes - This classic study-guide provider offers a wide range of detailed summaries for novels, poetry, plays, and short stories.

Shmoop - Shmoop is a new website that is quickly becoming popular among students and teachers alike. The site offers fun and easy-to-read literature and history study guides along with other useful resources.

Litsum - One of the largest book summary sites online, Litsum has full chapter summaries and discussion topics for the world's most popular books. Readers can also find quotes, style guides, and character analysis.

BookRags - BookRags offers more than eight million pages of book summaries, essays, and biographies. Most recently, the site added more than two million literature articles from HighBeam Research.

SparkNotes - Arguably the most popular provider of study guides, SparkNotes offers detailed chapter analysis and plot overviews for widely-read literature.

WikiSummaries - Incorporating the same principles as Wikipedia, WikiSummaries provides free book summaries that anyone can add too. It is a useful site for anyone who enjoys reading or writing books summaries and guides.

Bookwolf - Bookwolf has a list, sorted by author and title, of chapter interpretations and summaries that will be useful to readers who wanted to further explore the books they read.

FreeBookNotes - FreeBookNotes is a popular database of free book notes, study guides, and chapter summaries for books, plays, and poems. The new and improved site links to resources on SparkNotes, Pink Monkey, BookRags, Bookwolf, and other popular summary sites.

Free Book Reviews

Amazon - Amazon is one of the best places online to find unbiased reviews of books you may want to read. The site displays editorial reviews as well as customer reviews.

Barnes and Noble - Like Amazon, Barnes and Noble publishes a wide range of reviews from editors and customers. The online store also provides a short blurb about each book so that buyers can see a general overview of a product before they make a purchase.

Shvoong - Shvoong gives readers instant knowledge about books through short reviews and summaries.

BookBrowse - Book Browse is a book review site that focuses exclusively on interesting and well-written books. The site is loaded with reviews, ratings, and excerpts designed to help you find the best read.

TheBookHaven.net - This reader-created site reviews the best and worst of fiction and non-fiction. Although some parts of TheBookHaven are for members only, most of the site's resources can be viewed for free.

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. Karen also writes about online college classes for OnlineCollege.org.

Come on a Shelfari With Me!

2009-06-04T21:26:00.010-04:00

Image by 1015 / J.L. McVay via Flickr

If you've been following my last 3 or 4 posts, you know that I've been encouraging teachers to give some thought to picking up a good book this summer. My goal wasn't really to recommend any type in particular; after all we all tend to lean towards professional books or trashy ones at one time or other, but I was really just looking to recommend that we all just RELAX and READ.

So, I asked you for some recommendations and perhaps you found something you liked on that list. I know I did. Then, John Shoemaker created the Shelfari Educator's Reading Group and as of this writing, we have over 80 members! Wow!

For those of you who are interested in joining us on Shelfari, but aren't quite sure what it's all about, here are two recent segments from PalmBreezeCAFE where I show Kim Cavanaugh how to use Shelfari.

Shelfari Part I

Shelfari Part II

The nice thing about the Shelfari group is that there is a discussion set up for each book on the original list, so you can not only jump in on any discussion on any book, but you can throw in your own book and add your own discussions!

Thank you to all of you who contributed your recommendations and thanks to all who are members of the group. I'm really looking forward to learning from you.

~Lee