Musselman / Science

Celebrate the Solstice! - Sundial Activity and More

2011-12-14T14:00:00.004-05:00

Cross-posted on the Burlington Science Center blog.

There is plenty to celebrate the week before holiday break, but among the many religious traditions don't forget to take pause on December 22nd to celebrate a very special day in Earth's orbit with your students or children, the winter solstice!

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year for the northern hemisphere (top half) and marks the start of what we consider winter. For residents of Burlington, the sun will shine for only 9 hours and 5 minutes. Amazingly the day is even shorter the further north you travel, with anyone unfortunate enough to be above the Arctic Circle receiving no sunlight whatsoever!The length of our day is affected not by our distance from the sun but the tilt of Earth's axis. The axis is an imaginary line running from Earth's north pole to its south pole that spins or rotates around. Unlike a top that spins standing straight up, Earth rotates slightly sideways at a 23.5 degree angle. This is roughly the angle one might make to form a peace sign with their index and middle finger.

During the Winter Solstice the earth's north pole is pointed away from the sun, causing the northern hemisphere to receive fewer sunlight hours and less solar energy from the sun. Meanwhile, the south pole and southern hemisphere of the Earth is pointed directly toward the sun and receives their longest day of the year! For southern hemisphere residents, December 22nd is the summer solstice!Because Earth points in one direction over the course of an entire orbit (revolution), we in Burlington point away from the sun in the winter months, but point toward the sun during the summer months.Besides sharing some of the information above with your students or children, consider taking time during the final day or two of the 2011 school calendar to do one or more of these fun solstice activities.

Make a Sundial Class Activity - Produced by the Science Center and specifically designed for Burlington residents, this is a science activity where each student creates and uses their own sundial to tell time using the sun. Students will recognize how their shadows change in length and location over the course of a day. The link connects to a student worksheet and sundial template. Appropriate for grades 3-5. Some cutting is required. Grades K-2 may adapt for younger grades by having kids trace their shadows at different times of the day and answer similar questions posted on the student worksheet.

Computer Simulations and Animations:

Earth in Motion: Seasons - Follow Max around the world and learn about how the tilt of Earth and one's location on Earth influences the seasons (and how Max should best plan his trip!) via Teacher's Domain.

Seasons Interactive Animation - Best used as a class demonstration on an interactive whiteboard. Allows students to mark and predict where Earth will be in its orbit around the sun during each month. Courtesy of Freezeray.

There Goes the Sun - For more information on the historical perspective of the Winter Solstice and how ancient civilizations commemorated the day, check out this New York Times OpEd piece written by Richard Cohen. Note: most of the material here is not suited for elementary students but is a curious peek into human past traditions!

iPad Apps for Science Educators

2011-12-11T15:39:00.001-05:00

On Friday, December 9th I sat in on the Burlington High School Science Department meeting that centered around their use of the iPad 2 in their 1:1 science classrooms. Now almost four months into the pilot program I thought the meeting would give me an opportunity to check the pulse of an initiative that I have been widely insulated from despite sharing the same building. The following apps were all recommended at different times by Burlington science teachers who had become familiar with the apps through their own use in the classroom.

Air Sketch: An app allowing teachers or students to write on their iPad from anywhere and have their work show up on their classroom's interactive whiteboard. What is nice about this app is that there is no extra software to install. The app works by drawing to a blank slate on a website. Teachers pull up a web browser, open the custom link given to them by Air Sketch, and the screens are mirrored. The downside to this is that teachers can not flop back and forth between using the iPad and their IWBs tools to draw on the same screen. Air Sketich comes in a free version and a pay version that more features.

Noise Sniffer: Using the microphone on the iPad, Noise Sniffer measures the decibel levels of the volume in a room or the voice of an individual. While the feature is relatively limited (the app does not collect and chart data for example) teacher's saw this as a great tool to have visible to presenters during presentations. By demanding students bring their voice above a certain decibel level teachers were able to battle a classic presentation problem with students who speak too softly during sharing opportunities.

Vernier Video Physics: Great tool for physics teachers with capabilities that allow students to review classic kinematic scenarios or create their own with customizable variables and the ability to plot travel paths of projectiles as well as pause the motion of objects and analyze their motion and the vector forces acting on them.

Science 360: Used primarily as an "inquiry exploration" app, biology and chemistry teachers will find a literal array of science content in the Science 360 sphere that can be used as a tool to hook students interest into an ever changing mix of science content.

Noterize: Used primarily as a service for students to be able to take notes that include photos taken with the iPad. Two teachers shared that the iPad's camera does an excellent job of taking photos through microscopes that can be added into the Noterize notes. Teacher's also liked Noterize for its ability to handle PDFs. (Note: Now called "PaperPort."

Other Notable Recommendations:

Quizlet: Quizlet was highlighted as the best of the flashcard making tools available. While not an app by itself, teacher's liked the ease of making flashcards and how students would share flash cards easily with one another using Quizlet.

"Molecules", "iCell" and "Virtual Dissection" were also mentioned but without much discussion. The environmental science teacher planned on using the "7 Billion" and "Our Choice" iPads app in her class as topics pertaining to the focus of those apps came around in the curriculum.

"Create-a-Compass" Magnetism Activity

2011-12-04T20:26:00.001-05:00

Magnetized needle pointing towards north.

While studying magnetism teachers will often introduce Earth's magnetic field to students with the help of a class set of compasses. Quality compasses can be expensive and unless teachers are planning to have students use them in basic orienteering practice they are unnecessary with the help of some inexpensive materials and a little know-how.

"Create a Compass" is an engaging activity for elementary students that shows 1) How a compass is made and works. 2) Unmagnetic objects made of magnetic material can be made magnetic and 3) Magnetic objects will be influenced by Earth's magnetic field.

Having at least one compass on hand for students to observe as a grabber at the start of the lesson can be helpful in prodding inquisitive questions from students about how it works and force students to think about the value of the ability to navigate and understand one's direction. As the introduction to the lesson comes to a close asking students how a compass works will enlighten the teacher as to how many kids are aware of Earth's magnetic field and who knows that the needle always points "North." Depending on the responses received from earlier pre-questions teachers may want to dive deeper into the difference between geographic and magnetic north or make cross-curriculum connections with early explorers and the uses of compasses which will not be dived into on this blog.

To build one's own compass, students will need:

bar magnet
sewing needle or pin
a shallow basin of water (see photograph for an example)
piece of cork or plastic.

Students must start by first magnetizing the needle. To do this, students must run one end of the bar magnet from one end of the needle to the other over and over (30-50 times should do the trick.) To confirm that the pen is magnetized had students try to pick up a single staple with the needle. After their needle is magnetized students must place the needle on top of the plastic or cork peace and lay it on top of the water poured into the shallow basin.
With no other forces acting on the needle but the Earth's magnetic field the "south" polarized end of the pin will twist towards the magnetic north pole (opposites attract.) If the bar magnet is placed near the pin the magnetic strength of the bar magnet will override Earth's magnetic field and the pin will follow the bar magnet.

Background Information:

How a pin can become magnetized is an abstract concept that requires students to have a previous understanding that all objects are made of particles (atoms or molecules to be more scientific.) When an object is made primarily out of atoms of iron, nickel, or cobalt (like in the case of our pin) the atoms physically move and rotate so that they are in alignment with a magnetic field if they come into contact with one strong enough to move them (such as the bar magnet run repetitively over the magnet.) The SMARTBoard file able to be found here is an interactive opportunity for students to take an unmagnetized model of the pin (top) and rotate the particles of the pin in place so that they are all aligned in one direction and magnetized (bottom.)

Shifting Gears

2011-12-01T19:52:00.001-05:00

"Goodbye Gear Shift" by fomu on Flickr

This blog has been only sporadically updated over the past few months as I have been busy in transition to a new position with the Burlington Public Schools. As one of their two "Science Specialists," my everyday professional experiences have shifted significantly from classroom teacher to support staff for the system's elementary school teachers and classrooms.

"Musselman's MindTrap" has made way for "Musselman / Science," the web domain to my former classroom blog named for its simplicity for kids to remember. While no longer concerned about my blog readers' abilities to recall, the title is still significant as it signifies the dual focus that the blog will now take.

Musselman / Science will continue to share my professional experiences, but science posts will take on a distinctly different feeling as the curriculum and lessons I am now accountable for will be designed for primary grade levels. October's "Charging Up Students with Electromagnets" was a test run of sorts. In the future there will be no photos shared on this site of students (unless linked to teacher classroom blogs.) Instead downloadable worksheets, IWB files, curriculum guides and student work will become the focus. The goal of all this is to share the rich resources the Burlington Science Center has to offer free-of-charge. It is my sincere hope that teachers less fortunate to have such a unique support system will benefit from the time and energy spent furthering student learning through the Science Center, no matter which school district they are in.

Conducting Class One Hundred Miles Away

2011-11-02T21:31:00.000-04:00

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with Marialice Curran's Elementary Education prepratory course "Science and Social Studies as Continuous Inquiry" at Saint Joseph College in Connecticut. Marialice asked that I share my thoughts on the importance of elementary teachers teaching their science curriculum in their classroom with the same rigor they do their reading and math curricula.

With my only collegiate education experience coming on the receiving side of the grades, I was all too familiar with the "listen politely, take notes" style of learning my classmates and I often approached our education with in younger years. Determined to avoid extolling the virtues of a scientifically literate society via soapbox to a nodding (off) group of pre-professionals, I asked Marialice to make sure her students had cellphone access during the session. Marialice also supported me with a well-wired classroom, equipped with two projectors and a camera eye to help me better connect with the class by seeing them.

I started class by asking students to think for themselves what kinds of coming challenges our world, nation, and communities would face in the coming century. The question was posed verbally, but also posted on one of the projector screens with specific instructions for students to text their responses. The results, collected and posted via wiffiti.com varied but were easily postable for students to view and connect to science education.

It shouldn't surprise me that the students were initially more curious about wiffiti than elementary science, but both students and I were able to settle in after the initial discussion, particularly because Marialice had set up our skype classroom so that I was on one screen for students to see carrying conversation with the class I could also make eye contact with on my end. In some ways I was able to engage with the classroom just as I would face to face (asking questions, gauging student apprehensiveness to specific questions, etc.) Other standard practices were less easy (prompting distracted students, attention via proximity and so forth.)

I was also able to embed a "polleverywhere" question into the lesson to gauge student understanding regarding forces on the playground. Polleverywhere gives question writers the choice of either receiving feedback in open response or multiple-choice format. Admittedly, more of these would have been ideal but I didn't want to push it on the first go-round.

From the feedback received via twitter from Marialice and many of her students, the class was a success. Students were impressed with the inclusion of social media, but more importantly were exposed to some simple ways science could be easily included in their more "pressing" goals like reading, writing, and mathematics - all of which are great blog posts for later. As Marialice put it I "had them hooked!" Pretty good catch from 100 miles away!

Charging Up Students with Electromagnets

2011-10-05T16:25:00.001-04:00

Electromagnets pose an absolutely perfect transition activity for students learning about energy and electricity in the elementary classroom. The inherent connection between electricity and magnetism is seen undeniably as soon as students touch the wires to the battery and start picking up paperclips all over their desks. Instant amazement. Instant connection.

Students increase the strength of their electromagnet by increasing the number of times the wire is wrapped around the nail. The wire creates what is known as a "solenoid" and magnetizes the nail when current flows through the wire.

This electromagnet activity is posed not as a demonstration or activity, but a "challenge." How many paperclips can you pick up with your electromagnet? No step by step process, just an automatic assumption of success (yes, you can and will little scientists!) and a little competition to keep everyone focus.

Diagram courtesy of MCAS question resource bank

The activity is rife with plenty of lessons learned along the way. As students complete their first electromagnet, they will come to find that the battery begins to heat up (a result of the short circuit being formed by the wire to the battery nodes.) Surprise conversion of energy from electricity to heat! Some students may even feel a small pinch from their wiring if they are touching the live ends of the wire when a connection is made. (This tends to be less observable with smaller batteries, but a Heavy Duty 6V will leave an brief but uncomfortable feeling on the fingers. Be sure to remind student to stay safe and keep fingers away from exposed wire!) Students are also forced to examine a diagram so they may replicate the basic setup of an electromagnet, then practice and hone their fine-motor and engineering skills to physically construct the tool.

By adding a compass to the kit to better see the electromagnet, particularly around the poles where the needle will give up its interest in the Earth's magnetic north pole and instead go for the more local north pole of the student's electromagnet! Moving the compass away from the nail will cause it to resume pointing towards Earth's magnetic north once again.

Attached here you will find a PDF outling a simple, step-by-step process through the activity that may be posted or adapted for an interactive whiteboard (I actually used SMART software to create this.)

A five question worksheet is also included here walking students through their own drawing of their electromagnet. Emphasis is placed on using appropriate scientific vocabulary such as electromagnet, battery, wire, electricity and so forth. In addition, questions will lead kids to ask why the nail is only magnetic at certain times, what happens when the circuit is disconnected, and so forth, pushing students to connect the current of electricity with the strength of the metal nail as a magnet.

Blogging Field Trips with Google Voice

2011-08-21T12:50:00.000-04:00

During last Tuesday evening's #scichat blogging was the central focus of the conversation, in particular how we use blogs with our students. One of my comments that seemed to gain some traction was around field trips, compelling me to come out of my blogging slumber and revisit the topic I first touched on in June of 2010.

Over the past two years I've blogged two major field trips, my EcoClub's April excursion to Costa Rica and the annual eighth-grade trip to Washington D.C.. At first much of the blogging was individually driven by me. Over the past year, however I was able to shift content creation into the student's hands with a little help from Google Voice.

The concept was simple. While it can be difficult to get kids to sit, think and write during a field trip surrounded by friends in foreign places, asking students to reflect on their experiences with (of all things) their cell phones was a slamdunk. So before the trip I registered a Google voice account and, when the time was right, asked students to call the number and reflect on their experience in a recorded voicemail.

Google Voice is great in that it allows all recorded messages to be shared either as a link or as an embedded audio player. So when hotspots were available or a web café nearby I was able to quickly embed the student recordings onto the blog, publish and carry on with the day! Click on the player below for a perfect example: Kerry and Emily environmental impact reflections on a Crocodile / Wildlife tour experience along the Rio Tarcoles near Jaco, Costa Rica. (The full blog post of the experience can be found here.)

Should I have the opportunity to travel with middle or high school students again, my hope is to further diversify the student blogging experience with the help of twitter. By assigning a hashtag to the field trip and asking students to upload a reflective comments or photographs with their phones parents far away will get a better glimpse of their child's unique perspective to the journey and the process of student reflection will be more shared and dispersed.

Experiment and Play on Science Expo Day

2011-06-23T17:36:00.001-04:00

There is one day every year at Parker Middle School when normal routine and general ed classes are cast aside to dedicate four uninterrupted hours of our 180 day schedule to just one subject: Science.

This year fellow Earth Science teacher, Connie Quackenbush and I broke from our usual set of mini-lessons and went with an activity that felt more like real science. Something messy. Something full of failures. Something with so many unforeseen challenges and obstacles that success sometimes seemed out of reasonable reach...

Rube Goldberg machines.

The concept is simple. Students were shown a few videos of popular Rube Goldberg machines in action from YouTube a week before Science Expo, and the criteria was outlined. Standards were established for levels of Rube Goldberg achievement, and students were given a chance to actively participate in the engineering design process as outlined here by PBS's Design Squad website.

Over the course of the week, students in groups of four or five planned elaborate machines designed to simply cause a marble to fall in to a cup. Students brought construction materials in from home and built their machines in small sections or all together at once to determine the reliability of their machine.

