STSD Curriculum & Technology Update

Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.

Interactive Whiteboards

It has been great hearing the excitement and enthusiasm building for the Advancing Plan. I thought today I’d pass along two links to websites that focus on using the interactive whiteboard in the classroom. These are two excellent sites to visit if you want to start thinking about how best to use this technology. You can also speak with any of the teachers currently using the technology. Seek out and connect with those teachers in your building for more ideas!

Teaching with a SmartBoard - Links for lesson ideas and SmartBoard Notebook files.

Smartboard Lessons Podcasts - Podcasts on using the SmartBoard!

A short portion of our June workshops will get you started feeling comfortable with the software. More hands-on work with the interactive whiteboard will be coming during the August in-service days.

The Future is Now…according to the Rutgers University English Department

There are lots of interesting points in this short presentation:

1. “...the nature of communication has totally changed.”
2. “English, as the site that excels in human expression, and in the study of human culture related to expression—we should be the place that’s at the very cutting edge of education for students in these areas.”
3. “We now live in a world where we don’t simply go to the web to draw information down, but that people are actively participating in and contributing to the knowledge and information that is on the web.”
4. Because we now live in this read/write world, it’s essential that the English Department provide our students with training in how to live in this world.”
5. Collaboratories - “...spaces where students can work on multimedia composition. Because to compose, and to compose successfully in the 21st century, you have to not only excel at verbal expression and written expression, but you also have to excel in the use and manipulation of images. That is what it means to compose.”
6. Writing in the 21st century - “It’s multiply authored. It’s multiply produced. That’s where English is going.”

What are your thoughts?

Once Upon A School

In this video, writer David Eggers asks people “to personally, creatively engage with local public schools. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to open their own volunteer-driven, wildly creative writing labs. But you don’t need to go that far, he reminds us—it’s as simple as asking a teacher “How can I help?”

If a volunteer entered your building, your classroom, and asked you “How can I help?”, what would your answer be?

Podcasting with Mrs. Prokesch @ SMS

Beth Prokesch from Salisbury Middle School shares here experience with podcasting. Be sure to click through on the link to listen to some of the fine examples!

Prokesch’s Podcasts can now be found on the middle school’s webpage thanks to the planning and hard work of the 7th grade students in Mrs. Prokesch’s English classes. After completing the lengthy study of different forms of poetry this past month, students were given the opportunity to present one of their exemplary poems to the world!  Students were wide-eyed with excitement and wonder when presented with the idea of a poetry podcast for an alternative assessment to end the unit.  This assignment incorporated many skills I’ve covered and reviewed throughout the year as well as the inclusion of academic literacy strategies and technology.  The students followed a grading rubric to help them polish their final podcast. They wrote a script introducing themselves, the poem and perhaps any literary devices they incorporated into the selection.  Throughout the script they were required to indicate in writing any pitch, speed and/or volume changes.  The day preceding the recording, students practiced their podcasts using headphones purchased for this type of project.  Students critiqued fellow students as well that day.  The process went smoothly with the appropriate preparation in place.  Students were shown by fellow students how to include music on their podcasts to help set the mood they had in mind.  In the end, students were excited to complete the extra work in preparation for their podcast; hearing their own poems and voices on the computer made them laugh at themselves and pay tribute to fellow podcast examples.  I will look forward to completing this assessment again with future English classes and units.

Teenagers and the Internet

With the title, “What’s the matter with kids today?: Nothing, actually. Aside from our panic that the Internet is melting their brains,” Salon.com writer Amy Goldwasser offers a brief article that prompts us to rethink our ideas about how and why students are different today.

Teenagers today read and write for fun; it’s part of their social lives. We need to start celebrating this unprecedented surge, incorporating it as an educational tool instead of meeting it with punishing pop quizzes and suspicion.

We need to start trusting our kids to communicate as they will online—even when that comes with the risk that they’ll spill the family secrets or campaign for a candidate who’s not ours.

This article made me think about how we still want our students to consume more than create. When we allow kids to create, we give them more control. This can be scary for us! But the nature of information, and therefore knowledge, has changed. As adults, are we working from a narrow definition of literacy that may not encompass the changes being experienced outside of school? What do you think? This is valuable for us to reflect on as we move full steam ahead on our literacy/technology initiative. Feel free to leave your comments below!