It's Been a Month??? What?

It's SO hard for me to believe that I haven't blogged in almost a month! Wow! Where did the time go?

A lot has happened this past month...

• The students I blogged about in my last post were featured on our high school "Tiger TV" channel


• My Junior Achievement Company Program students successfully created, delivered, and set up 70 incredible centerpieces for the Crystal Apple Awards Gala


• My BEIS class participated in a JA Titan competition while still working on the NetGenEd Project


• I had new systems installed in my computer lab (yeah!!!!...the old ones SO did not work anymore!!)


• My younger son 'champed up' in Tennis (woo hoo!)


• We moved my parents in with us during spring break

Needless to say, I've been incredibly busy. My only regret in all of this is that it has prevented me from being as involved as I wanted to be in the NetGenEd Project. It's is such an amazing opportunity for the students who are involved. I've been reduced to lurking about...trying to keep up as best I can with all of the happenings. I haven't had the time to participate in the webinars, the book club...not much of anything..and, well, frankly it's depressing... :-(

I am excited that my students will finish their videos on time, though. They have some incredible ideas for their videos; I'm looking forward to seeing those ideas come to life. These are the same students that participated in the 2008 Flat Classroom Project and the Flat Classroom Conference. They are amazing students! Most of them are seniors, so it's a little hard to get them to focus right now...they've all been accepted to various colleges and universities, so now they are waiting to hear about all of the scholarships for which they've applied. Plus, they are getting ready for the prom, various banquets, etc...

Well...off to help my students post-produce their NetGenEd multi-media artifacts!! Promise it won't be another month before I post again!!

Photo credit: http://eladthegreat.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/the-ultimate-clock/

Proud as a Peacock

I received an email last week from Ms. Branom. She is the Library Information Specialist for our District. Much to my delight, she asked if my "Qatar" students (that is, my students who participated in the Flat Classroom Conference) would make a presentation about their involvement in the Flat Classroom Project and Conference to the District Curriculum and Instruction Team.

Wow! What an opportunity! The students (Karla, Steve, and Erika) began brainstorming on how they would create a presentation...then...it hit them...POW!!! (or something like that)...why not utilize what they had learned from Frank Guttler at the conference?? Make a video that would chronicle their walk through the project, the conference, and their reflections!!!

So...they began...they first drew a storyboard. Then they did some video tape, chose some pictures, made some stills...awesome!

Since my computer is the only one with any post-production software on it :-(, I helped them post-produce the video. I must say they did pretty well...and...the C & I Team loved it. The best part though was how well the students fielded questions from the Team Members. They were asked for their input on project-based learning, the changing role of the teacher, and the implementation of different technologies in the classroom.

The students let the Team members know that they are (by default) multi-taskers and they would like to see more classrooms utilize that strength. They advocate laptops for all students and they conveyed how much they like using the back-channel in my class.

Take a look at their video and let me know what you think...I'm proud!!

Score 1 More for Technology in the Classroom

I stayed home from work today...the flu...

I felt just awful, but I really needed to meet with my Business Education Independent Study class. Today begins their trek into a Junior Achievement Titan competition and they needed to made their first round of business decisions...how can we do that when they are there and I am here? Enter technology...

...I set up a private chat room for us via Chatzy last week so that we could communicate and record our ideas during class I discovered Chatzy while attending the Flat Classroom Conference in Doha, Qatar last month--thanks Julie and Vicki!!. Since I can save text files of the chat room for later reference, we can recall our recorded chats as needed to make decisions for the JA Titan competition. Pretty cool, huh?

I called the substitute and told her what I wanted to do. With her support...well, having access to Chatzy helped make a difficult situation much easier. I was home...they were in class...We all logged into the room and began our chat. We exchanged ideas, scenarios, consequences, etc. Via the chat, the students made informed decisions for their competition.

Once again...I was able to utilize technology to be a 'guide on the side' rather than a 'sage on the stage' in my classroom...man, I love technology!

Favorite Superbowl Commercial

Every year there's that one Super Bowl commercial that rises above the others. This commercial does just that...

My Favorite Super Bowl Commercial...this one really spoke to me. It works on several different levels...has a broad target base, yet is personal (and I'm not even a Pepsi fan).

Life-Changing...

As you are aware by now (if you read my blog), this past week three of my Spring Woods High School students (Karla Nava, Steve Ramos, and Erika Bautista) attended the inaugural Flat Classroom Conference & Student Leadership Summit in Doha, Qatar. While the Conference achieved a number of objectives, one of the main goals was for international student teams to develop a Global Collaborative Project that addresses a pressing social need.

The students were placed in purely international teams; they worked with no one from their school—no one from their home country. These teams brainstormed and developed innovative projects to address needs such as AIDS awareness, discrimination/racism, education, and poverty. Then, the student teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges (all of us educators in attendance). The top four teams are now competing via online voting. The winning project will be launched as a global collaborative project in 2009. I am proud to announce that two of our students (Karla Nava and Steve Ramos) are members of two of the top four teams.

I would like to invite all of you to vote as well. Please visit the Flat Classroom Ning to cast your vote. On the main page (in the middle section) you will see links to watch the ‘pitches’ (or commercials) the students created to sell others on their idea. In addition, there are links to visit their Wikispace so you can review their research. Once you have viewed the pitches, please cast your vote.

Once you have cast your vote, take some time to surf around the Flat Classroom Conference Ning. There you will find blog posts, videos, photos, and presentations that will give you a glimpse into just how incredible this opportunity was for our students. If you have any questions, or would like for one of these students (or me) to speak with your class, please email me to make arrangements…and please take a moment to congratulate these students on their successes in Doha.

Impressions from Oman

Attending the Flat Classroom Conference has provided the opportunity for those of us from Spring Woods High School to meet the students and teachers with which we have worked for the past semester and that's great. But more than that, the students are deepening their understanding of other peoples and cultures as they work toward planning a new Flat Classroom Project.

It was fun to connect on the Ning and the Wiki during the project; it's even more fun to collaborate face-to-face. I believe both are important. I had the chance to speak with one of the student groups from Oman as we toured Doha yesterday. Here are their impressions of the of Flat Classroom Project.

Dune Bashing in Qatar

Yesterday was absolutely incredible! Our group went on a desert excursion that included camel rides, dune bashing and a fabulous dinner.

We left from the hotel around 2pm Doha time for the desert. The ride was amazing. I took a lot of 'dune bashing' video. I'm working right now to upload to videos to YouTube and MyPage on the Flat Classroom Conference Ning. Here's a teaser.