Disappointment set in as a task so simple suddenly became difficult to complete, never mind replicate multiple times! By the time Science Expo day had arrived students had built, failed, redesigned, left and returned to school with new building materials at least three times. The video below shares their final test construction and test phases in the hours and minutes before their machines were put into action and on display for their classmates to review and commend.

The handout provided to students to outline the project is shared here.

There is so much to be learned from this kind of experimental play: The acceptance of failure and the resolve to try again. Cooperation, reliance, and negotiation amongst peers to accomplish the task at hand. The stress of working on a definite deadline (there was always a timer clock running in the background, reminding students their work would be on display in due time!) Never mind the hands-on experience of grappling with momentum, transfer of energy, material properties, simple machines, and the difficulty surrounding being both accurate and precise!

Consider using Rube Goldberg machines in your classroom to get students enthusiastic about the engineering process and an easy to manage project based learning activity. I'd be curious to know how other teachers bring the engineering process into their student lives in a way that all kinds of educators (not just science teachers!) can participate?

Learning in the Hallways

2011-04-12T22:18:00.003-04:00

Today I had the unusual opportunity of being outside the classroom for much of the day. With students working on YouTube rock documentaries for my class, only a third of the students were in the science classroom while others spread out into empty rooms, hallways, nearby stairwells... anywhere a make-shift filming studio might be able to sprout. With the need to spread out came a need for me to be in multiple locations.

My increased mobility came as a result of gracious colleagues Lucy Driscoll and Peter Dolan, specialists who maintained order over groups that had to be more carefully observed, and Robyn Ferrazzani, our over-extended librarian who still made time to help students use the library macs and green screen in the Parker News Live space.

Curiously, a memo seemed to have been passed to the rest of the 8th grade teachers that today was time to get out of classroom and produce! Over the course of the day I lay witness the following inside and outside the classroom.

Students in small groups throughout the 8th grade hallways demonstrating their knowledge of rock origins and characteristics in ways ranging from documentaries to short poetry.

Adam Amster's social studies students transforming into a body of self-aggrandizing Mongols.

Individual students recording short narrations of introspective regret into iPod recorders for Steve Olivo's 'Romeo and Juliet' project.

Power-lunch sessions of small group work and study in the library and classroom areas (teachers clearly dedicating extra time to their students!)

Teachers showing students how to work with one another to learn academic knowledge of geology and ancient China as well as master technical skill with flip cameras / iPods.

Students singing about the (Qin?) dynasty to the tune of a Beatles song.

Students doing 90% of the thinking / experimenting / rehearsing / work.

Teachers facilitating a learning environment.

Getting students out of the classroom gave more than just an opportunity for students to produce more quality projects. The flexible learning space gave me the opportunity to see teachers with wildly ranging styles of instruction, age, experience, and comfort with technological tools put on a professional learning clinic of how to engage students in their education.

I should aim to get out in the hallways more often!

Playing Student at the Aquarium

2011-02-24T16:57:00.005-05:00

February break can be a curious time for the restless educator. With most friends fully engrossed in the work week and no family holidays or gatherings to speak of, free time can be in larger supply than usual. This year I took the liberty to put myself in the shoes of students for a few hours, taking in a short educator workshop at the New England Aquarium Harborside Learning Lab titled, "From Sea Stars to Rocky Shores: Tidepool Investigations." Three hours later I left with a few clever lesson ideas easily adaptable to my earth and space science class, a clearer understanding of the different types of inter-tidal habitats, and some very up close and personal experiences with the local harbor fauna.

Along for the journey were fellow educators, Norah Connolly, a librarian for the Somerville Public Schools and Sarah Guevin, an 8th grade ELA teacher in Everett. Both teachers, despite a limited science background, found the class to be engaging and untechnical, a style easily adaptable for their own classroom settings. In our first activity, we were required to read up on some material supplied by the aquarium about a previously unfamiliar habitable zone, the "Fouling Organism" region of our shorelines. These areas we often consider unsuitable or unclean for life, such as beneath creaky docks or rafts, are actually teaming with different types of plant, animal, and single-cell organisms like algae. Our poster, chalk full of puns and alliterations, was presented before our fellow attendees after their own presentations on sandy shorelines, rocky coastline and salt water marshes were likewise put on display.

By far the best activity was the "create-a-creature" lab where, after we had been exposed to the different kinds of habitats handled live organisms such as lobsters, crabs, sea slugs, mussels and more, we were asked to design our own new organims with a collection of various objects seemingly saved from being trashed. Our video below presents our three organisms and the "test" they were put through to determine their effectiveness in the environment designed in mind for.

While there was plenty of great science content learned, the most experience I took from the course was far and away being placed back in the role of a student. Being actively engaged in creating with the learned lessons and observed animal behavior patterns in mind was invigorating and exciting, reinforcing the need to give students time to create and apply their knowledge to something new, not simply spit back rote memory responses.

Photo taken by Norah Connolly

This particular workshop was excellent, I suspect mostly due to its hands-on nature and focus on getting educators to create for themselves. I am curious to know from others what kinds of experiences you have had in professional development situations. Good? Bad? What about each of those web lessons would you keep around and what would you like to flat out bag for the future?

Now Presenting: Our Universe!

2011-01-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

For students of any age, conceptualizing the shear magnitude of the universe is tough stuff, particularly when there is no "right answer" (astronomers are still working out plenty of the unknowns beyond the scope of our solar system!) Models play a big role in our astronomy unit. Moon phases, seasons, global wind and ocean currents; each requires a student to step beyond the scope of their physical world and examine simulations that better understand scientifically cyclical concepts.

The model universe project is a three-day process (outlined in web document here) designed to assess students understanding of the size and relationship between celestial objects in our universe. On day one students were given a portion of class to organize into groups of three and four, at which point they were asked framing questions designed to help them think critically about how to best address the sheer size and quantity of objects in the universe. For homework students were encouraged to do individual research on questions that arose and were provided online resources to peruse. Students were also encouraged to bring in "junk" the following day that they believed would be useful for model design.

On day two students were provided a detailed rubric citing the criteria for the model and presentation expectations. Students were also able to survey their current supplies, outline a plan for their model, and assign homework to one another addressing what would be needed for tomorrow.

Model construction and presentation day is arguably one of the most hectic and exciting days in the classroom. For 40 minutes students frantically construct their model, rehearse their presentation lines, and practice their flip camera one-take journeys through their universe. The clock is always on so that students practice prioritizing and time management while experiencing working under a sense of urgency throughout.

With student presentations captured in short, two minute video segments, the cameras were then collected and their videos posted to our YouTube channel the same day. Digital presentations such as these not only save educators the headache of storing large projects or carrying them from school to home and back, they provide a venue for their peers to give thoughtful, constructively critical feedback to one another. Come Monday, students will be spending science class accessing one another's blogs where their universe model videos have been carefully embedded and their own personal thoughts on the project articulated.

Check out the two videos embedded in this blog post for a sense of some of the better model presentations I receive. For a look at all groups universe models (good, bad, and one or two uglies!) visit the ParkerScience YouTube channel.

Cultivating Communities

2011-01-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

On January 6th, Parker's first ever Rock n' Roll Book Fair was held at the Burlington, Massachusetts Barnes & Noble. To bring more of the school and Reading community to the event our music teacher, Aaron Clark, ELA teachers Steve Olivo and Brian James, and their leading vocalist (me!) came out of talent show retirement and performed a five song set for our adoring, adolescent fans. The event brought hundreds of dollars to the aid of the Parker school library.

Perhaps more importantly, the event offered an opportunity for students, parents, administrators and teachers to come together and enjoy a time for us all to share a love for music and more personal side of ourselves overall. As librarian, Robyn Ferrazanni shared with me beforehand, the planning and excitement around the fair made the event much more of a community builder than a fundraiser. Students generated short video clips of our past performance for the Parker morning news show to publicize the event. Some students cajoled others to join them as "roadies" and carpool to Burlington. Better yet, a few student bands sprouted up in interest to join the event (in many cases outshining "Sean Collins and the FCAs!") By the time the show ended there was not a space in the Barnes & Noble's or neighboring Chili's parking lot to be found!

This past weekend I spent the day with a different kind of community. Four fellow Parker educators and I attended the School Reform Initiative's annual winter meeting in New York City. Despite mother nature's greatest efforts to thwart travel roughly 200 educators from across the nation came together to share student work, classroom dilemmas, and best practices with the goal of "strengthening our commitment to educational equity and excellence."

Rich experiences come from sharing work with educators both within and outside our school systems. With the unassuming eyes and ears of my assigned Critical Friends Group, or "CFG," I was able to openly discuss the challenges facing my eighth grade team and school with our FLEX writing initiative and received the type of thoughtful feedback that comes with fresh eyes and more diverse perspectives from beyond our own school walls. A session with fellow facilitative leaders also proved fruitful, helping all of the participants look inward, identify our strengths and goals, and set action plans for one another.

http://schoolreforminitiative.org

On the bus ride home I found my mind swimming with different ideas to share with fellow teachers back home as well as personal charges to strengthen my 8th grade team, school-based CFG, and school as a whole. I started my action plan today, asking teachers (and administrators) to brainstorm and share new ways in which we can include students in the school's community and development. It is my hope that we will take one or two of our ideas and implement them in the near future after more carefully developing the idea through an SRI protocol.

The day after the book fair my rockin' colleagues and I received a number of compliments from students and teachers who were surprised and impressed by our willingness and confidence to step into the limelight and share our personal passions. With CFGs, a culture of sharing and critical, constructive feedback aims to strengthen our confidence in our teaching practice and better our schools and its educators. Now that's something we can all jam to.

Scouting and Students

2011-01-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

I walked into the halls of the Parker Middle School a day before classes resumed this Sunday. While I could have spent time preparing for the first day of 2011 or grading a set of tests I had forgotten on my desk a week before my intentions were strictly personal. Two of my students from my first year of teaching, Jared Beaulieu and Nicholas Staffier had completed their Eagle Scout rank requirements and had invited me to their Eagle Scout Court of Honor.

Over the course of 90 minutes, short speeches and ceremonial charges extolled the virtues of scouting onto the audience, preaching to the choir so to speak with many fellow scouting families and friends in attendance. I couldn't help but listen to these speeches tuned with the ear of a public educator, and thinking about how many of these principles and foundations of academia were right in line with the types of characteristics and habits we aim to impress into our students each day.

The leadership roles and account of responsibility bestowed on the shoulder's of young scouts.
The stars of "truth" and "knowledge" alongside the fleur-de-lis (truly aimed at the heart of science teachers!)
The characteristic of 'trustworthiness' in our never-ending battle against plagiarism.

In addition, to become an Eagle Scout one must complete a series of merit badges that include citizenship to our community, nation, and world, as well as environmental science, personal management, and family life. Anyone paying attention to current events knows that we could all use lessons in maintaining financial stability (see housing crisis, bank failures), understanding how our nation governs and operates, the positive impact on our local economy and environment by shopping and eating locally, or the need to think and understand our place globally (see economy, environment, politics.)

With so many digital distractions at the fingertips of our children and teenagers, connecting with nature and the world around you has become a smaller and smaller piece of the average youth's life. But scout troops like 728 in Reading aim to bring their members out among nature and away from the distractions of teenage life so they may become more comfortable with the natural world. All the while these scouts will practice and hone their leadership skills in a "boy-run troop", simultaneously making them better individuals and collaborators.

With so much to be gleaned from scouts, I ponder what it would be like if every student climbed through such an organization? Yes, scouting is still rooted in a 'hierarchical structure' comparable to long standing Fortune 500 companies or militaries. But with all the educational reform around having 'student-oriented' classrooms and preparing them to be 'global citizens' while creating curriculum that is relevant to the world around them, what's not to like?

I was delighted to be a guest to the court of honor and was reminded of my desire to give back to an organization that gave me so many opportunities. The scoutmaster will be sending in a merit badge counselor application with his son (and my current student) to school tomorrow. I hope to try my hand as an Environmental Science or Geology merit badge counselor to get my feet wet and see how it goes!

Eagle Scout rank badge image courtesy of U. S. Scouting Service Project, Inc. Websites

Reflections on 2010

2010-12-27T17:55:00.000-05:00

The holidays provide me an excellent time for self-reflection. With the added pressures this year of a reorganized team, the new FLEX writing initiative, and the increased workload surrounding the EcoClub and its nineteen new members, I have had less opportunity to reflect and blog as much as I'd like.

But with less than a week to go before 2011 arrives, and a solid foot and a half of snow on my doorstep keeping me are rooted indoors, I take this opportunity to reflect on some accomplishments this year, and some noticeable disappointments that need to be recorded to ensure they are retooled in the future.

The differentiated opportunities provided this year through the early phases of the astronomy unit were positive steps in the right direction toward student-driven learning and giving students space to create products that demonstrate understanding in ways they see fit. The enrollment of our librarian in the process not only improved our students access to quality resources but also expanded the space in which students could work and reduced the student-to-teacher ratio to a level that allowed for more interaction and feedback with students. It is important to note, however, that more check-ins do need to be incorporated into the time line with the higher level students as not all of their productions were of as high quality and demonstration of understanding as I would have liked.

At the beginning of the year the decision to adjust the sequence of the curriculum was made in good faith that such a decision would provide more opportunities for curriculum overlap, allowing review of topics in a looping style of learning giving students opportunities to make multiple connections to the curriculum over the year. Unfortunately, some of those activities put off until later (such as the temperature lab and heat transfer demonstrations) proved to be essential skill and knowledge reinforcements for some activities moved to the front. It will be important for Connie and I to evaluate the level of understanding our students have at the conclusion of this year compared to previous ones and determine if this year's sequence proved advantageous or not. If it does we will have to spend some time this summer determining how to make the sequence better address the "essential skills and knowledge" referenced earlier while remaining structured for improved reinforcement throughout the year.

The SLANT method (courtesy of "Teach Like a Champion") for bringing student attention to a heightened level has proven to be very successful. Overall however, the ambitious goal to include more of these optimal learning techniques has only been a modest success. Lesson learned: it is difficult to change behavior patterns, whether you are adjusting your own or a student's! Of the many techniques learned the one I would most like to add in 2011 is the "No Opt Out" technique. This technique may help me reconnect the four or five students who have proven to be the most disengaged over the course of the year and have taken more of a backseat in the classroom. It is more imperative than ever that I bring these students back on board with the significance of scientific thinking in their future workplaces and the increased implications of high stakes science testing they will encounter at Reading High.

Student Reflections on Consumption

2010-12-07T16:02:00.001-05:00

In October I wrote a blog post sharing how "everyone's an english teacher" on my eighth grade team at the Parker Middle School. Since that early October blog post the format of our initiative has changed, but the goals have remained the same. At the conclusion of first-quarter we divided students by writing skill level so that the ELA teacher could focus on our neediest writers while the rest of us could differentiate our expectations for the rest of the team.

Over the past two weeks I've given students the opportunity to explore their understanding of consumption and how we might categorize ourselves as consumers. Two activities opened a portal for discussion: a sustainability-rooted game called, "The Common Good" where students must slowly take tokens from a community pool while allowing them to replicate and 'renew' over time to collectively win, and the reading of a Boston Globe article titled, "Community Standards" by Bina Venkataraman about self-imposed fishing regulations by local fisherman.

Students were then given four consumer categories: hoarders, consumers, conservers, and preservers, and asked to brainstorm why each type of consumer may take (or not take) resources in the fashion that they do. The classroom summarization of these categories can be found on the classroom blog here. Students were then asked to answer the following writing prompt on their blog:

How would you describe yourself as a consumer? Support this description of yourself with evidence of your consuming habits. Share your personal opinion regarding consumers from another category and why you feel their style of consuming should be encouraged or why such a style of consuming is unhealthy for them, their community, and/or the world.

