Student Web Pages

My students have been working on their web pages for about 3 weeks now. I began by training about 5 students (that is the number of laptops that I have set up in my classroom) on the use of PBWiki. Then these 5 were responsible for training the next 5. This way I could continue with the regular instruction of the class and students were responsible themselves for learning to create their web pages ans for catching up on what I had been teaching in class.
So far most students are accepting the added responsibility.
I have even had reports of students working on and teaching about web page creation during their computer lab time. I am especially pleased about this development because from my observation most time spent in the computer lab is spent playing "educational" games.
I'm hoping that from this other teachers will encourage students to use their time in the computer lab for the creation of more original works.

Vision of Students Today

K12 Online

In one of the many blogs I read I came across a reference to an online conference for educators interested in emerging technologies. Wow this seems to speak directly to me and the focus of my interest of lately. Right now if you access the web site you can find "teasers" videos of the scheduled events. My understanding is that you can view the workshops live online and interact with the presenters. That should be pretty cool. I'm going to try and catch some of the presenters.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is the latest of web 2.0 that I have discovered. OK it’s probably a discovery that has already been found by many before me. But I still find it exciting. This is yet another way that information can be saved, stored, organized, and shared with others.

del.icio.us is a website that allows users to create editable pages of links. This could be a great tool for teachers. Now we can easily save and share web sites with other teachers and students. Here is a link to my del.icio.us page. http://del.icio.us/ChanBliss here you will find a link to a video that explains social bookmarking.

As I play with this I’m sure that I will find more things that can be done with this “technology”. I guess on a basic level it allows you to carry your favorites with you.

Learn, teach, learn, teach

I’ve been reading other blogs about using web 2.0 in an educational setting. I guess as with any emerging theories there are many different opinions of how web 2.0 should be used in the classroom.

Some see the use of the web, blogs, podcasts, wikis, MySpace, Flicker and other collaborative web based tools to be liberating and empowering. Others cannot understand allowing that much unscripted, unsupervised activity in a classroom or any learning environment.

Being a classroom teacher I understand the need for control. Conversely as an artist I understand the need for freedom in a creative environment. The challenge now is to balance the two needs.

Of course mistakes will be made but those mistakes should not be a signal to return to the old ways of teaching. With the speed of change happening teachers must learn to teach as they learn. Learn, teach, learn, teach… It is a brave new world that is recreating itself faster than we can get use to the old one.

415

That's it 415 students to the Tampa Museum of Art in 4 days. 23 different classes grades 2 through 5. Some of my teachers have already had their students do some writing about their museum experience and they had a great time. The boys favorite piece was the American Detritus by Andrew Junge. Well the girls liked it too. I happened to be passing by when Mrs. Mallons second grade class was at this exhibit and they were all around it on their hands and knees looking under the sculpture. I imagine that kids are the few that have viewed American Detritus from that angle.

Over the hump

OK three down, one to go. We had the smallest group go to the museum today and for the first time all three buses that we ordered showed up, go figure.
Mrs. Halls TMH class came today. They are so much fun. We were in the gallery with the display from the National Sculpture Society and spotted the piece by Richard MacDonald called "Leap of Faith". Bobby began by trying to imitate the pose. Then the other six got into the act, I was very surprised when Ishmael got into the act. He twisted up into a pose I didn't think was humanly possible.

Day two at the museum

Day two of the art museum marathon and 117 more of my students have visited the Tampa Museum of Art. They all seemed to enjoy the trip in spite of the heat. The boys really liked the Styrofoam Humvee. But I think the hit of the trip was at the end. When we went out the get on the buses one bus and both drivers were missing. I figured that they had gone to lunch and would eventually return. The kids all sat along the curb and began pumping their arms up and down at the cars. Then it happened... a car honked. Oh what joy! They all cheered and began pumping their arms at every car that passed. By the time the missing bus and drivers arrived all the kids were focused on getting cars to honk and were hesitant to leave.

Visit to the Tampa Museum of Art

Today began the first day of a 4 day marathon field trip to the Tampa Museum of Art. Today I brought 6 classes of about 110 students and 16 parent/chaperons. Other that it being a little warm during lunch the students and adults had a great time. The docents at the museum told me that all the children were very behaved and interested in the art that they were seeing.
the students took advantage of any shady spot they could find.

First week of school

The first week of school is over. I've seen all my classes and given the kids the rules and regulations of my class. Basically don't but me I won't bug you. My version of the golden rule.
The students were all very excited to be in school and happy to be in my class. They always light up at the potential of what is to come in my class and I hope not to disappoint them.

No time for art

180 days of school to go. Not that I'm counting but that translates into 36 classes of art each year for an elementary student. 27 hours a year, a little more that a day of art each year or one week of art in their elementary school career. Not much time when you think about it.
Especially now that in Florida art is no longer required in middle school. Oh yes there is a requirement in high school that a student take a minimum of 1 credit Fine Art, but of course this has been watered down to read: 1 credit in practical arts career and technical education or performing fine arts; or .5 credit each in practical arts career and technical education and performing fine arts.
So it could be that my art class is the only art exposure that a child may receive in their entire education. I take this responsibility very seriously and understand the effect on a child's future that I hold.
Now when I say 180 days to go you understand that I see that as not too many but not enough.

Social networking in schools

From a report by the National School Boards Association the internet isn't as dangerous as people think, and teachers should let students use social networks at school.

From this article it appears that the dangers of the internet are created more by the media and political fear mongers that reality.