Impromptu PD this Tuesday! [Impromptu PD]

We're going to be having an impromptu professional development session at Panera Bread on University Ave. in West Des Moines, Tuesday, June 30th at 9 a.m.

We'll be registering and playing around with the sites from the other day at the AEA, as well as some other stuff, including: using your Mac, Google Reader and Docs, Diigo, Drop.io, Etherpad, Twitter, and whatever else you want to talk about.

If you'll be joining us, please leave me a note in the comments or shoot me a quick email. If you just want to join us online, that would be great too! I'll set up a Tinychat so everyone can get involved. I just want to be mentally prepared for how many people will be there. :)


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Note: "Impromptu" is tough to spell. Also, it's not really impromptu since it's scheduled. Don't let that stop you from coming.

Unsolicited Advice - Start staking your claim to the new web [Advice]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by liewcf

This is my plea to get you registering.

You're hopefully subscribing to some education blogs and some tech blogs, giving you access to all the new Web 2.0 sites and applications. I know I am. Luckily, for me, I've got an uncommon last name. If I didn't, it would be even more important for me to start grabbing my username at every site I think I may possibly use even once some day in the distant future.

That means you can find me as MrGoerend at:

http://drop.io/MrGoerend
http://mrgoerend.podomatic.com/
http://mrgoerend.pbworks.com/
http://mrgoerend.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/MrGoerend

This also makes it so I can separate my classroom accounts from my personal/professional accounts. This isn't to say that I'm pretending to be one person with one account and a different person with another account. I don't hide the fact that this is my blog. I'm looking forward to the first time a student says, "Mr. G, I read your blog last night!" Having the two different "personas" online simply makes for easier organization. Can you imagine how chaotic it would be if I tried to have this blog stand in as both the place where I reflect on life as a teacher and the place where I post assignments? In a world of free blogs, that makes no sense. I'm all about transparency, but I'd like to avoid needless confusion. Wow, that was a digression I didn't see coming when I started this post.

So, decide on a username and start registering at those sites. I'm slowly adding to a list of Web 2.0-related links here. Please do yourself a favor and subscribe to Richard Byrne's amazing resource, FreeTech4Teachers.com.

Differentiating With Technology For Gifted Students [Presentation]

I used these slides to present about differentiating with technology at Heartland AEA on Wednesday. I call it "...For Gifted Students", but really the ideas can be used for all students. Differentiation is differentiation.

Unsolicited Advice - Yes, there is a correct way to use Google Reader [Advice]

I sincerely hope my sense of humor is becoming apparent to those who have read this blog for a little while. For instance, when I say "Yes, there is a correct way to use Google Reader," what I mean is "This will make an attention-grabbing headline when I try to coax people on Twitter to read this post." Now, I do think that the way I do Google Reader is efficient and intuitive, but it's efficient and intuitive for me. So, like all the unsolicited advice I'm giving out, take it for what it's worth.

Here's how I roll with Google Reader. I call it the "two-finger" salute. I didn't call it that until right now, but it sounds good so I'm going to keep it.

My two most important keyboard shortcuts are "N" for next item and "V" for view. I added one minor change to Firefox's "about:config" file to make life easier (I'll walk through that in a bit.*) I created a quick screencast to show you how it works. It's only 15 seconds long, so you may want to watch it a couple times to really see what's happening. I put up an "N" on the screen right before I hit "N" and a "V" before I hit "V." Going to the next item is obvious, but what happens when I hit "V" is more subtle. Watch my tab bar when I hit "V" to see the items I'm interested in reading more in-depth begin to pile up in my tab bar.

This is the way I comb through my RSS feeds because it's quick and I get all or most of the way through my feeds before I dig into the articles I really want to read. Many of the feeds I subscribe to are "headline-based." I subscribe to fantasy baseball feeds that just tell me who's hurt or who's a two-start pitcher (yes, I'm a geek). I never do anything more than skim right past them. Some of my headline-based feeds are hiding rich articles, though. Educationweek, for example, only does headlines, but the articles are worth the read.

This works really well for me. Even my wife bought in. Do you have a different way that could be benefit other readers? I know that I've got some new readers (and feed reader readers) from today's 21st Century Literacies breakout session, so I'd like to get some tips on Google Reader going. Fill up those comments!


*In Firefox, type about:config into the address bar. Click "I'll be careful" and in the filter box at the top type diverted. This will filter out everything but the option to "load diverted tabs in the background." You want this option to be true. Change it from false to true by double clicking it. What it does is change Firefox's behavior so when you hit "V" to divert Firefox's attention to the new tab you created, that tab will open in the background and you can keep working in Google Reader undisturbed.