Overall I feel like the proverbial ball is rolling on helping students gain a more global perspective of consumption and their own place in the resource puzzle. Some students, like Amanda, Sam, and Maria gave introspective looks into their lifestyles that left a powerful image of our middle schoolers lives in a commercialized world.

Maria and Sam's effective use of visual language also give evidence of success towards having students write more effective "grabbers" at the beginning of their blog posts to draw in their readers. A full list of our current expectations and grading scheme for our students can be seen here. It was also apparent that there remains a great deal of work to be done, particularly around such simple actions as proofreading or (even easier) running spellchecker before publication.

Image "Coins" courtesy of xJasonRogersx uploaded August 15th, 2009 and available through Creative Commons attribution licensing.

Moodle Share Fair

2010-11-04T17:53:00.000-04:00

This evening I participated as a coach at Reading Public Schools first ever Moodle share fair. In the room was a mix of a dozen teachers and administrators from the Reading middle schools and high school. I had been asked by our instructional technologist, the great Meg Powers, to participate as a coach to help teachers new to online learning communities get their sites up and running.

The design tools of Moodle are very similar to those seen when using wikis or blog sites. Editing can be flipped back and forth between WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format and HTML. Some newer members asked how Moodle was different to online communities like Ning? Learning Curve Consortium leader, Romeo Marquis responded by sharing how Moodle was designed "specifically for education," offering the tools not only familiar to Ning users, but also private discussion forums for student discussion, customizable assessment builders with immediate feedback, online dropboxes, and grade tracker/report cards just to name a few.

For me personally, using Moodle has been a slow start. My Moodle site has a set of half-completed units with discussion boards and assessments that have since passed their usefulness as the content was covered over September and October. Moodle is not to blame... I've been using musselmanscience.com more than ever before to post daily content and the student blogs on my google reader have been a regular place. As high school technology specialist, April Goran noted, "Moodle and other platforms are just like mac and PC users, people come to have their own preference."

There is still hope for me on the horizon though. Last year, social studies teacher, Anne Low and I embarked on an ambitious research project with plenty of technology embedded within. Last years wiki seemed to work well, but students submitting work periodically proved a challenge as drop folders and file names filled up and became cumbersome. With Moodle, much of those tangles would quickly disappear and feedback can be placed online in a central location for students to read privately, as opposed to consuming valuable class time to conference face-to-face.

It is my personal opinion that Moodle is a nice forum for teachers new to online learning communities who haven't yet already found their comfort zone using other online education tools. I have heard great reviews from math teachers, Kathy Favazza and Chris Freiberg regarding Moodle's customer service too. Chris shared today how Moodle administrators and tech services setup their classroom to allow students to upload and download previously unfamiliar files from their graphing calculators! Still, both admit there is a great deal of work leading up to publishing your Moodle page. Bringing one's own curriculum onto the digital landscape takes time, and adapting them to use technology in the ways that improve student performance and understanding can take even more!

Everyone is an English Teacher

2010-10-07T19:35:00.002-04:00

One moment of writing by juliejordanscott on flickr

Establishing goals? Easy. The challenge is in the realization. No truth could be more apparent than in education where high-bars are continuously set for schools (I don't have to name them) and failure is not considered an acceptable option.

Just two weeks ago an ambitious goal was established by my team teachers and I, stating:

All students will improve their writing by developing an opinion, incorporating descriptive language, supporting opinion with evidence and producing publishable bodies of work while maintaining a blog that will document their work over the course of the school year. Students will create a reflective portfolio and at the conclusion of the school year students will identify three areas of growth through the review of their work. Portfolio work will include all subjects.

Coming up with the goal was the easy part. An administrative initiative declared that "FLEX," a course period meeting every other day, (previously dedicated to additional content instruction) be used to help students, "become better writers." What self-respecting educator doesn't want their students to establish their own, more thoughtful and colorful voice in written language? The heavy lifting comes once we dug below the surface and put such a charge into practice. Immediately some questions began to surface:

How do all team teachers take an equal share of responsibility for achieving such a goal?
How do we maintain equal expectations and evaluation policies across the team?
How do we get teachers who see better writing as a bi-product of their student's growth in their content areas to teach such skills as the primary focus?

The answers come in the value of team common planning time, teams of teachers looking at student work, and having student writing adhere to "focused correction areas" or FCAs.

Such a curt response may leave one thinking me to be naive or pie-in-the-sky. But considering the modest yet appreciable gains the team has seen moving towards this end of improved-writing facilitation, high hopes and expectations are being maintained for the rest of the academic year.

Notably, each teacher on the team has shared content deliverable by all team teachers that has included pre-writing steps and direction towards producing a final publication on each student's blog. Such content has thus far included observing President Obama's address to the students of America and examining one's own sense of what is wealth through a unit, entitled "Material World."

The team has also agreed to set aside common planning time to bring student work to the table, enabling each teacher to share how they might grade a student's work and then calibrate their expectations accordingly with the rest of the team teachers. To limit teachers from becoming entangled in the many facets of good writing (spelling, punctuation, syntax, etc.) the evaluating is performed strictly on the FCAs established by the English teacher. A list that starts with a few, fundamental rules for writing (Thoughtful title, more than one body paragraph, an interesting grabber to begin... did mine work?) and then becomes more complex as student writing consistently achieves all FCAs put forth.

So suddenly we have four "English" or, to be fair "writing" teachers on our team. I wonder how others would tackle such a writing initiative within a team setting. What kind of successes have others had in similar authentic "team-teaching" situations?

Expanding My Boundaries through Blogs

2010-10-02T14:21:00.000-04:00

This year's Expanding Boundaries course was recently asked what blogs they are currently following on their Google Reader. I decided I'd take the opportunity to share my own in hopes they might pick a few up themselves and begin sharing their opinions of them with me. Because there are more than five blogs on my RSS feed I can not read every article of every blog so I do tend to browse the titles to find pieces that pique my interest. Here are a few that I tend to read more frequently than the others...

"Class Struggle" by Jay Mathews - Washington Post editor who frequently shares his opinions on education reform news, research, and general debate. He can make my blood boil at times which is probably why I like to read him... no one wants to read something they simply 100% agree with!

"Connect!" - The official Calgary Science School blog page sharing their project-based learning investigations and results. Sometimes PBL can be tough for educators young and old to visualize. One can gather alot from model work, particularly when its in your field of study!

"MeTA Musings" by Matt Townsley, a mathematics educator focused on sharing his classroom successes through "standards based grading" as well as the integration of technology into mathematics classrooms.

"Dangerously Irrelevant" by Scott McLeod, the co-creator of the "Did You Know? (Shift Happens)" videos (the most recent update from 2009 embedded below) and a passionate blogger regarding "technology, leadership, and the future of schools."

Lastly, the "Planet Money" podcasts and blog are a favorite way for me to try to make sense of an economic world very foreign to a former geology major like myself. Their anecdotal stories that stretch around the world give perspective to the interconnectedness of our nation's economy with those around the globe and a glimpse into the lives of the makers and shakers of Wall Street.

Personalized Best Practices

2010-08-07T17:45:00.000-04:00

Over the past few weeks I've been reading, "Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on a Path to College" by Doug Lemov of "Uncommon Schools." I've really appreciated this textbook of sorts as its interwoven two things I love, data supported methods that achieve student learning and the use of digital media to support student achievement (the book has a CD that shows recordings of the best-practices discussed being used in the classroom.)

With this in mind, I gave pause while recently reading a blog post by John Spencer of "Spencer's Scratchpad" titled, "The 50 Essential Rules for Being an Amazing Teacher," the script of which can be found below...

If you look close enough, you'll see past the white-washed lies and realize that there are no formulas, no rules, no magic recipes. People will make a fortune selling snake oil to teachers in the guise of offering "resources." Don't get me wrong. We need to share stories and ideas. We need to be philosophical and practical. I subscribe to blogs where people share some great advice that has changed my approach to teaching. But if a man in a suit tries to convince you that the answer is in a system or a program, please run.

Did you get it? Initially I didn't either until I read some of the comments, and realized the words were merely masked with some clever text coloration. The message is clear. There are lots of books, blogs, voices and resources sharing new lessons that "encourage student-inquiry" or "differentiate instruction easily" but ultimately the success of these methods and programs have a lot to do with the teacher's ability to implement such kinds of curriculum, practices or classroom cultures. To believe that there is one (or forty-nine) "right ways" to be a stellar teacher and an ability or inability to implement such a way measures a teachers overall effectiveness is foolish.

What's really important is that teachers continue to self-assess what works and doesn't work in their classroom, find and implement the methods, styles, and best-practices that will fit their personalities, and work to improve, refine, or remove the practices and pitfalls that hurt and/or fail to improve student achievement. Belonging to a professional learning communities and more careful formative assessment analysis are just two ways this type of work can be done. How else do you assess your lessons, procedures and general practice? How have such assessments led to changes in your classroom?

Using Social Media in the Classroom

2010-07-03T11:20:00.000-04:00

Last month I was privileged and honored to be interviewed by Sarah Nathan, reporter for the Massachusetts Teacher's Association's magazine, "MTA Today" regarding their July/August's headline article on the use of social media for teaching and learning. The article, co-written by Nathan and Meg Secatore, highlights social media tools for professional development, access to educational resources, and as a way to have students collaborate and learn in an online environment.

During my interview with Nathan, our conversation was focused primarily on using social media in the classroom setting. We talked mostly about Edmodo, a "micro-blogging platform" that was first introduced to me by Steve Olivo, my team's English/Language Arts teacher who shares a mutual commitment to educating our students about how to share and interact in an ever-changing digital landscape through our already.

For those of you who have been directed here in the interest to learn more about using Edmodo and social media in your classroom, please consider checking out these blog post by Steve, Reading social studies teacher Kerry Gallagher, and I regarding our experiences with Edmodo.

Microblogging During an Assembly by Steve Olivo

Facebook in the High School Classroom by Kerry Gallagher

Enhancing Classroom Videos using Edmodo(?) by Sean Musselman

What Would a Social Media Middle School Elective Look Like? by Sean Musselman

MusselmanPD: Social Networking Websites - More Than Just Narcissism by Sean Musselman

This coming year, Steve, Kerry and I will all be using the Moodle platform as an adjunct piece of our classroom experience. One thing I look forward to using is the Moodle discussion boards, a feature that can be found for free to Massachusetts educators through the Massachusetts DESE's online network for education known as "MassONE" with admittedly less customization abilities. It is my goal to expand my use of social media for learning next year in this forum and a process I will surely be reflecting on right here.

Stories of Science for an Authentic Audience

2010-06-14T12:10:00.002-04:00

Eighth graders can be a tough crowd to please with graduation on the horizon. Mix in state standardized tests along with a four-day class trip to Washington D.C. and you have more students checked out than books at your local library.

This year I wrapped up the school year with kamishibais, traditional storyboards that originated in ancient Japan (great interdisciplinary tie-in!) Students were asked to create their own children-oriented kamishibais that included a simple earth or space science lesson from the school year. Initially confused by this task, I converted the children's book, "The Falling Raindrop" into a kamishibai format and read the book to the class. I then distributed the project overview and rubric to the students for their review.

Students had about one and a half weeks to construct their kamishibai from brainstorm to final product. During that time our LLD instructor made contact with the nearby kindergarten teacher (they are conveniently related!) and arranged an hour's time for our students to take the short walk over to the school to share their stories with an authentic 5 and 6 year old audience.

The power of an authentic audience reared its head immediately. Eighth graders previously coasting to the inevitable finish line began to work with a heightened sense of urgency, detailing illustrations, fine-tuning the story-line, reworking their vocabulary to be more "kid-friendly." Some students, just days away from the deadline, announced to me, "Mr. Musselman, I need to start over, my book just isn't good enough." Nice.

Admittedly, the kamishibai projects scientific value is limited (though there is something to be said about asking a student to synthesize their knowledge to something digestable for five-year olds.) But what might be lacked in scientific rigor is more than made up for in the many intangibles brought out through such a project. The need for thoughtful design was critical from early outlining to putting the final product together in a way that can be read easily to students. Presentation skills were at a premium and worked on over the days leading up to our trip with emphasis on reading rhythm, enunciation, and dramatic voice.

The trip to the elementary school was a huge success. Kindergarten and first-grade teachers alike raved about how well our students interacted with their kids and the quality of their stories and illustrations. They were impressed at how well our teenagers patiently listened to the little ones experienced an audience of their own, reading books from their desks when time allowed. But the greatest compliment came later when a thank you email anecdotely added, "after [the eighth-graders] left one student said, 'That really makes me feel like writing and drawing my own book.' "

Awesome. This project will undoubtedly become an annual experience for my students. Check out the videos below to see a few of our digitized kamishibais.

Research Project Podcasts

2010-06-09T17:11:00.000-04:00

For years the 8th grade research project had been dead.

A nearly forgotten piece of Parker Middle School lore, the veteran social studies teacher on my team longed for its return, lamenting that the shifted attention to mathematics due to AYP goals and district initiatives had cut out the time necessary for such an endeavor.

Or had it?

At the beginning of the year my team broke ranks with our 8th grade teaching counterparts and set off an ambitious goal: Resurrect the research project. At least partly. To be fair, our AYP commitment was still very much in our minds. Ultimately, the team of 96 students was broken into three groups, two smaller groups of students struggling in ELA and Math would receive remedial treatment to help boost their core skills. The remaining half of the team was left to me and the same social studies teacher mentioned above. Their goal? Investigate a topic of personal interest in society or the environment and create a podcast to be published and shared with their fellow students.

Students selected topics ranging from abortion rights and gun control to the consequences of deforestation and rapid population growth. Every other day students spent a period researching, outlining, tracking resources and sharing with one another using the social bookmarking website, delicious. The directions and general flow of the project was outlined on a wiki that students logged on to each day to follow the next step in their research process.

I recently blogged about the power of publishing for an "audience greater than one," or "AGTO" if you were looking for one more education acronym in our 140 character world. Today we finally took time out to have all of our students on team survey some of the podcasts with topics (or publishers) that interested them. The reactions of the students who could hear their podcasts playing on other students computers were priceless. Some show tremendous pride in the form of big smiles when students commented on their creative format or informative content. Others were embarrassed red, aware that the quality of their work did not match up quite to those of others, (a powerful lesson... we do live in a competitive world!) but mostly because they were still too immature to stand the sound of their own voice.

To hear some of our students podcasts, follow the link to our examples page here.

Blogging Field Trips

2010-06-06T16:02:00.001-04:00

Over the past two years I've made recording student field trips a priority. The method of this has changed as I've experimented over time with video journaling (or vlogs as Karen Janowski once referred to them) and blogging. As somebody who spent a lot of time with a camera in hand over high school and college capturing more personal experiences, it wasn't hard to make the transition to taking photographs and capturing video with a student and parent audience in mind.

This year's trip to Washington D.C. has been my best experience to date. Part of this had to do with the consistent internet access at the hotel, allowing me to upload many pictures and videos each evening or morning to recap the day's events. More significantly, my "new" found ability to post to blogger via email gave me the unhindered capability to post messages and images on the fly to my audience of other Parker students, teachers, and families back home.

parkerindc.blogspot.com was a tremendous success in terms of communication, with over 6000 views and 600 "unique visitors" (I suspect the counter treats all mobile phone connections as unique visitors, setting the actual unique visitors count significantly lower.) The blog consistently took me an extra hour before or after travel each day to post the larger content, but only a minute or two while on the bus or waiting in one of D.C.'s many lines to post simple photographs and brief comments.

