Wolpowitz's Wonderings & Wanderings: June 2013

Say 'When'

For those of you who read my latest post you will know I have been struggling with a pedagogical question. As I proceed on the #CCOW creative computing course (aka Scratch boot camp) I've had to create projects to show that I've learned new tools. I can unabashedly claim that my tool box runneth over since I began last week (yes, I squashed weeks 1 - 4 into a week) yet I can't actually boast that I have created a perfect project.

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by See-ming Lee: http://flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/3962925533/

And because I'm a mom, a teacher, a wife, enrolled in a teaching certificate and trying to catch up on some sleep I've missed this past school year, I just can't work on a project forever. Excuse? Reality? In the real world a project would need to be completed. It doesn't feel good - I'm not a quitter. So my question is:

When is a project really over?

I've always known it was important for teachers to be students (not just for our own learning) but to remind us what it feels like and I have to say that if I was one of my students who had worked so many hours on a project, shown that I had learned the tools and wasn't given a grade reflecting that because my actual project didn't work or fulfill the original plan, I'd be despondent, frustrated and unmotivated.

I'm not sure about you but the last time I looked, none of those words were on the list of attitudes I'd like the learning in our classroom to foster.

So what I'm led to is rubrics. Perhaps as my project for this course I should develop rubrics that will accurately reflect the learning curve of a student. Should steps be accomplished and acknowledged - isn't the journey as important as the final goal (I'm sure there are more than a few famous quotes about this out there)? At the same time, giving up or not finishing is not a mindset I want to encourage. Is this where collaboration and community come in? Group debugging? I have a lot to think about - yes, really might be a good project!

So here is my project in which I learned about sensors and clones. It is inspired by a musical fountain in Malta that sang to me. While I haven't mastered sensors and clones, I sure have learned a ton and that has to count for something!

You should also know that I have 2 other working versions, I'm not giving up, just short on time right now. Who knows, it could be a debug-it project I give to my more advanced learners. My students teach me every day, why would this be any different?

Creativity Cramp? Eat popcorn!

There has been some discussion among my fellow #CCOW-ers about creativity. Specifically, do we have to be creative to teach creativity?

I battled with the exact same question this year until about January when I was switching from teaching Movie Making to Digital Art. The final Movie Making projects were phenomenal and I realized why. I had not taught it explicitly but had given students the tools to uncover, expose and express their own creativity. I continued providing students with projects where they CHOSE their topics, COLLABORATED with others and CREATED their visions but not without the digital art tool box.

Fast forward to my current online professional development (which I am enjoying so much, I don't want it to end), Creative Computing Design* run by Harvard/Scratch team. Weeks 1 - 3 are over and my toolbox runneth over! Week 4 has arrived, time to plan the big project and I'm blank. BLANK. BLANK!

I know I want it to do with CCSS and 9th grade math. But I don't want to be predictable and I really want to challenge myself using some of the Scratch 2.0 advanced features like video sensing and cloud data. I thought about what I would say to one of my students who emailed me the night before an idea pitch to say they were BLANK! What I learned from my Flat Classroom Teacher Certification kicked in here and I focused on the Cs and not the skills. And I made myself a bowl of popcorn. I call it my thinking food and it didn't let me down today. Check out my project that uses some of the fantastic advanced features:

video sensing
broadcast
ask
cloud data storage

I am having a problem that the sensing is too sensitive and the score goes up more than it should. Hopefully over the next few weeks I can tweek it to work. This does bring up a question for another post: When is a project over, I mean, really over?

And as my students would say, LOL like I did playing, this is fun.

*Thank you for providing us with a quality experience. It is not always the case that those who educate educators "walk the talk" but you really are and I appreciate it. More importantly, my students will benefit from it this coming school year.

Put a face on it

#dailytechgoal4teachers aim for today is to come up with a new avatar to put on all my social media. I'm not really planning on branding myself but yesterday I saw an avatar on Google+ that I recognized from Twitter and thought it was probably a good idea.

Not my favorite and won't use it but an idea of how creative we can get.

This is a great tip for kids. No real pictures of themselves, just avatars. There are so many options. Just create, take a screen shot and post. I've written about avatars before when mentoring the Student Blogging Challenge. Here is a great post with links to avatar sites.

We as educators are obligated to infuse digital citizenship into every lesson, online safety is a priority!

Yes, math teachers do read

So I bet you are wondering how that 'semi day of detachment' worked out. Not bad. I broke the rules a few times checking school email under the guise of really needing to see if I have to go and do an Excel tutorial on Monday but otherwise, I have to say, I was super productive and didn't miss a whole lot except maybe the constant flow of #ISTE13 tweets.

DITTO!

But today's #dailytechgoal4teachers is about going through Shelfari and figuring out what I want to read for the summer. This might not sound very techy but it is:

add it to the bottom of my blog homepage
will be working on making different 'shelves' if possible for professional and personal and student recommendations (both from and too) - is this even possible? Will find out soon
Then will add to school webpage

Motivation: a student was surprised this year when I read from The Alchemist to my math classes on World Read Aloud Day. Yes, math teachers read books.

Book suggestions? Personal or professional? Add in comments below or try to add to my Shelfari...

Day of Semi-Detachment

In honor of the first day of summer, I thought it would be a good idea to detach from the computer. If you are like me, between emails, whiteboards, teacher websites, online courses, PLN...I've been connected for more than 1/2 my waking hours this school year.

But I realized pretty quickly that to get through my to do list, I would have to do a semi-detachment day. I'll save full-detachment days for when I am really on holiday.

Home grown basilico ready to be turned into pesto ~ but it will wait one more day.

Problem 1: to do list on Google Tasks

Problem 2: need to talk to Mom about travel plans on Skype

Problem 3: need to write blog post for #dailytechgoal4teachers (pretty self explanatory)

Problem 4: need to use webcam to take photo for blog post

Problem 5: pump me up playlist to get me through the laundry, vacuuming, kitchen cleaning is on iTunes

Problem 6: Java course that I'm a bit behind in - online!

Problem 7: Want to make pesto with homegrown basilico but recipe search needs to be done online

So here is how I will detach today.

No Google searching - if something comes up add to to-do list
Check personal email once this evening
No work email at all
No twitter, PLN will still be there tomorrow
No reader, will all still be there tomorrow
Will do Java course for only 1 1/2 hours today after lunch when too hot to be outside and no online multitasking allowed
Pesto can wait one more day but Mom can't so will Skype once I accomplish the first 1/2 of my list

Give it a try. Let me know how it goes on twitter or in comments.

When ZERO is a great thing!

Day 1 #dailytechgoal4teachers: Empty school email inbox.

Mission Accomplished.

This feels great. Setting small goals means accomplishment which is food for the soul!

Join the daily tech goal challenge I recently blogged about: taking tech one byte at at time.

#dailytechgoal4teachers

It is Friday evening and I don't have tests to grade, emails to write to parents or blogs to read. I have 10 months worth of wonderful ASM memories. My rookie year is over and I'm ready to celebrate but am also in my space of reflection.

Summer does not actually start for me until I have spent some time sorting, organizing, thinking, rethinking and planning my summer.

I believe it is essential for teachers to plan our summers so we have enough time to rejuvenate but also to get through our monumental and most often unachievable to-do lists.