Unsolicited Advice - Explore with purpose [Advice]

This is a timely post as the Twitter Buzz was palpable (is that right?) after the second breakout session at the 21st Century Literacies Workshop today.  I really like Twitter.  I think it's fun.  It really is amazing that I can be connected with so many educators around the world.  My unsolicited advice about Twitter, Diigo, Classroom 2.0, anything that you're exploring is this:

Explore with purpose! 

cc licensed flickr photo shared by sir_watkyn

 

Allow me to illustrate this point with a story: A friend of mine since elementary school joined Twitter the other night.  He's in graduate school working on his master's degree in Theology.  I was excited to see him on Twitter because of the connections I could see him making.  My heart sank (honestly, well figuratively, but I'm not being dramatic) when I asked him what he is hoping to gain from Twitter and he answered "nothing."  He continued, "I just want to see what all the fuss is about."

Here's the thing -- and this is applicable to more than just Twitter -- Twitter isn't something you watch.  I'm not here to make rules about how Twitter should be used, but if I were, here's one rule I'd make: you have to be involved.

Twitter is what you make it. And if you make it nothing, it will be nothing.  Which is too bad, because if you work on it being great, it can be great.  So explore with a purpose.  Decide what you want Twitter to be for you.  Are you going to follow as many educators as you can and just sit back and see what they have to say?  That's perfect if that's your purpose.  Are you going to follow a select few, 40-50, and involve yourself in the conversation? Great! How about Diigo? Are you going to join and sit back?  Set a purpose!  Be a conversation starter.  Be a link sharer.

Update: It didn't take long, but wmchamberlain pointed out.....all right, I'll just say it: I was wrong.  I'm going to leave my post as I originally posted it, but Twitter can be something you watch.   That can be your purpose, and an important one, at that.  More in the comments.

Leftover Links -- Diigo Groups Edition [Diigo, PLNs]

I love Diigo.  I figured I'd make it clear, if it wasn't obvious already.  I'm a huge fan of the groups, because it gives my bookmarks and annotations another form of context and purpose.  This weekend's Leftover Links are the groups I'm a part of.

• Iowa Core Curriculum Discussion
• Gifted Education 2.0 
• Diigo In Education 
• Discovery Educator Network
• Clif's Notes on EdTech

Remember to set your email preferences for each group.  I prefer daily or weekly email updates instead of immediately, especially with the bigger groups.

Unsolicited Advice - Set big goals! [Advice]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by jepoirrier

Over the past few days, I decided I need to follow through on my big dreams.  I thought, What's a big, attainable goal I could possibly work toward at this point in my career?  Going paperless as a school, that's what!  I love the idea of being Paperless.  (A great blog to read on this idea is, unsurprisingly, TeachPaperless.)  The advice that goes along with setting big goals is making that goal attainable and manageable. 

I'm going to start small by going paperless in my classroom.  I've set up a classroom blog, where students who are absent can see what they've missed, etc.  I'll be communicating with parents via email and the blog (and possibly Twitter).  My colleagues like the idea of eliminating paper-clutter, so we're starting small with Diigo for a couple PLC's and looking at rolling Diigo out to our whole staff sometime this year.

Sometimes I have to start small to dream big.  I told my wife when we moved into our current (and third in the three years we've been married) apartment last August that I wanted a lawn mower for my next birthday (which is next month).  Why did I want a lawn mower if we were moving into an apartment?  To need a lawn mower, we'd need a lawn.  And to get a lawn, we'd need to buy a house.  I missed my goal by a month.  We're moving into our new house at the end of August.

Unsolicited Advice - Download Firefox [Advice]

 

There's a reason all your geeky friends use Firefox, but it's not because they're geeks.  It's because Firefox is a better browser.  Obviously this is a blanket statement, but Firefox lets the user take control of their browsing experience in ways that other browsers do not.  There are currently 5,000+ extensions for Firefox.  Users are able to create the browser they want.  If a user wants to block the ads on the web, they can.  Want to control iTunes without leaving your browser? Go ahead.  Don't like how Firefox looks?  There are nearly 400 themes to choose from.