During the trip I was left thinking to myself, "how does this benefit my students?" Sure they might enjoy browsing the photos after the trip, but with many of them taking photographs all along the way I suspect they will be content with sharing their own pictures with one another on facebook. One thing I am kicking myself over is the missed opportunity to share the blogging experience with them, particularly those with smart-phones who could have just as easily posted their photos to the blog as I did my own. Such an experience in their lives now might make them more prone to documenting their own adventures in the future as I have come to do with my educational career here. Still, I am left wondering how I can put more recording and reflection of such travels into the hands of our students so that they might have a more meaningful experience from the trip and beyond. To those reading this post, what other angles can be taken to enhance learning through field trip recordings? Are you familiar with any great examples you might be willing to share?

Lessons Learned from an Audience Greater than One

2010-05-26T20:44:00.000-04:00

Over the course of the year the Parker Middle School's Instructional Leadership Team or "ILT" has been leading a push for students (and teachers!) to create for "an audience greater than one." To culminate the year's efforts our faculty participated in an open house with over a dozen teachers welcoming their fellow educators into their rooms to share and explain their own students' efforts to create public products.

"Microphone" by hiddedevries, Flickr Creative Commons Uploaded June 23, 2007

During a brief presentation before the open house began a few ILT members shared some feedback from students regarding their own thoughts on producing for an audience greater than one. Students noted that an audience greater than one, "forced us to write better" knowing it would be seen by more people than just their teachers. Others expressed more pride in their work and the joy of receiving feedback from family and peers. Angela Connor and Margaret Moulton wrote an excellent piece extolling the virtues of student writing from an educator's perspective for an audience greater than one in a September, 2000 article of "The English Journal."

The presenters also shared cool feedback where students expressed some resentment to the charge, suggesting writing for an audience greater than one, "makes me write what I think my peers want to read and not what I really think." This led to a dialogue I had later with an educator who didn't see this as a negative but instead a positive. "Good," he said, "They should be thinking about that, because when we create work for a larger audience we have to be thoughtful of how they will perceive our thoughts."

I couldn't have agreed with him more. For a student to recognize that not all their writing and thinking should be made public is an important lesson in itself. There have been times when I've failed to remember this simple lessons myself (see "Tear Down the Walls," a blog post in which I sounded off my frustrations surrounding my school's struggles with wireless restrictions and connections. At the time of publication I failed to consider how some hard-working IT friends and educators might react to the post, leading to a future post titled, "Frustrations Revisited.") My hope is that our students can learn this lesson (much as the student who produced the cool feedback did) and recognize that not everything we do/say/think is meant to be shared in the public universe. Furthermore, we should work to out-do ourselves by pointing students toward the option to write freely for themselves in a private space such as a journal in an effort to help them further practice expressing themselves in written word while exploring their inner feelings and thoughts.

Virtual High School Farewell Address

2010-05-19T21:45:00.001-04:00

This past week I wrapped up a ten week intensive training course to become a certified Virtual High School (VHS) teacher. The course ran my cohorts and I through weeks of discussion boards through VHS's new "Distance2Learn" or D2L platform, a privatized, secure, online classroom setting complete with collaborative graphic organizers, blog and wiki platforms, online assessments, and dropboxes. For a final assignment we were asked to generate a "farewell speech" to post to our class blog. Not to be outdone, I personally recorded my farewell address using Garageband to give it a more personal feel (and to ensure people would actually pay attention to what I said!) The audio file can be found below along with a written transcript for those who find my voice grating... or possess hearing disabilities.

When I graduated Melrose High School in 2001 our class was blessed with the label of the first graduating class of the new millennium, a claim still disputed by the class of 2000, but no matter. My best friend, and vale-dictorian of the class, Dan Bachovchin, left us with a speech in which his message was simple: RAG short for Remember, Appreciate, Grow.

Almost ten years have passed and those words have not lost their meaning to me, yet their context has somehow changed. As I virtually stand here before you in a ceremony without walls, diplomas, cheering, tassels or mortarboards, I ask you fellow educators to RAG as we venture forth to lead a burgeoning generation of students full of inquiry, enthusiasm, and an insatiable capacity to learn.

REMEMBER the great lessons taught us by our investigations and discussions. The best practices for virtual learning. The ways to build an online community that is warm, thoughtful, and collaborative in nature. The fine art of molding a conversation online playing the role of participant instead of principal voice. Remember the need for pain-staking attention to assessment and the value of well crafted rubrics and expectations. The need to insist on the citation of sources for both educational content and elements of style. The importance of maintaining a support staff tuned to the needs of a variety of learners the world over, and centering our classrooms around our students.

APPRECIATE the vast, virtual world we enter together. The internet is commonly framed as a place of mistrust and even danger to those who have not yet learned how to master its digital frontier. But to the well trained educator, the internet and virtual classroom can be a safe place where student’s great potential can be unlocked thanks to the endless quantity and variety of different resources at their disposal. Appreciate how web 2.0 tools can unlock higher order thinking from students who might otherwise shy away from sharing their voice, and the powerful ability to bring our students together in creative, collaborative ways they had not previously been able to.

Last, but most importantly, GROW as virtual educators and as professional learners. As we close an introductory chapter in our lives as online instructors and collaborators, it is critical that we see this moment in our lives not as a capstone but as a foundation to better teaching and learning. The online learning world will continue to be a place that evolves at a breakneck pace, with new tools, resources, and accompanying challenges. Our students will enter our classrooms with different experiences in both their real and virtual worlds that we will forever be required to come to understand and adapt to so we may best reach them. Therefore we must remain dynamic and not static, open to the use of tools that do not yet exist, hungry to know more about the ever changing landscape of our trade.

Remember, Appreciate, and Grow. Three words that have never lost meaning to me, yet have come to mean something completely different. I bid you a fond farewell but also a timely reminder that in today’s flat world, staying in communication with one another is more easily done than ever before. You can always find me on Twitter @MrMusselman, or via email through mr.musselman@gmail.com, no matter where I am in the real or virtual world. Best wishes, salutations, and congratulations!

The Educator's Role in Promoting Cyber-Ethics

2010-05-02T20:09:00.001-04:00

On Friday I had the privilege of joining Reading administrators at a "superintendents' forum" hosted by the University of Massachusetts - Lowell's Office of School Partnerships. The forum, ultimately more of a presentation, was titled "Cyber-ethics, Cyber-bullying, and Cyber-safey." Dr. David Whittier, Educational Media & Technology Professor at Boston University facilitated the event. During the presentation data from various studies performed in the UK and United States. I walked away from the presentation with the following main ideas:

There is a large disconnect between what adults perceive to be the risks faced by students using computers and what students consider to be the greatest risks.
Concerns such as online-predation and revealing too much personal information online are behaviors presented by the media as high-risk, but the dangers of such behaviors are vastly over-exaggerated when compared to their actual risk level.
Online harrassment, such as cyber-bullying is the number one risk students face when they interact on the web.

The recent events in South Hadley have brought bullying on all levels into the spotlight as a serious problem our students face that can have dramatic effects on their social-emotional stability and personal growth. Sadly, it was noted by Whittier that students are more likely to bully online than they were face-to-face. It was also noted students who bully face-to-face are more likely to bully online than their peers. So what are educators and administrators to do? Whittier suggested educators must "develop lesson plans and other opportunities that help youth develop online ethics." Unfortunately, when polled only 22% of educators feel comfortable facilitating such curriculum.

We as educators often try to develop an atmosphere in our classrooms where students follow a proper code of conduct. Typically such behavior is modeled by the teacher, and out of bounds behavior is quickly reprimanded and corrected. Since students are likely to be more positive online community members when they participate positively in a face to face community, it only makes sense that reinforcing such behaviors in the classroom will lead to better behaviors online.

But to help students develop they cyber-behaviors, what educators really must do is begin bringing their classroom communities online and modeling positive behaviors there too. I have been fortunate enough to work with fellow educators such as Steve Olivo who do just that. Having student read, write, and comment on student blogs provide practice for appropriate online peer interaction while backchanneling class presentations and lessons in online classroom discussions help students make the connection between face-to-face and online classrooms as one.

Still, as Whittier reported, the greatest influence on students' cyber-ethics is the proper monitoring and modeling of their behavior at home, stating "addressing psycho-social problems, especially at home is probably necessary." Ultimately how much energy and resources a school system puts forward to such community outreach programs is a question left in the hands of superintendents and something we classroom teachers have little control over.

Undercover Boss and Student Feedback

2010-04-12T19:25:00.000-04:00

Rarely do I find myself watching reality television, but last night I was caught up watching, "Undercover Boss" on CBS and left the closing credits with some gripping reminders of how important and powerful recognizing students can be. The episode centered around Chris McCann, President of 1-800-Flowers and his interactions with loyal, long-time employees of four different local stores. A summary of the show can be found here.

It is safe to say that many classrooms in our nation's schools are still operated in a top-down, teacher driven fashion that has hierarchical parallels to the business structure of many corporations. We all at some point in the day utilize on our bestowed educator powers as authoritative figures and those to be modeled and admired. while watching McCann reveal his true identity, followed by heaping great praise on his 1-800-Flowers ground troops, I was (admittedly) gripped by their response to his positive feedback. They were stunned, unable to articulate their appreciation in words, instead reduced to wide, beaming smiles and salty, but nevertheless sweet tears.

Sometimes when giving students private, positive feedback I am surprised by how uncomfortable they become or shocked they are, seemingly unable to gracefully receive thoughtfully worded praise. Maybe it's the fact that our students are so focused on the never ending red ink numbers and letters that they forget what it means to be truly commended. Or maybe it just boils down to human nature and the importance of establishing empathetic connections with fellow man and woman. Whatever the reason, "Undercover Boss" reminded me of the importance in taking time out from the daily classroom minutiae to give honest, positive feedback that builds stronger bonds and relationships between our students. Just as many of the lower-level employees left McCann's office glowing, so too do our students when we take the time to recognize them as individuals and show them what they are doing really matters. This positive aura can lead to so many great things down the road ranging from a renewed student confidence in theirselves to better classroom management and respect.

Oh, and on the subject of empathy, shop manager of the top grossing retail location, "Dee" is a walking example of the importance of empathy and building relationships through genuine care... but that's an entirely separate blog post for another day!

Student Feedback from Dynamic Earth Project

2010-04-04T17:07:00.002-04:00

After two weeks of student-driven research, planning, and production the results to the Dynamic Earth Project were shared and were (to be completely blunt) ... disappointing. With the exception of a few, productions were typical and mundane. Many groups, given the charge to create something in a form they had total control over, elected instead to follow the path of most familiarity and least resistance (be it a powerpoint or posterboard.) Many students who interpreted dynamic as "tech-savvy" were disappointed when their websites and wiki grades were returned with mixed scores, many failing to grasp what really makes digital media so captivating and powerful, creating instead something to the like of a digital textbook.

Worse still is my suspicion that a lack of depth of knowledge was achieved. Besides many groups recitation of basic facts and an inability to ask their peers insightful questions during the presentations, the reflection blog post by student, Hannah L. summed it up best:

I do not think that this project was worth a week and a half of school. I learned some stuff from my researching, but I don’t think that a lot of kids learned anything from this. From watching other people’s presentations, no one even knew anything about the information in their presentations. I thought this was odd because “everyone” worked on the presentations “together”. Which obviously was not true. My group was pretty good, although we had a few slackers. Our class didn’t gain a lot of anything from this project, so if I were the teacher I wouldn’t do it again.

But this weekend I was given some heart-lifting feedback from my students as I reviewed their own opinions of the project through their reflection blog posts. In their own words:

"One thing I learned from the project was to make do with what you have. It was like we were builders who were on a budget." -Kevin F.

"The kids, who constantly need to be pushed to do their work, didn’t do too well. I think that is good, not because I like to see kids do badly but because they were taught that sometimes they person that needs to tell them what to do is themselves. ... his project, to me, gets an A for a grade when it comes to learning things like independence and team work." -Jared D.

"What I learned other than science was how to be a manager of something, knowing what has to get done to get to our goals. This something that is good to have experience with beyond just science and school projects. Also, this was the first time we had to worry about making a project that was not boring instead of just getting the right information on it." -Dave M.

"Some things I learned after doing this project is that if you don’t hold your side of the bargain your whole group will fail." -Ian W.

"I get sick to my stomach and feel like we might not get a good grade. However, the whole point of the group is to work together. This project helped me learn how to balance these things. Not only did I learn a lot about myself, but I learned a lot about my group and the way each of them work." -Maddie D.

The blog post by Rachel F. was particularly lifting. Like many of the above students, there was no mention of the science learned, but a great amount of thought went into the experience as a whole and its application to her future as a collaborator and creator.

So where do we go from here? The project structure students are clearly seeing the benefit of and I feel it is a responsibility to all of us educators to give students such opportunities. I am, however, still required to bring students to a proficient level of understanding about their earth and space. So where is the middle? Should I even aim for it and simply keep it as is? I suspect next year I can achieve greater results by biting off less curriculum, having the project focus instead on just one of the three main criteria such as the local evidence of weathering and erosion, something that can't simply be ripped from the pages of a book and pasted to a website. I'm wondering what other suggestions my PLN might have to offer as well! Please let me know what you think!

The "Dynamic" Earth Project

2010-03-19T22:45:00.000-04:00

Fellow earth and space science teacher, Connie Quackenbush and I came back from February break charged to shake up our 'business as usual' approach to an upcoming unit on earth processes and their effect on the earthen landscape. Instead a series of fairly controlled demonstrations and interactive activities we elected to loosen up the reins on our students and allow them to explore and demonstrate their understanding of the content in their own way.

The experiment was dubbed "The Dynamic Earth Project." A complete explanation of the project can be found here, but to sum it up in one statement: students were given a wealth of text and tech resources with three essential questions to answer in a project/presentation that was "dynamic, educational, and for an audience greater than themselves."

The project is ambitious and risky. With so few weeks before the Science and Technology MCAS, poor results in student connections to the content will come with little time to reflect and reteach. In addition, the opportunity to let students create what they deem a "dynamic" project/presentation will likely result in a wide range of results that may or may not be cumbersome to evaluate for true understanding.

Despite the many pitfalls and possible failures, I found myself reaffirming Connie and I's original intention to give students an opportunity to learn in the ways they find easiest when responding to a recent #edchat question by facilitator Tom Whitby.

My thought...

This is, after all, learning at an individualized level. The challenges are large, many students seem content to scratch the surface and move on, leaving me and specialists in the classrooms at times to constantly push them further, postulating questions that lead to deeper understanding and (please, please, please) application to their own world.

To any readers out there I ask you. Have you taken on projects of similar style in the past? What did you find to be the greatest challenges? Were you pleased with the results? What would you do to make the experience a better one for students?

The Machine is Us/ing Us

2010-03-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

Michael Wesch is an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, teaching a course on digital ethnography (the scientific-based study and description of people and cultures in a digital format.) Through various internet misadventures I was recently catapulted to his YouTube channel where a collection of fascinating short videos were waiting for me regarding the digital revolution and its current impact on education and our human culture as a whole. Two videos in particular I found captivating and immediately thought to share with the Expanding Boundaries cohort.

The first is titled, "a Vision of Students Today." Within the 4:44 minutes of this movie are a number of quick-quip one-liners shared by college age students in various mediums about how their time is spent in their classrooms and lives overall. The theme parallels some of the other shorts we've watched regarding the "new" flat-world education styles and needs.

The second is a slightly more tech-wordy short regarding the rapid evolution of writing since the coming of the internet and its ramifications on our culture. The title of this movie, "The Machine is Us/ing Us" is where I got the title of this blog post from. It is just one of a series of quickly-moving statements/ideas that got my mind racing (towards the end of this film in particular.)

At the beginning of the Expanding Boundaries course we were compelled to "rethink a few things." I'm excited to see the final presentations of everyone over the coming weeks. I suspect they will be an appropriate measure of how much our change in thinking has actually influenced how we teach this web 2.0 (3.0?) generation.

How have you rethought your classroom and teaching lately?

Reinventing the School Newspaper

2010-02-28T19:54:00.001-05:00

This week marks the kickoff for a lost Parker Middle School tradition. Long before I became a faculty member at Parker, "The Quill" student newspaper had lost its way. But this year English teacher, Brian James was charged with resurrecting The Quill with a web 2.0 flair. Through conversation with numerous teachers it was decided that the student newspaper would take shape in the form of a blog.

There are so many advantages to a blog over newsprint, particularly in a school embracing web tools and skills such as ours. The ability to include color photographs and video alone brings our student and teacher written content to life, but the ability to publish new content on a time schedule that fits everyone's schedules certainly will cut down on the deadline headaches that would have been faced in the past. Me and a number of teachers have agreed to help act as co-editors to bring the Quill to the Reading community. Anytime we have new content to post we simply save the work as a draft and allow Brian, our editor-in-chief, to choose how to best disseminate the new material to keep the Quill fresh and reader interest high.

To see and have the opportunity to follow The Quill, follow the link to our new Wordpress blog here.

Using Google Reader to Manage Student Blogs

2010-02-18T16:29:00.000-05:00

This year has had a slew of first time experiences for me. As shared in my last post, the fall was marked by a first time using UStream and Wiffiti to expand my students' exposure to an audience beyond the classroom walls. I created my first podcast series with Michael Springer to better share our experience at EduCon. It has also been my first time using blogs; both for students as a classroom blog and with students individually.

When English teacher Steve Olivo and I put our heads together last summer and got to talking about student blogs, the immediate concern was how to best moderate and keep track of nearly 100 student blogs. With students expected to update their blog with a new post weekly (at random times no less, as Steve's "Any Time This Week" or "ATTW" assignments suggest) it was immediately apparent to both of us that managing so much student generated material would be a bear without a way to organize and keep track of student work.

To our tremendous benefit, Google Reader stood before us as a way to organize students by class, be updated within the reader when new content was available, and allow us to browse numerous posts effortlessly. With a little time upfront, loading each students' Edublog RSS feed into Google Reader we were immediately setup for quick feedback. I am registered with Google under two usernames to keep my professional development content and student content separate. For student blogs I use the school email while I follow my PD blogs under my personal email account.

Using UStream and Wifitti to Link Classrooms Near and Far

2010-02-18T11:42:00.001-05:00

At the very beginning of the year a blog post came across my Google Reader titled "Harness Twitter and Your Audience Backchannel with Wifitti." The writer of Copy/Paste, Peter Pappas, shared how to have twitter or cellphone users give feedback and send in questions to the presenter.

Many of you may be familiar with Wifitti without knowing it. Wifitti is the application used in a variety of public establishments where a viewer can text a message to a specific number and have their message posted on the screen moments later.

I put this nifty idea a few months later during a seasons project presentation session. Groups of students were expected to learn about the changing of solar intensity at different latitudes over the course of the year as the seasons changed. Students partaking in the project were told their presentation would be broadcasted live via UStream so that family members or anyone else tuning in could watch. As an added twist I created a wifitti channel and asked science teachers I was connected to via twitter to have their class join in and participate. Bob Ruggiero, a teacher in Bourne, MA agreed and had his class tune in! Mrs. Costa's class from the seventh grade also tuned in for one period, excited to have kids use their cellphones as tools in class while learning more about how latitude lines played a role in determining solar intensity.

This was a first for me in many different technologies at once. Using UStream and Wiffiti were both new to me and I was unsure if everything would go smoothly. As the first class ran I monitored the Wifitti while the students presented to a live feed. It was a good idea for me to watch Wiffiti privately rather than the students as a whole. Not every comment that came across was necessarily appropriate for student review! Because students personal phone numbers were converted to anonymous names students had some unmonitorable freedom (see below.) But on the plus side many good questions came across the feed as well! See for yourself below.

Enhancing Classroom Videos with Edmodo(?)

2010-02-15T17:37:00.000-05:00

On the Friday before break our team watched a documentary on the Crusades to help cohort colleague, Anne Low wrap up her Crusades unit. Students were required to complete a series of writing prompts at specific breaks during the film, but fellow team member Steve Olivo shared an experimental idea with me to continue the conversation throughout the movie using Edmodo as a "back-channel" much like twitter users back-channel seminars and tutorials at education conferences using hashtags. I requested to join in using the other set of laptops and have my classroom take part as well to which Steve happily agreed. Together we set up a group for students to join and presented the following prompt for students to follow:

Like so many first go-rounds, there were some early kinks to work out. Not all questions followed the guidelines and some prompting had to be given to remind students how to best utilize the discussion board.

Some students were quick to pick up the tool though and use Edmodo to get their questions answered. Some questions centered around clarification of particular points or graphics shared in the film while others required a bit more higher level thinking and analysis...

But then came the realization to many students that while their attention had been focused on Edmodo run by Mr. Olivo and I, the writing prompt from Ms. Low was about to be distributed!

This comment along with a few others along the lines of "I'm confused" and "What's going on?" showed the frustrations of a number of participating students with the multi-tasking asked of them. After the first session and prompting, Steve posted a suggestion for students to "watch the movie for 5 to 10 minutes and then check Edmodo for 1 or 2 minutes during a break or lull in the action. After that recommendation I personally saw a number of students begin to physically half-close some of their laptops, watch the film, and then open it up from time to time to ask questions and share comments. From there on out there was much less of the "confused" commenting.

Afterward Steve and I shared a conversation around many of these discussions and the value of the experience. We both noted that students verbalizing their frustration with multi-tasking could make for a great conversation about the loss of focus and attention when using less invasive technology like text messaging (or pencil and paper notes!) in the classroom. The remaining dialog was smattered with both clarifying questions and some strong connections between past and present during times that students would otherwise watch or take notes in silence. I remain undecided as to whether or not this experience enhanced the video review, citing a mixed bag of both successful dialog and student confusion. What do you think PLN?

Unpacking EduCon 2.2

2010-02-01T20:16:00.003-05:00

Touching down at Logan Airport last night marked the end of a whirlwind weekend of learning in Philadelphia with whom I would argue to be some of the more progressive '21st century thinking' educators in the field. I had walked into the halls of the Science Leadership Academy uncertain as to what the experience before me would be like, but highly optimistic that I would ultimately walk away with a focused vision on 1) online learning 2) science education and 3) personal direction to aid in the improvement of education in America.

(For those interested in the final summation, skip down to the final section on this post)

Friday's tour and observation of activities at the SLA made for a great kickoff to the weekend. Michael Springer and I were shown around by an articulate and passionate sophomore student who went by the name, "Bear." Bear not only gave us a 40 minute tour sharing inner workings of different classrooms in the overall climate of the school, but then sat with us for an additional hour divulging all he knew about any questions we could throw at him.

On Saturday I focused on finding answers to my first question regarding online learning. Ted Bongiovanni facilitated a conversation on distance learning that I and a few others twisted into a conversation on online/classroom blended learning. I summarized this conversation later in a podcast for future reflection and the enjoyment of others. I was genuinely impressed in the second session when I watched Dave Bill and Basil Kolani share the structure and results of their "online participatory learning" class. Their own students acted as a panel during the session to answer questions about the class via an Elluminate session set up with their camera facing us, the audience. The kids were great, extolling the newly found virtues of Twitter and Google Alerts, leading one kid to exclaim how finding an audience online and links/resources to interests she was passionate about had made her become "a twitaholic."

Sunday gave me opportunity to visualize and articulate with fellow science teachers the future of science education and how we might reach such lofty visions. A common chord we found here was echoed in the morning discussion panel. The need for common planning time was critical for educators. Not only would the time allowed teachers opportunity to coordinate curriculum and develop solutions together to everyday problems but it would also give time and space for educators to meet and disrupt one another's common practices through conversation to better the learning environment. (Note: Danja Mahoney did an excellent job summarizing and collecting key backchannel comments on the morning discussion panel. If you are interested in reading more tweet her your request at the tweet above.)

Even the social mixer on Saturday night proved professionally rewarding. I was able to put real names and faces to many twitter avatars I'd come to respect online while sharing in both casual and educational dialogue. I shared a drink with SLA science teacher and former Massachusetts local, Tim Best who shared more about his own teaching experiences at SLA as well as his thoughts on Moodle. I shared a lengthy conversation with Nick Sauers of Iowa State University and colleague of Scott McLeod, who encouraged me to continue my learning at a higher level if I wished to stretch my influence on education beyond my annual classrooms. I also had the pleasure of meeting some entrepreneurial Olon University students, most notably Andy Pethan who I hope to build a working relationship with testing their new educational learning platforms currently under construction.

Overall the experience left me with a few resonating thoughts:

1) As SLA principal, Chris Lehmann noted in his session titled, "Leadership 2.0" communities of care play a critical role in developing students and engaging them in learning. Whether it be in the classroom, the hallway, or via twitter and online classrooms when students know you care, they buy in. The same applies to fellow educators and administrators. (Almost as if on cue during this conversation, an SLA student texted his advisor to inform him he had been accepted to West Virginia University.)

2) Reform is all about disrupting current practices that can be enhanced for student learning and to continue to challenge common practices that do not put student learning first.

3) There are countless resources available to educators via the web. To tap into such resources educators must network and share with one another such resources for the common and collective good of their students.

4) There is a need to energize the spirit of younger educators who might carry the torch to a level beyond where education stands today. Such a charge stands at the root of education and will be more critical than ever as a generation of veteran educators retire while government budgets tighten in the expectation becomes "do more with less."

Podcasting EduCon 2.2

2010-01-29T08:16:00.001-05:00

This weekend I am traveling to Philadelphia to take part in an exciting professional development opportunity known to educators as "EduCon." Throughout the weekend fellow Reading teacher and Expanding Boundaries member, Mike Springer will be sharing our experiences with friends, family, and faculty members via our first attempts of podcasting. The podcasts can be downloaded and subscribed to at mikeandseaneducon.podbean.com Our first podcast is admittedly silly and not worth its weight (which is nothing since it's digital!) in content, but was a good opportunity for us to become familiar with the tools and software. Once we get to Philadelphia I anticipate we will have much more to say! EduCon is a special type of conference that is held both in person and online, so join a conversation this weekend by logging into the web seminars offered through many of the wonderful sessions to be shared this weekend.

Reflections on Student Blogs

2010-01-17T13:16:00.000-05:00

This year my team tried student blogging for the first time, setting up every student with their very own edublog where they could personalize the look of their page while posting both academic work and their own ideas. At the outset of the initiative, expectations and enthusiasm was high.

Last week during Thursday's professional development time, English teacher, Steve Olivo and I sat down to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our blogging initiative along with next steps for improved educational value. We generated a pro/con list to first evaluate the program and came to a few conclusions.

Student blogging has effectively created a portfolio of student work that is being updated weekly.

The use of Google Reader in conjunction with student blog posts has made assessment easy and feedback more timely.

There has been a significant reduction in the amount of "paperwork" generated by students that must be collected and returned.

Student reflection and interconnectedness remains weak. Rarely do students revisit their work after it has been posted on a blog and rarely do other student look at fellow classmates pages or provide feedback (as is seen to be more effectively done through nings such as this one.)

There is no efficient way to track commenting by students on one another's blogs or effectively monitor blog comments for inappropriate comments.

As Kerry Gallagher recently reported in a professional development seminar on student blogging, there are a variety of reasons for students to blog, none more important than to use blogging as a "tool for reflection and student learning." With this being one of our key focus areas for improvement, Steve and I came up with a few techniques we will use to bolster such work in the second half of the school year.

Create student lists with numbers. Students receive a number matching them with another classmate. That student will have to visit their classmates blog and write a comment on a recent blog post by the student. Assessment can be performed easily when teacher knows what blog each student is matched with.

Taken from Kerry's own method of feedback, have students write comments weekly to a class blog post titled "comments for week of _______" that will provide feedback on the class as well as develop interconnectivity between student blogs and classroom blog. (See Kerry's honors history blog here for an example.)

For an example of some current student blogs see the following blog post off my professional blog.

Useless Technology

2010-01-05T21:20:00.003-05:00

Tonight's Twitter edchat* conversation centered around interactive white boards (IWBs) and their function in the classroom. There was a wide range of opinions on the topic from educators of all levels. Some tweets shared stories of entire schools being fitted with IWBs but few teachers using them. Others talked about how some IWBs were simply being used like pumped up digital projectors, and nothing "interactive" was truly being accomplished that couldn't be done with simpler technology. Still others shared the great features of their IWB and creative ways they had found to integrate them in the classroom.

Well-followed tweeter, GuyKawasaki coincidentally shared this movie a bit later in the evening, titled "The World's Most Useless Machine." Between this video and the #edchat conversation, I was reminded about how much the way we use technology impacts whether or not we effectively pass web 2.0 skills to our students. The wide variety of tech tools we possess truly "lack use" in the eyes of students if we don't put the tools in their hands and allow them to create, modify, play and learn with the tools. Handing the controls over to students, particularly to large and expensive tools, can be tough... but if we don't give them the opportunity who will?

*Each week, twitter educators come together on Tuesday night's and discuss a facet of education in a chatroom style atmosphere. The conversation is known as #edchat - due to the #edchat hashtag each user adds to the end of their comment so that anyone following the conversation will catch their comment in their message stream, regardless of whether they are a follower of their tweets or not.

Being a Pitchman in the 21st Century Classroom

2009-12-26T12:30:00.002-05:00

Malcolm Gladwell, kicks off his most recent publication, "What the Dog Saw" with a brief biography of Ron Popeil, the pitchman known best for his infomercial sales of the Ronco "Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ." Over the first thirty-one pages appropriately titled, "Pitchman" Gladwell shares short stories encapsulating Popeil's great success. One such story refers to how Popeil understood what it took to 'sell' an innovative product (in this case, the Chop-O-Matic) to his prospective buyers:

"[the product] was, after all, an innovation... it required consumers to rethink the way they went about their business in the kitchen. Like most innovations, it was disruptive. And how do you persuade people to disrupt their lives? ... You have to show them exactly how it works and why it works, and make them follow your hands as you chop liver with it, and then tell them precisely how it fits into their routine, and, finally, sell them on a paradoxical fact that, revolutionary as the gadget is, it's not at all hard to use." (Gladwell, 15-16)

Personally, when introducing students to new technology, I feel a bit like a pitchman. I show students how to use it, often times over and over to students who miss a critical step or are struggling with applying the new features on their own. The pitch does not stop there. The technology must then be used again in the future to allow students to practice using the tool and introduce other ways in which the technology might be applied. My 'sale' is complete only when the student recognizes how the tool can benefit him or her in their own ways, and 'buys-in' to using the tool independently to improve their own lives and productivity.

I'm curious to know how others feel about this assessment. Does "selling" the technology take this charge of tech integration too far? Is our mandate to get students to buy into the technology or instead simply introduce it as a possible tool? How much do we push the students to use technology, particularly those who are already showing great capacity and results as students without the technology?

What Would a Social Media Middle School Elective Look Like?

2009-12-14T21:53:00.000-05:00

"Web" by Kurtxio. Uploaded 1/9/2008. CC License

I spent sometime this evening reviewing some bookmarks I had not had the chance to fully explore and came across a link to the wiki of @TeachPaperless for his Johns Hopkins University Social Media graduate course. I poured over the syllabus and assignments listed, hoping to gain more insight on what @TeachPaperless (real name Shelly Blake-Plock) identified as the most critical pieces of social networking for educators and in general. The semester starts with a focus on developing a PLN, first of those within the classroom, then beyond. Topics then move to blogging, Google for Educators, Google Scholar, wikis, social bookmarks, Second-Life and a variety of other web tools I am less familiar with such as Animoto and XtraNormal.