It's not just the extensions, though.  Firefox is more open to being customized than other browsers.  With Diigo, I get a full, powerful toolbar to install in Firefox.  This includes quick links to my lists, groups, and bookmarks, a sidebar for instant access to my bookmarks and a "read later" button which closes the current tab, bookmarks it in Diigo, and labels it "unread" so I can quickly access it later.  (This is handy when I've stumbled onto a blog post I want to read, but just don't have time now.)  Here's a screenshot of the Firefox Diigo Toolbar:

Here's what you get in Safari:

 

It may not seem like much of a difference -- and in reality, it's not that big of a difference -- but the point is that Firefox is open to being customized.  For other browsers, what the user wants comes secondary to what the browsers' creators think the users should want.  

So, really, do yourself a favor and install Firefox. 

Unsolicited Advice [Advice]

I'm not sure what made me think of Unsolicited Advice.  A logical guess would be that I have some advice I'd like to give.  It may have started when I showed Mike Sansone my method for efficiency while using Google Reader.  Yup, that's probably it.

So, I don't know how long this will last, but, for now, let's call it a mini-series.  I'll give all these posts the tag advice so they're easier to find later.

Don't forget, the advice is knowingly-unsolicited, so feel free to ignore it.  I wouldn't if I were you, but by all means, ignore away.


cc licensed flickr photo shared by Digital Sextant

My schedule is starting to fill up ["Vacation"]

Long story short: I went from attending to presenting at Angela Maiers Educational Services 21st Century Literacies Workshop because of a somewhat chance/somewhat Twitter-fueled meeting.  Isn't life funny?

If you're in the Des Moines/Central Iowa area, there are still openings for the workshop.  There are going to be some amazing breakout sessions, plus a session of who-knows-what's-going-to-happen co-presented by Mike Sansone and Yours Truly.*  Sign up here.

*Just kidding. Our breakout is going to be the real deal.

An Educator's Overview of Diigo [Geeky, Diigo]

I told my principal about Diigo yesterday, but I couldn't access the Internet on my laptop, so I told her I would put together a short presentation she could watch.  She seemed very interested in Diigo, which is exciting!

You'll see reference to the Iowa Core Curriculum Discussion Group in the presentation. Feel free to check it out.

Here is the presentation:

My PLN in a bunch of circles [PLN]

I really try not to think about my PLN too much.  I do like to take a bit of time to reflect, though.  A fellow edu-blogger and I had a discussion about PLNs today, specifically our Twitter networks.  I drew up diagram:

 

This is just a rough draft.  I wanted to get my thoughts on paper -- as it were.  I'm not sure if I have each circle quite named correctly, but it's a start.  Here's the general idea -- let's work inside-out:

• My PLN starts with Me.  I'm the one who has to build my PLN.  I make the contacts.  I cultivate the relationships.  It's not that it's all about me, but the P does stand for Personal.
• The ring that directly surrounds me is my Support.  I know that when I send them an email, I will get a thoughtful response.  If I post on Twitter, the odds are pretty high that they'll respond.  
• Listeners (yes, I'm thinking of a different title) are those that I feel connected to (in a PLN way) but they are not someone I expect a response from when I post on Twitter or a comment when I write a blog post.  I follow their updates on Twitter and, for many of them, I read their blog posts.  I believe (perhaps this is wishful thinking) that if I were to meet them in real life, we would be able to hold a non-awkward conversation.  I hope.
• Outside the Listeners is the group I refer to as the Future.  I guess that means it's people I'm hoping to connect with in the future.  I'm not sure if it is a goal of mine, but it seems like it should be a goal to have people move inward toward my Support.  It seems logical that the bigger my support group is, the more access to multiple minds I'll have.  It's not a matter of "collecting friends".  It's just surrounding myself with knowledgeable experts in the field of education.  I just had an a-ha moment: I got nervous that my Support group would be come too big, and thus diluted.  I think it's the poorly-named Listener group that I'm really looking to build.  The group that I'm actively paying attention to, knowing that if I were to interact with them it wouldn't be coming from nowhere.  That makes sense.

There's a fear I have with PLNs, and I expressed it in my first sentence of this post.  PLNs are not the end-all to being a better teacher, but I do feel they are important.  We're asking our students to take on a global perspective, so I feel it's necessary to ask ourselves to do the same.

Leftover Links -- Interesting Ways Edition [Geeky, Classroom]

A few hard-working educators have put together Google Docs presenations showing "interesting ways" to use different pieces of technology in the classroom.  As I find them, I'll be bookmarking them in a list.  You can find that list here.

So far there five presentations:

• Wordle
• Twitter
• Interactive White Boards
• Pocket Video Cameras
• Voicethread
• Nintendo DS 

*Please note: I did not create these presenations.  I'm just putting them in a list so they're easier to keep together.  All the presentations (so far) are licensed under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 license.