Reviewing the syllabus got me thinking. What would the similarities/differences be between a graduate level social media course and a middle school level elective on the same topic? With thirteen and fourteen being the prime age for students to enter the social networks of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, what would be the fundamental need to know conversations and learning that would have to take place for students to buy-in and to have meaningful conversations?

My first inclination is to start with a focus on personal data. Google profiles, social network profiles. The main idea would be to "own your online identity" but also avoid publishing so much information that it would compromise safety (I'm thinking more about identity theft here over shadow stalkers, a threat that has been established as very low over cyberspace but still catches headlines.)

After that my direction wavers. It is easier to start with students thinking about PLNs in spaces like Twitter and Facebook, but maybe treading deeper into blogging (everything from writing skills to linking and elements of style) would allow students to flesh out their ideas more on such forums later in the course. Then there is the whole social bookmarking and Second-Life. Its tough to personally envision how wide and deep to cast the net.

I'm hoping to receive some feedback on this from my PLN. Where or what would you focus your attention toward? What are the key elements that flow through all we do with our social networks that our children must begin to understand in order to master their own social (and learning!) networks in the future?

Grant Application Wordle

2009-12-10T18:20:00.000-05:00

Many of us have likely seen Wordle in action on a number of different technology education blogs. I know for a fact that my Expanding Boundaries member Diane Davis, and former member Steve Olivo have used them in their own classrooms. Wordle is self described as a "toy for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

I find Wordles have a functional use in analyzing a document for trending ideas or to help identify what a blogger focuses their content on (you can paste an RSS into wordle and it will analyze the writers blog posts.) To create this Wordle I copy/pasted all of the original text (no quotations) from our six presentations to help me identify some common themes.

Most of my predictions were on target. Words such as technology, 21st century skills, teachers, and professional development were large and therefore more frequently stated in our presentations. The term 'students' was not as prominent as I had expected, but still one of the top 10 terms used.

What does this wordle tell you about our presentations and ideas? Are they out-of-the-box enough or are we still seeing the same education trends we've been charged to break?

A Student Blog Smattering

2009-12-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

With colleague Kerry Gallagher (@KerryHawk02) presenting to her high school cohorts the values of student blogging, I offered to share with her a few examples of our middle school students at work on their own Edublogs. The examples presented here are not necessarily the best, but ones that have some specific character to share. Currently all of my team's roughly 100 students are blogging, sharing their work from ELA and Science class with the world (or judging by the clustrmaps, their immediate friends and family.)

Robert's blog is a blend of classroom assignments from myself and ELA teacher, Steve Olivo (@SOlivo11), coupled with small snippets of his own storyline.

Kaylee's blog shows commenting in action, with a friend of Kaylee providing comments on her blog post that range from classroom assignments to her own interests as well.

Maddie's blog is a final example of some of the excellent writing a student can create and be proud of by publishing to the web.

SMARTBoard Recorder: Your Classroom Anywhere!

2009-11-29T17:19:00.007-05:00

Last week during a class investigation I took advantage of one of the greatest tools SMART Notebook has to offer. It is one of the more powerful tools teachers with SMARTBoards possess but I suspect is overall under-utilized. The SMART Recorder allows you to record your classroom notes as you write them on your SMART Board.

There are a number of options that go with the SMARTBoard Recorder. You can choose to record the entire SMARTBoard screen, an option for any teacher giving an overview of how to use a new web 2.0 tool with students. You can also just choose to record a specific portion of your screen, allowing you to keep your video's focus on what's being taught and not what programs may be running in the background. While my video above is solely a visual recording, there is an option to include audio as well, an option with obvious potential in combination with a wireless microphone.

With so many students out for extended absences due to H1N1 and other seasonal illnesses, the SMART Recorder can play a significant role in keeping students connected to the classroom and following our continuously scaffolding lessons. Part of the reason I believe so few people use this tool is because they may not be aware it exists! The SMART Recorder does not show up in the SMART Notebook toolbar, but you can find it and add it to your toolbar by following the instructions posted here. The combination of creating these videos and then posting them to a classroom blog makes those students missing class time able to stay connected and responsible for staying up to date with the material missed!

I'm curious to know how others have used the SMART Recorder, or what types of recording software others might have used besides the SMART Recorder?

Discouraging Developing Scientists via Merit Pay?

2009-11-24T21:05:00.008-05:00

While recently reading Daniel T. Willingham's book, "Why Don't Students Like School" I was compelled to search out his web literature and see what other works he might have created recently. I found his wiki, www.DanielWillingham.com and perused his links until I came across a YouTube video that reminded me of a previously written blog post regarding Dan Pink's thoughts on motivation and my own personal wrestle with supporting or objecting current merit pay initiatives.

In Willingham's video, "Merit Pay, Teacher Pay and Value Added Measures," Willingham outlines six reasons for why merit pay can't be based on the most currently supported system, value added measurement or, more simply, giving pre-course and post-course assessments to students and rating student (and teacher) performance based on overall improvement. I found all of his points to be thoughtful, but his fifth point stuck out to me the most: should teachers only worry about short-term gains? Willingham argued that tests based solely on specific standards and level focused objectives would sway educators to undertake fewer tasks that held longer-term value. (Willingham, 109)

What a blow to science education it might be if such salary stipulations were put in place for teachers. In Chapter 6 of "Why Don't Students Like School?" Willingham asks, "what's the secret to getting students to think like real scientists mathematicians and historians?" His answer among others is to practice activities that are appropriate for experts despite the fact that they will most likely not do much good for the students cognitively at their current stage. Willingham points to science fairs as such examples. (109) I think of activities that I currently perform during the school year such as a "Land and Water Heat Transfer Lab" and my "Planet Colonization Project." Such activities allows students to develop their own experiments, outline detailed procedures, analyze collected data and develop solutions to the dilemmas they discover through their data analysis. Such activities, Willingham suggests, spur motivation while lending experience to needed future expert-skills such as drawing students attention to the need for close observation or the process of interpreting results. As Willingham puts it, "the bottom line is that posing to students challenges that demand the creation of something new is a task beyond their reach -- but that doesn't mean you should never perform such tasks." (Willingham, 109)

Thomas Friedman points out in "The World is Flat," that there is already a falling numbers of college-bound Americans pursuing degrees in mathematics and science compared to the rest of the world. It would not make sense to add additional stresses to our education system that would weaken the push on students to follow paths towards such expertise. In order to stay competitive we must continue to give our students every opportunity to practice and experience science and mathematics first-hand. The proposition of instituting merit pay under such methods as evaluating short-term goals would undoubtedly lead to the slashing and even elimination of such long-term-success-minded tasks.

A Teaching vs. Technology Trade Off?

2009-11-23T21:06:00.004-05:00

A recent "Dangerously Irrelevant" blog post by Scott McLeod (@mcleod) shared the "Dilbert" column above with the following thought he had previously shared:

In many job sectors, employees are expected to keep up with relevant technologies or risk job loss. When do we require that of K-12 and post-secondary educators? At what point do we say to them "No, we are not training you how to use this. It's easy enough for you to learn on your own. And if you don't, we'll find someone else who can."

Recently my Expanding Boundaries cohorts and I have been developing a mock grant proposal with a central focus of teacher professional development in software, technology use and its application in the classroom. I found McLeod's blog post to be extremely relevant and one that might crumble the foundations of our proposal should a retort to such a question from a application review committee not be readily available.

The comments to McLeod's own blog post ranged from full support to due caution. I think my own personal opinion fell along the line of Tim Lambert's comment who suggested that the statement may be a bit harsh, but "I don't have a problem with people who need help to learn something, if they KNOW they need to learn it, REALIZE they need help to learn it, ASK for the help, then FOLLOW THROUGH on their commitment to learn."

Indeed, this is seemingly what we implore our own students to do every day. Ask questions when you need help and follow through by putting the received assistance to good use. Still, the questions make me ponder how much and educator's ability to use tech tools should weigh into employment decisions. I personally suspect that I might hire a teacher with an expert background in subject and teaching practices over another who held a tremendous technology resume but lacked an understanding of the content they were to instruct and assess upon.

There is no doubt an area the shade of gray that any hiring body or official must come to tackle at one point or another. I wonder about others perspectives on such a dilemma. Given the emphasis we have placed on developing 21st century skills into our student's skill sets, how much should an administrator or search committee weigh an applicants technological aptitude compared to their other merits?

A Scientific Analysis of My Twitter PLN

2009-11-21T10:27:00.007-05:00

A recent mashable.com blog post shared a study performed by Pear Analytics that recently studied the contents of public tweets across the twitterscape at various times of the day over a two week period. Their goal was to determine what the overall trend of tweeting was. Tweets were categorized into six categories: news, spam, self-promotion, pointless babble, conversation, and pass-along value.

As mashable.com reports: "Their findings aren’t all that favorable to those of us with lofty views of Twitter, because as it turns out, 40.55% of tweets are pointless babble." The type of information that can fall under "going out for a jog" or a quotation from a particularly catchy Miley Cyrus song.

This immediately got me thinking about my own twitter feed. Twitter teachers like to promote themselves as tweeters above the fray... using Twitter for its collaborative merits. As I remember hearing from a Twitter teacher when I first started using it last February, "Twitter teachers should aim for a Twitter usage around the 90/10 range. 90% education relevant, 10% personal relevance." The 10% to promote personal connections between fellow tweeters beyond the teacher professional development realm.

So like any good scientist I got down to the data and began collecting. I reviewed the past 100 tweets I had received and broke them down into the same categories as Pear Analytics. My data broke down as follows: 45% pass along, 17% conversation, 17% news, 15% babble, 10% self-promotion, 0% spam.

I was overall pleased with this finding, reassuring in my mind that Twitter was in fact being used as a tool to disseminate resources and ideas through the education community. To be fair the data is narrowly scoped in nature, taking just about 3 hours of tweets on a Saturday morning into account (no telling how the particular day might influence this data.) Examining these 100 tweets I made some poignant side notes:

1) Web20Classroom offers far and away the most frequent pass along tweets and typically tend to be the most relevant to my own teaching. He is an absolute must follow for those looking to start or develop a PLN.

2) Tweeters who were babblers tended to also be conversationalists. It would therefore be remiss of me to simply unfollow these tweeters who would be most likely to add to my own conversations.

3) News tends to come in spurts from corporate/organization backed websites.

4) Eventhough I follow a few hundred fellow twitter educators, the majority of the tweets come from 10-20 high profile tweeters and the remainder from those jumping on and off twitter at their convenience like myself.

5) Actual Twitter users like myself have no tolerance for SPAM, and those who do SPAM quickly become blocked or unfollowed until their account is restored.

For those educators not yet on Twitter, I encourage you to consider my own data and join the functional Twitter teacher community. To those already here... take a few minutes to critically look at whats flowing through your twitter feed and please share with me your own observations regarding your Twitter PLN. Keep those tweets relevant and continue sharing!

Talk to Text Revisited

2009-11-15T11:11:00.003-05:00

Writers note: as I have done in the past with talk to text software posts all writing below will be done with the use of the software exclusively. Any revisions afterwards will be reflected in bold red font.

This weekend I took yet another step towards integrating talk to text software into my assessment plans. By the conclusion of first quarter our eighth-grade team had nearly 100% of the students up and running their very own blogs. Monitoring and commenting on so much student work is a conversation left for another day. While I conferenced with students about their first-quarter grades, the remaining students watched an introduction video on the moon and its relationship with Earth. For homework students were required to post to their blog their thoughts and questions about the movie.

I spent about two hours this past weekend reading each of my students blog posts and commenting on them to show that I had read their work and I was interested in knowing their thoughts. For this assessment to run smoothly I put on the headphones once more and asked brief but thoughtful questions about each of their posts in the comment boxes.

Some things I noticed: To begin I realized that the placement of the microphone in relation to my mouth was critical to the accuracy of the software. I suspect that if the microphone is placed too high breathing through my nose may have led to a disturbance in the software's ability to recognize words. That being said, the accuracy of the software has improved and aside from words such as fax and facts I have had to go back relatively few times to adjust writing. I was also much more comfortable during the assessment time. I was able to sit back casually from my laptop screen with my wireless mouse beside me. I was not leaned over typing repetitive comments into text boxes, but instead clicking and talking, albeit with some emphasis on pronunciation. Including grammar in my speech has also become more fluid. It seems that like any technology there is a bit of a learning curve but ultimately the technology can be advantageous.

I recently spent time after school with a student who I had asked a week before to write two paragraphs and told him that I would dictate his work is simply verbalized his thoughts. The student surprised me with tremendous understanding, knowledge that I have not seen expressed in any of his previous work. I have decided that he will be my first tech subject for using the talk to text software with students. More on this experiment when I put it into place in the future.

Google Teacher Academy Applications

2009-11-08T09:55:00.003-05:00

About a month back a message was being retweeted all over my TweetDeck announcing that Google had released the date and location for their upcoming Google Teachers Academy. The GTA is described by Google as, "a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment."

I was immediately captured by the possibility of attending this conference and clicked on the application to find a number of short answer questions and the statement that all applicants were to create a one-minute video showing either "motivation and learning in the classroom" or "innovative teaching." I completed my own video application this morning, but not before checking out a few others. What I saw was not unsimilar to the results we educators often receive when we give an overall broad objective for our students to achieve.

Some videos were direct, sharing examples of how motivation, learning, and innovation looked in their own classroom and what the type of experiences they might bring to a conference.

Some evoked emotion, showing the educator's own dedication to their students as a result of personal experiences, and the wonderful things they do with their students fueled by their passion.

Others focused on the question itself and their interpretation, not necessarily giving much perspective into their own classroom but more on how they interpreted what innovation or motivation was to them. (This particular example is quite slick and flashy if I do say so myself.)

Some were a combination of all of these (and my personal favorite... but don't tell the GTA applicant board that!)

Ultimately I will be curious to know what type of applications receive an invitation... though I suspect it will likely be a mix of many. To conduct your own search simply visit youtube or google videos and search "Google Teacher Academy." What do you think about the videos/messages shared?

Wave Hello to the Future!

2009-10-28T20:52:00.003-04:00

Some of you google blog followers are probably already familiar with the new, hot google application that recently dropped into the hands of 100,000 invitees. Google Wave has made its splash on the public as a new way to "communicate and collaborate in real time, anytime." As one Classroom 2.0 ning user recently stated in a blog post: "Google wave will change education forever... and stands to be the most intuitive collaboration tool ever conceived."

Sunday morning I woke up to the pleasant surprise of a Google Wave invitation in my gmail inbox. Like a child on Christmas I immediately opened the email and accepted the invite. It brought me to a fairly simple page with a few "waves" waiting for me... none of which I could truly begin to use, they were all locked and unable to accept new users (mostly because they were tutorials and examples.) Fortunately for me, google has provided me 20 invitations to pass around to potential new users.

I'm putting the call out to my PLN. Who would like to try out the Google Wave with me? @MagistraM of Reading High School has already stepped up, and recently received her invitation. I'd like to start a wave with educators to share ongoing conversations about anything that fits the waves fancy.

Would you like to ride the wave?

Talk to Text Software

2009-10-24T16:22:00.004-04:00

Let me start off by saying that today's blog post has been written using the talk to type software of MacSpeech Dictate. I purchased the software this past August in hopes that it would help me solve one of my more difficult dilemmas as the teacher: providing thoughtful, detailed feedback to student work. With our team goal this year aimed at having all of our students blog it was going to be vital for me to be able to give feedback quickly and thoughtfully to as many students as possible. I figured I would give talk to text software shop (a shot) since it will allow me to read blog posts and comment verbally as I read them without typing.

I found the software useful for the first time while grading lengthy student lab reports this past week. Instead of trying to jam in comments between singlespaced lines I was able to essentially write full letters of feedback to my student e-mails. I look forward to bringing them to the lab to read their e-mails with their lab reports in hand and receive genuine, complete feedback.

What struck me during this experience was how much I was able to write in such a short amount of time. I realized that if we put this technology in the hands of our reluctant writers or students who struggled with typed assignments because they lack Ability or skill in typing there (their) over all output may improve. Moreover, at assistance time would be more freed up from accommodations that require dictation. Students could dictate work themselves while yet assist works with other children. Once the dictation is complete the edifice (ed assistant) could return and assist the student in the revision process.

The technology is by no means perfect. (I went back and inserted typed words above in red) Punctuation must be spoken and speakers must enunciate properly or risk misinterpretation (see edifice above). When we compare however the amount of student work that may be done without the use of such a tool I believe many will agree there is an advantage to it.

What are your thoughts on text to type software? Do you like the idea of using in schools or do you feel that giving these types of tools to students will not ultimately benefit them because they will be required to type elsewhere (we think)?

Facebook Fan Page For the Classroom!

2009-10-19T20:47:00.004-04:00

It has been nearly two months since the beginning of the school year and the introduction of my pilot facebook fanpage classroom: MusselmanScience. I am pleased to share that so far it has gone off without a hitch! Students have been finding ways to interact with one another, particularly around troubleshooting homework assignments and misunderstanding directions.

Fan pages, in my opinion, far outweigh profiles and groups because 1) you do not need to connect the page to a specific facebook user 2) There is no friending of students required, students add and leave the page at their will and 3) Messages you post are automatically added to fans "newsfeeds" updating them on when you have posted new stuff so they don't have to check it themselves.

With facebook being a "controversial" topic I first sought approval from Doug before moving forward. Involvement within or "becoming a fan" of the page is not required but interaction on the page counts as participation within the class. I spent time on our back to school night outlining the goals of the facebook page and our students blogs to parents, explaining how blogs and facebook allow us to extend the conversation beyond the walls of our classroom.

In addition to the fan page itself, I created a facebook subpage to my classroom blog where I explained the cautionary procedures students should take on social networking sites, linking to the site allfacebook.com's blog post dedicated to helping users protect their identities.

I am curious to know how other people out there are using facebook in education? I would love to see some other examples at work!

"Frustrations" Revisited

2009-10-18T17:39:00.001-04:00

Last week I wrote and recorded a post on my own blog regarding a feeling that I presumed had likely been felt by educators before. My post centered around frustration, specifically toward laptops, wireless internet and the technology we put in place that can make these tools more cumbersome to use.

The intention of the post was to share a feeling I experienced when my plans to integrate technology collided with obstacles I could not personally solve while issuing a request to readers: Share with me arguments, links, and resources in support of firewalls to help me better understand their need in schools and around the world.

At the time, using the progressive nature of the Reading School system and the Expanding Boundaries program seemed like a fitting context that could illustrate these feelings and the continued dilemmas we all face as we expand the use of technology in our schools. What I (terribly) erred to consider was the plausible chance (particularly once tweaked and posted for our EB ning) that the post might be read, not as an indictment of technology systems as a whole, but to the Reading school system and its hard working staff members. Staff such as Matt, Marcia, Meg, April, Bob, Karen, Bonnie and Mike who work tirelessly to bring the current hardware and software we have in place to our schools so that we may provide our students with internet access, emails, network folders, COWs, Edline, digital dropboxes, and the endless amounts of tech peripherals and software.

It was never my intention to suggest these colleagues and friends may had in some way faltered in bringing us the best possible educational technologies. Familiar with just some of the surface issues these individuals experience day in and day out is enough to leave me with great respect and appreciation for their patience and skill with such systems (and with teachers like myself!).

So regardless of my original purpose, I am truly sorry for the hurt feelings that have been inflicted as a result of my post. The message and format in which my thoughts have been delivered were clearly misguided. As a result I will now go about personally repairing my relationships with these individuals.

In addition, because of the inherent nature of sharing through blogs and other web 2.0 formats, I must now strive to amend my own reputation as a positive collaborator within our outstanding staff of educators and administrators. If I can take any good from this experience, it is the reinforcement of the prudence we all must take when sharing our thoughts and opinions on the web. I look forward to sharing examples, thoughts, and future opportunities that lend themselves to conversations surrounding technology and how we all can continue to use them to their highest possible potential.

Tear Down the Walls!

2009-10-11T10:47:00.006-04:00

I have a problem.

I work in a school and district that declares itself as a leader of technology in the classroom. Digital tools are interwoven throughout our curriculum and professional development everywhere you look. Yet, there is an obstacle that rears its ugly head seemingly every time a student or educator wants to use an educational tool from the school or (heaven-forbid) home that uses wireless internet.

The internet can not be accessed.

An "Expanding Boundaries" technology course within the district has been methodically putting laptops in the hands of its faculty district-wide. Yet many of these 'full-steam ahead' educators can not use their tools in the school because the wireless connections within them are spotty or worse, inaccessible due to walls and restrictions put in place.

My frustration levels reached a boiling point recently when my team sat down to continue working on a Google doc outlining a team project designed to tailor to each students' needs. When it was realized we could not connect and collaborate effectively, we were left wasting our prep time finding alternatives (such as short cords and paper notes that would have to be digitally scribed later on.)

When we are trying to move forward with students and expand their boundaries of learning, why are we continually left standing still burdened by obstacles put in place by ourselves? Obstacles that must be either troubleshooted by one overburdened tech specialist or worse, completely scrapped for a lower-impact, but 1.0 feasible alternative?

Please do share your resources and links for the support and continuation of firewalls in education institutions. I need some rational perspectives on this before I stop yelling...

"Tear down the walls!"

A Science Based Blow to Merit Pay?

2009-10-03T16:02:00.003-04:00

After recently watching a July 2009 TED talk by Dan Pink entitled, "Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation," I couldn't help but connect his case against if-then, "carrots and sticks" motivation in the workplace to the current national debate over merit-pay in the nation's education systems. Pink's science-supported argument for autonomy and intrinsic motivators and against if-then rewards puts a vote against merit pay, suggesting that such motivators will narrow the focus of educators (most likely towards standardized tests) and may cause educators to lose sight of a student's education in the big picture: preparing them to be a positive, contributing member of the global community.

I'm curious to know how punitive measures effect "big-picture" cognitive thinking as well. Do the actions threatened by the Massachusetts DESE for failure to achieve AYP help education systems or cause them to "narrow their focus" and miss the big picture as well? What kinds of members of the global community are we developing as we focus our education objectives towards standardized tests that measure AYP?

I'm curious to hear from others out there on this issue. What are your thoughts on the aforementioned questions surrounding punitive measures and education? What kind of scientific evidence is out there that further supports Pink's claims as well as those that give positive marks to merit pay?

Developing 21st Century Skills

2009-09-23T19:58:00.005-04:00

Last night I spoke on behalf of the team to 8th grade parents in regards to our charge this year to 1) develop 21st century skills in our students and 2) create school work published for an audience beyond the teacher, an audience greater than one.

As English teacher, Steve Olivo wrote on his blog today: "Many people seemed supportive, but just as many seemed uneasy with the amount of time students would be online and with the potential problems that could result." Indeed there are a number of risks associated with digital work, from the long-time dilemma in academia surrounding plagiarism, to the more recently exposed challenges of combating "cyber-bullying."

Even though developing 21st century skills in our students is not something mandated and tested by MCAS, they are something that without a doubt will be critical to possess in the present and future workforce of America and the world. Students who begin to develop these skills when there minds are ripe to learn, adapt, and create new connections between learned material and cutting edge tools will be those most adept to succeed during and beyond their academic years.

As these students develop these new skills and face the accompanying challenges, they can be assured and comforted by the fact that they are not going it alone, and that the inclusion of their teachers in the process will only widen the safety net and comfort-zone needed to overcome the apprehensions and learn.

Parents and students are encouraged to email, phone, or meet with me and the rest of our team with questions and concerns. I will also be personally continue to develop this site, and provide students with resources that will help them succeed in the 21st century and cope with the obstacles and challenges that arise along with it.

Accommodations vs. Best Practice PD

2009-09-23T13:19:00.005-04:00

"Hand-Holding Zone" by J.Elliott. Flickr Creative Commons license (9/15/2009)

I was recently given the privilege to present the collaborative efforts between our eighth grade special education liason, Tanya McDonald, special education assistant, Gail Caiazza and the subject level teachers of my "team" with the Parker middle school faculty. The goal was to present the difference and similarities between best teaching practice and true accommodations, a distinguishment that the special education director of the school system has recently been pushing throughout the district.

I included our presentation on my own professional development wiki I recently started when I presented on social networking at the beginning of the school year. There we broke down best practices and matched them up with true accommodations, while presenting many of the assignments adapted for learning center students within a connected SMARTBoard presentation.

Wikis provide an excellent way to not only archive professional development work, but to then be able to update and improve work for future professional development workshops! How do you document/archive your professional development?

A Camcorder in Every Pocket - Coming Soon!

2009-09-20T15:04:00.002-04:00

Typically I put my educator hat aside for three hours on Sunday when the Patriots play. But I found my eyes widening and mind wandering through the media possibilities with Apple's new iPod nano with video capability. Suddenly those new flip cameras are already looking unnecessary as these mini camcorders will find their way into our students' pockets come this holiday season and surely into all subsequent versions of Apple's iPod products.

Harnessing the power of these ever changing and upgrading tools for educational use will continue to be a charge for educators with more well-to-do students. Oral assessments uploaded by students and gradable "on demand" for teachers' will surely be one function. Recorded classroom activities and presentations will bring another dynamic way to communicate and bring the learning home to parents and the community.

How do you see these pocket-technologies affecting your classroom instruction, assessment, and culture?

Using Story in the Classroom - An Educator's Tale

2009-09-16T21:58:00.004-04:00

While reading, "Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" by Daniel Pink over the summer I charged myself with the goal to use story more frequently in my classroom. The power of narratives as a way to enhance meaning for students and thus increase their learning was well-documented, enough so that in an August 12th blog post I swore off trading anecdotal stories for more structured content instruction.

This week I have found myself putting my new plans to test while exploring the Earth's atmosphere. I started my lesson with a short video on the extreme climbers of Mount Everest, courtesy of Teachers' Domain, sharing their stories of the difficulty in dealing with the thin, less dense air at the peak of the mountain.

The students did a great job dissecting the movie of its educational merits while coming up with great questions about both the atmosphere and the hikers who endured the difficult conditions.

How have you used story in your classroom to convey to convey your educational message to students? Did you find the narrative effective or were your students left scratching their heads?

Photograph courtesy of Sistak, "Mt. Everest" uploaded on June 17th, 2008 to Flickr. Creative Commons license.

Google Voice - Mr. M's Science Hotline

2009-09-08T16:41:00.006-04:00

Over the summer break, my brother was faced with a dilemma. As a newly practicing dental student at BU, he was required to find clients to bring in to the schools dental office in order to gain practical experience. His clients needed a phone number to call to setup appointments with him, yet he was reluctant to simply give out his phone number to the many complete strangers who agreed to act as his dental test-dummies.

Over dinner one night asked if I'd be willing to purchase something for him over ebay since he did not have his own account. When I asked him what he was looking for he said "a Google Voice account." After dinner we proceeded to purchase two account registration keys for exactly $1, apparently the vendor liked to deal in bulk.

My brother was immediately able to link a completely new phone number to his own cellular device, and we marveled at how excellent it was that not only would he be called, but a voice message recording would be left online to listen to from anywhere.

And the light went on...

So on day two of the school year my students were solving murder mysteries, a suggestion from Peter Pappas (@Edteck on Twitter) and available on his blog here. In the interest of getting everyone communicating, I asked groups to take out a cell phone when they had solved the murder and have each student share one piece of the who-what-where-when puzzle.

The implications are far reaching from foreign language, to asking math students to verbally describe the steps to their work, to embedding audio easily into web media. I can't wait to make this a bigger piece of my assessment puzzle, and a fun one for the students at that! One student even had some suggestions to make it better.

"You should have a receptionist instead of your voice."

Mr. Musselman's Science Hotline is up and running! Feel free to leave me a message at (781) 205-9440 and tell me what you think about the classroom implications. I'll be happy to post them in a future blog post!

Sharing Twitter and Facebook as Educational Tools

2009-09-02T21:53:00.005-04:00

On Tuesday I had the proud opportunity to lead a presentation and animated Q&A forum surrounding social networks and their value in both the classroom and as a form of professional development. The room was shared by classroom teachers, guidance counselors, and teacher's aides with a range of different experiences surrounding twitter (though nearly all were on facebook!)

I began with Twitter, discussing the variety of tweet topics out there using users such as @LanceArmstrong, @BarackObama, @DunkinDonuts, and @WillRich45 (the later a widely respected edu/tech guru.) Tweetdeck was introduced as a way to organize what can quickly become a disconnected stream of thoughts from your followers and its value was immediately witnessed as two educators welcomed my audience to the twitter world (thanks @solivo11 and @MagistraM)

But the real buzz was around facebook and my personal intentions to use Facebook advertising "pages" (as opposed to groups or profiles) to interject learning into our student's and their family's social networks.

The pages and presentation were met with strong support from fellow staff members. I am excited to use facebook in the classroom almost daily. My intention is to have facebook-using students who become "fans" of my pages to post main ideas or unanswered questions about the day's lesson on the page - forming a mini-feed of the class activities and thinking. These posts will be supplemented by exciting science videoclips and current event articles in the field of science.

There is no telling how (un)successful this project may be. Regardless I anticipate this being a tremendous learning experience for students, getting them to think about social networks in a different way while opening up opportunities and a forum for kids, parents, and teachers to discuss social profiling issues such as internet safety and what should and should not be posted online.

See my presentation wiki at: http://sites.google.com/site/musselmanpd/social-networking

Special thanks to mashable.com for their excellent articles on Twitter and Facebook that have helped me shape these visions of an online professional community and great online extension of the classroom!

Day 1: 2009-2010

2009-08-31T18:22:00.003-04:00

The school year officially started today for Reading Public Schools (even though many teachers cars could be found in the parking lots last week!) During acting superintendent, Dr. John Doherty's keynote presentation a YouTube video of sixth-grader, Dalton Sherman of Dallas, Texas was played for the faculty to see and contemplate.

The video certainly raised eyebrows, drew cheers and laughter, and left the faculty leaving for their schools on a high note of inspiration... a charge if you will to help foster and develop students in our own district with such courage, charisma, and confidence. The confidence not only to present themselves and their knowledge to their classmates and teachers, but to their families, community and global audience.

With so many other school systems most likely having similar time dedicated to opening presentations and charges for educators I'm curious. How did your district open the 2009-2010 academic year?

Google Apps and Facebook - Freebies for Educators!

2009-08-24T08:16:00.003-04:00

I recently received an e-mail from a colleague in Pennsylvania, asking to know more about the free applications I had mentioned on my twitter feed. I was happy to assist, and realized as my e-mail grew and grew that this would make an excellent blog post! Below are my thoughts on Google applications and Facebook for the classroom:

"The Google applications are a favorite of mine as they provide users with a wide variety of resources completely free! To get started check out: http://www.google.com/apps/ Here you will find a listing of the key applications available to students through Google. Google Documents is far and away the number one collaboration tool for your students. They will be able to work on documents, presentations and spreadsheets together and simultaneously. You may want to use Google Calendar to post important dates for your class. You can do this easily by creating a calendar and then sharing it with the public or with your students new Google accounts specifically. Google Sites is a link to Google's own wiki editor. You and your students will find what you need to make simple websites there. Check out my own at: www.musselmanscience.com for an idea about how you may want to design your own. Of course Gmail will be a tremendous benefit for your students who may not yet have e-mail access.