Your going to love this blog post! [Fingernails on a chalkboard, Hmm]

I am reading through the March 2009 edition of ASCD's Educational Leadership for a 21st Century Literacies breakfast group.  The article I just got done reading is titled "Are Digital Media Changing Language?" by Naomi S. Baron.   It's actually one of the three articles from the magazine that is available as full-text online.  One of the reasons this article has caught my attention so much is that I am a grammar nut.  Note: that doesn't mean I always use prescriptively correct grammar.  It does mean that I enjoy reading about language.  I know the difference between it's and its, your and you're, and their/there/they're.  But, like everyone else, sometimes I slip.  The difference between those who fall into the grammar nut category (self-proclaimed) and those who don't is that the "your" in this post's title is absolutely killing me.  Some people who read this may not notice, which isn't a big deal for me because those people are possibly teachable.  There are others, though, that will see the "your", know that it's wrong, and just shrug their shoulders.

Baron writes in her article about attitude shifts, the first of which she calls "Whatever."  She writes:

Each year, I ask graduate students in my Structure of English class if it matters whether English continues to distinguish between the words may and can ("May I come in?" versus "Can I come in?"). Many of the students fail to see why anyone should care. The same laissez-faire attitude applies to distinguishing between the words capital and capitol (the first identifies the seat of state government, whereas the second refers to a building, such as the U.S. Capitol). Why not just ditch one and let the other do double duty?

I talked with preached to my kids one thing about grammar this year: pride.  My friends in elementary school called me "The Dictionary."  I ate it up.  That may be where the pride I take in being a good speller and using proper grammar comes from.  My sister is the same way.  Our mother was an elementary school teacher until we were in college.  Perhaps that had an effect on us.  I do believe that there is a fine line between being a fuddy-duddy grammar traditionalist and Baron's description of a "laissez-faire" grammar liberalist.  For example, I don't actually mind the "singular they."  I don't mind it because, to me, it's more visual and orally appealing to say "they" instead of "him/her."  I'm not alone in my acceptance of singular they.  What I'm not cool with is pretending "your" and "you're" mean the same thing.  Those who just don't know the difference can be taught.  Those who know the difference but don't care need some pride.  I'm all for our language being living and growing, but I'd like progress, not a lazy regression.


*I'm sure that somewhere in this blog (and possibly this post) is a misplaced comma, stray apostrophe or typo.  If all you got from this post is "Russ thinks he's better than everyone else", please leave me a comment so we can continue the discussion.  Please have more tact than I saw on David Warlick's blog the other day -- although that does show when this pride I'm talking about goes too far: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=1763

Summer is here, just in time to start working on school stuff [Update]

I'm seeing my summer slip away and I've been on break for three weekdays.  I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but I feel busy.  I'm working 20+ hours per week at a three-word, alliterative retail outlet.  I've got four full-days of professional development in the next three weeks, along with starting Tuesday-mornings 21st Century Literacies Breakfasts.  I'm not complaining though.  Really.  I love it.  This will sound weird, but I'm really starting to feel like a real teacher.  I'm preparing for my first classroom -- last year I had an office with no windows.  I loved my year as a gifted teacher, but I went to school to teach Language Arts.  I'll never forget about the gifted kids who are in every classroom, every day, but I'm excited to not feel like I'm learning everything for the first time, every day.  It took me until April-ish to feel like I could have an informed opinion on Gifted issues -- so feel free to disregard anything I said before April.

My principal called me this evening to discuss my use of our team's Double Dip (DD) period.  Every teacher in our four-person team will have a structured study hall as one of our eight periods in the day.  My principal convinced me that I am perfect to host Second Chance Reading (SCR) in my DD.  The DD is a way for the students to get a second dose of instruction they need in the core subjects as opposed to the free-for-all that a study hall can become.  The Math teacher will host the students who need a DD in Math, etc.  All of the DD periods will be at the same time so students can be redirected dynamically between the DDs.  The way I understand it, if one of the students who normally comes to me for SCR, but needs specific help with the Math skills/concepts being covered during a certain day or week (for example), that student can be shifted to the Math DD for the needed period of time.  I like it.  I was a total time-waster in study hall.  I needed structure.  My hope is that there will be a DD for kids who "get it" with the D's standing for Depth.  I spent this past school year overwhelmed with the issues of a Gifted classroom.  When my principal told me that she thought my experience would be a great fit for Second Chance Reading, I did a mental double-take.  My first paid job in a school was, though, eerily similar to this, except in a high school.  I was an "Academic Assistant," which meant I led an at-risk study hall.  I'm excited about it!