All of these features can be accessed by having your students click on one of the links and creating their own account. If your school's IT specialists is on board, you may be able to get them to look into Google apps for the school, or at least your class. Google apps for the school would give your IT provider more control over what the students would use the applications for and can help apply additional filters to their Gmail accounts for safety purposes.

Another free impact application you may want to apply in your classroom are social network sites. Many of your students are surely on Facebook. Why not start to get them to use that in an educational way? Just as many businesses have started using Facebook to market their business, you too can market your class and your subject matter to your students! Check out: http://www.facebook.com/business/dashboard/ and create what is known as a Facebook page (not to be confused with Facebook profile) for your classroom. Here you will be able to post links for discussion, set up discussion boards to discuss the activities or receive feedback, and inject your classroom into their after-school lives. I created a test pilot Facebook page this summer with fellow teachers to get a sense of what this might look like in the classroom this year. Become a fan of: Mr. Musselman's Science Classroom to see what I mean.

That will get you started for now. If you are interested in getting your students to publish more of their work for the world to see check out blogger.com the Google blogging platform. My team is trying this for the first time as an entire class in order to create student portfolios of their work and learning over the course of the year. We will be using edublogs, a blogger service that costs money but gives us more control over advertising locations on the sites and inter connectivity between one another's blogs."

"Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" - Story

2009-08-12T07:40:00.005-04:00

This past April our school hosted a Spotlight School Symposium where teachers and administrators from across the nation came together to see first-hand our school's efforts to integrate technology and 21st century skills in to the curriculum. All doors were open as student tour guides whisked these educators through the halls, into and out of classrooms, answering their questions about the different kinds of electronics students were using and how they were collaborating with one another through them. With so much rushing about, its tough to determine how much the educators and come to understand about our school and its culture.

That all changed when they were brought to the auditorium. There a student-directed presentation was waiting for them: a collection of student, teacher, and administrator voices sharing their experiences at Parker and their own feelings on the culture of the school and its classrooms. The authentic stories of Parker Middle School were being shared, not the whiz-bang lessons on display or any rehearsed statements, but the true voices and experiences of the school - and the audience loved it.

Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" strikes a chord with me once again throughout his chapter on story and it's significance in the current world. As Pink puts it,

"The ability to encapsulate, contextualize, and emotionalize has become vastly more important in the Conceptual Age. When so much routine knowledge work can be reduced to rules and farmed out to fast computers and smart L-Directed thinkers abroad, the more elusive abilities embodied by Story become more valuable." (pg. 104)

Pink emphasizes this point by testing the reader's mind at the very beginning of the chapter. The questions posed, one about a fact shared and the other a story shared previously in the book, emphasized the ability of one's mind to retain information when it is in a story.

Makes me rethink skipping over those cultural stories surrounding ancient civilizations and their fascination with the moon during my space unit. Knowledge within context, not to mention a world culture interdisciplinary connection. What was I thinking?

"Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" - Design

2009-08-09T21:26:00.003-04:00

Over the past week I have turned my attention to Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the World." A more quickly paced read than "The World is Flat 3.0," the second chapter titled, "Abundance, Asia, and Automation" shares many revelations of the world's rapidly changing economy and how many of the jobs and skills Americans have grown up to value and refine are no longer 'enough.' Pink suggests instead that Americans must start to develop their ability to develop six senses that psychologist's have recognized are controlled primarily by the right side of the brain's temporal lobes. The six "Right-Directed" senses that must be developed beyond the listed "Left-Directed reasoning" are:

Not just function, but DESIGN
Not just argument but also STORY
Not just focus but also SYMPHONY
Not just logic but also EMPATHY
Not just seriousness but also PLAY
Not just accumulating but also MEANING

While reading the chapter regarding design, I was compelled to write in my margins the following statement: "Design must be a part of project planning. Examining well designed projects should be done by peers and there should be allotted time to adjust projects for both their utility and significance."

We should give our students opportunities to examine exemplars but must encourage them to find their own look and feel that not only conveys understanding but gives their work an individual spirit. Without hard-wiring students to do just that, we will leave them ill-prepared for a world where work and skills without style are in great abundance and easy to replace.

The Most Important Competition Today...

2009-07-16T07:10:00.005-04:00

While reading chapter eleven from Thomas Friedman's, "The World is Flat 3.0" I read a corporate coping rule on globalization that gave me pause.

"Rule #2: This is an outgrowth of rule #1 [whatever can be done will be done]. Because we are in a world where whatever can be done will be done, the most important competition today is between you and your own imagination." (pg.447)

I was immediately impacted by this statement and its relationship to my teaching and our school's "core values." I was introduced to the core values of Parker my first year and proudly post them in the classroom as both a reminder and rallying cry for our students. Parker's core values are: kindness, community, and personal best.

All of these values have shown themselves in one way or another through "The World is Flat." But while reading rule #2 I was struck by the direct connection between it and our third value. "The most important competition today is between you and your own imagination." As an educator of heterogeneously grouped students, there are times when I find myself slowing down the lessons and curriculum beyond my own personal pace preference in an effort to be respectful to the needs of the classroom's needier learners. Every time I do this I feel the risk for disengagement from my brightest bulbs who are eager to sink their teeth in to the next big thing.

This realization and the reading of rule #2 has led me to a developed sense of urgency to develop better lessons, projects, and other assessments that pit our students against their strengths, weaknesses, and will. A need to push my students to against their own imaginations in an effort to achieve their personal best.

This is a message that must be delivered to all students, but particularly those advanced ones who act as though they are floating through the middle-grade levels, biding their time for the next big thing. In the "flat world" their is no room for waiting, students, companies, teachers, anyone looking to be a piece of the global puzzle in the coming future must reach out for themselves and stretch their own minds and wills towards creating (not just finding) the next big thing.

I am charged with developing more and more lessons with a "creativity" assessment component that will highlight such needs. A component that I can subjectively scale against each student to push them against their own "personal best." While the assessment will still predominantly focus on the student's understanding of the science curriculum, it will not be the only thing. Teacher's play a critical role in not only developing students' academic knowledge, but their life skills as well.

The Untouchables and "New Middle"

2009-07-07T07:05:00.003-04:00

In reading Thomas Friedman's, "The World is Flat 3.0 " I came across a particular chapter that piqued my curiosity and thoughts regarding education. Chapter six, titled "The Untouchables" remarks on Friedman's opinions regarding what types of skills will be most valuable in the economy of the future (now?) Of course, this relates directly to what we as educators should be instilling in our students as they develop their way towards the working world. As Friedman states, "students also have to fundamentally reorient what they are learning and educators how they are teaching it." (pg. 280)

Friedman goes on to highlight the following characteristics as those that will make up the body of "New Middlers." They are as follows:

Great collaborators and orchestrators
Great synthesizers
Great explainers
Great leverages
Great adapters
Green people
Passionate personalizers
Math lovers

Science education lends itself so easily to a number of these characteristics, and it has charged me to develop my lessons to further include such skill development in our pursuit to masters the standards of Earth and Space education put forth by the Department of Education.

Perhaps the one desired-skill that pushes me to think the most is the "synthesizer." The concept of putting "putting together disparate things that you would not think of as going together." (pg. 287) Fellow faculty members have gone to great lengths to extend their students' and their own knowledge surrounding the vast array of web applications and tools available to facilitate student publication of understanding. Wikis (collaboration!), podcasting, Voicethreads, etc. are all examples of points where teacher's have encouraged students to connect the content with a seemingly unconnected application.

While reading this section I recognized the importance of continuing such kinds of projects and assessments. We must push students to use these tools, eventhough they may soon be replaced by even better applications. The goal will not be to teach a student how to make the perfect Voicethread or podcast, but to give them the opportunity to make a connection that displays their understanding of content with their exploration of such tools so that they may become masters of synthesizing such things in the not to distant future.

Facebook Dream Realized - Part I

2009-06-29T08:40:00.001-04:00

An ongoing battle I had been waging in my mind started over six months ago while watching an officer with the Reading police force during an eighth grade-wide presentation. The presentation was on social networking sites such as myspace and facebook, and how students presenting all of their personal information for the world to see were putting themselves in some potentially dangerous situations.

The results of some of the more tragic consequences shared by the officer were not nearly as shocking as the percentage of hands raised in the room after the question "how many of you have a facebook account?" Easily nine-tenths of the students had their hands up, a teacher's dream in a classroom!

I mused over this for a few days. "All of these students are spending time on facebook, how can I steal a chunk of that teenager attention span for education? What are the possible problems that could result from communicating with students through facebook? How would students feel about connecting with their teacher on facebook? How would their parents feel?"

The dream of having science quiz reminders and links to "cool" websites promoting the sciences embedded in their often checked "newsfeed" danced in my mind. The thought of a highly visible "help desk" where students could simply post questions, in a way that any student with a similar problem might read it (and my subsequent recommendation) danced about.

Meanwhile fears of personal and professional lives intersecting, the possibility of inadvertently establishing an inappropriate student-teacher relationship, and public misunderstandings surrounding social networking sites all lurked in the shadows.

But yesterday I sunk my teeth in and truly explored the facebook world beyond my personal profile page and its assorted applications. I found I had been ignoring a simple, but recently upgraded feature that will realize all my hopes and assuage my fears... I can not wait to share it with next year's class! Unfortunately the free time ran dry, but I soon expect to share with my facebook world my page in hopes that my friends/family and maybe even a few strangers will help me tweak it now for a smooth September transition to the students!

Looking Forward to Expanding Boundaries

2009-06-20T12:13:00.005-04:00

This past Tuesday I met with our Assistant Superintendent and a number of my colleagues from throughout the district to complete an introduction to the "Expanding Boundaries" course I will be taking next academic year. The course is designed to aid us in our pursuit to "challenge, raise expectations of student achievement and to prepare students to be globally competitive" in our classrooms. The course incorporates online coursework, attendance at technology conferences, reading requirements, and a series of assignments designed to help us reflect on our experiences in "EB" and expose us to the multitude of different technological tools at our fingertips (along with the rest of the worlds!)

Through much of my classwork even through graduate school much of my classroom required readings have centered around technical textbooks to deepen my understanding of scientific knowledge. This course presents a different sort of reading that I am excited to sink my teeth in to. While some of the texts center around how to use new tech tools, there are others that provide historical context and approaches to student learning.

The required reading includes:
The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman (2007).
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink (2006).
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Will Richardson (2006).
Why Don't Students Like School?, Daniel WIllingham (2009).
Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November (2008).

I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts and opinions on these readings on this blog as I venture forward through this course with my cohort of fellow educators.

Celebrational, Yea! It's Educational!

2009-06-06T13:03:00.005-04:00

Just got back from what our CTA guide called "a unique trip to Washington, D.C." and what a wonderful time it was. Due to recent changes in the Reading social studies curriculum the more "traditional" eighth grade DC/right of passage field trip was traded for an itinerary including Shakespearean theater, ancient Asian art, and an incredible journey through the Lauray Caverns of Virginia. Many of Washington's monuments and memorials were also included in our travels. The weather didn't always cooperate but we were able to experience nearly everything we planned on and then some. As has become my norm for travel with students, I brought along my digital camera. My favorite clips from my video journal can be found below.

Tech Committee Conundrum

2009-04-03T19:55:00.002-04:00

Last Wednesday our district's "technology committee" met to continue developing our current goal: Create a technology-standard assessment for 8th graders in a project based learning context. The committee had previously developed a four-step PBUnit with accompanying rubric for educator's to assess the technology standards. The area of focus for the project was student driven, and all team teacher's would take part in the assessment process since the content was not the focus of the project.

Wednesday's meeting was met with renewed enthusiasm. With a project outlined and rubric to follow we thought it wise to develop an exemplar to help us visualize what a project might look like from our students. We immediately ran into a roadblock with a previously unforseen issue. As we started to try to hash out what we wanted our project to encompass a big question loomed before us. Was what we were visualizing really what was being asked of us?

The project vision was promising. A four team collaborative effort to gather and organize data and information, then construct a multimedia presentation that would be published and presented. But one member played "devil's advocate" with a comment and a question:

How are students grouped here? When kids do group projects the work all gets divided up. Some kids are going to have more tech skills than others and they will naturally be the ones who take on the bulk of the technology project. If this project is collaborative, what will our assessments be telling us?

The goal of developing an assessment of our students tech skills spawned a wonderful collaborative project to fill-out our 8th grader's time in the middle school. Committee members even began to visualize a community share day, inviting fellow students and community members to a convention like atmosphere where the projects would be shared. But now we are left wondering: Will the culminating assessment actually tell us the data our district is looking for? Do we need to redesign what we've done, and if so around what? What is the best learning experience for the students or the criteria we are supposed to assess? Can we find a perfect middle ground?

Audio Comments: Between Smiles and Regrets

2009-03-03T20:29:00.003-05:00

It's quarter to nine on a Tuesday night. I'm deep into my fourth cup of "lemon zinger" tea and I can feel an unknown sickness creeping into my bones, but at the moment I am down-right content as I have just finished my first ever set of "audio comments" for my entire 8th grade class.

When I drag them all in to iTunes I'm told they total up to over two hours of dialogue. I'm struck with delight and horror simultaneously! It gets me wondering... when I write my comments on a rubric or paper, does it take me just as long? Maybe, maybe not, but just re-listening to one audio file tells me I'm getting more bang for my buck. It would've taken me a solid five or more minutes to write the intricate explanations I'm providing to students orally regarding lab write-up nuances, density's relationship to an objects composition, and how double checking the rubric before handing in an assignment next time will surely earn them a higher grade.

I'm already thinking of ways to improve this system next time to cut the comment time down without sacrificing the value. Perhaps some pre-made comments for the statements I repeated over and over again? The real question... how will the students react to the new format?

If I put them on the school's iPods for review they'll have no choice but to listen...

... and that beats writing all those notes and comments, only to watch them stuff the paper deep in their binder without a blink, never to be seen again!

Is This Thing On? Welcome Everyone!

2009-03-01T10:53:00.000-05:00

Over the recent school year, a number of Parker teachers have been involved in an “Expanding Boundaries” course dedicated to enlightening Reading, MA teachers to the variety of tech-based tools in the web world that enrich their classrooms as well as their own personal and professional development. While I have not been a part of the program I have been directly influenced by it, as these educators have eagerly distributed their “golden nuggets” to all faculty members willing to listen.

Recently I’ve been turned on to “Twitter,” a networking site that you’ve potentially already heard of depending on your own social circles and “Delicious,” a bookmarking tool that keeps all of your browser links in a central location searchable by others (if you allow it), building a web database of useful links. The one-two punch of these two sites has been dramatic as I have seen my own network of educators (and their resources) spike and my collection of ready-to-go classroom links balloon.

The benefit of blogging has also reasserted itself in my mind. Lost in the post-holiday break shuffle, I have neglected my blog for too long. Its time to jump back on the horse! In reading other educators’ blogs however, I’ve recognized the need for me to re-tool my blogging methods for my audience (who is this blog really for? the students? the parents? me?) to heighten my own impact on this digital community.

So consider this a coming out party for my "professional blog." My previous blog will be maintained for student perusal, with the intention of keeping dual blogs (did I just commit to that?!) For a Sunday morning, I am brimming with anticipation and excitement!

Thanks to Kathy Favazza, Steve Olivo, and Norah Connolly for their willingness to share their experiences and knowledge of all things education. You can read their excellent blogs for yourself through the links listed below.

Norah Connolly: Librarian(')s Matter

Kathy Favazza: Math + RedSox = The Perfect Equation

Steve Olivo: Llama Llama Duck

And don't hesitate to follow MrMusselman on Twitter. Looking forward to sharing and learning with everyone willing!