Random thoughts of a Monty Python fan

I love BrB on TappedIn.  She’s so patient with new people.  I spent an hour this morning wandering around TappedIn Pre-Festival Tips and Tricks.  They are having a special event this month and I want to be able to attend without floundering around.  I was the only one in the room besides my tourguide and I found that to be the best way to have a session.  I could ask as many questions as I needed to and still got out of the session early.  Of course I didn’t have the other opinions and questions that normally I would have had, but I think I learned more one on one.  I signed up for the Festival and am now looking forward to attending later this month.  Sign up for TappedIn (teachers) and join the fun!

I have used PowerPoint in the past and really enjoyed it.  This past Tuesday we explored some things about interactive PowerPoint that I didn’t know.  For example, you can put movies and voice to a PowerPoint presentation!  If you have enough patience you can CREATE a movie!  Personally, I can’t wait to use my new skills for other class presentations.

 Interactive PowerPoint can be used in several ways in the classroom.  I just gave a presentation on Pattern Puzzles in a class.  I used a lot of movement during my show.  You could do a presentation on an SOL required person like Martin Luther King, Jr. and along with the presentation insert a movie of him giving his famous “I have a dream” speech.  For science you could record and video an experiment to show to the class.  In math you could give step by step instructions for solving equations.  You could even use it in music class to introduce famous conductors.  I don’t think there is a single subject in school that couldn’t benefit from interactive PowerPoint.  I am going to use it as much as possible with my students.  I feel they’ll learn better with the combination of written, auditory, and video lessons.

There is something to be said for Podcasting.  Woohoo!  I love it and can’t wait to try it out in the classroom.  It’s great to be able to share creative writings with the world.  Be careful of Copyright laws or you may end up paying out the wahzoo.

I would like to use it so that students could video their fieldtrips and share them online.  The students wouldn’t be in the video and that way they could record later and then put them both together.  The other classrooms could then share in their excitement of the trip.  It would also be nice to send the parents a weekly message about what the schedule would be for the next week.

All in all, I liked making a podcast.  I like the idea of sharing a piece of myself with others.

I remember when I was in school…eons ago…sitting at my kitchen table with my mother trying to memorize my multiplication tables.  I was given this assignment in school and told to do it.  I wasn’t told why it was so important.  I wasn’t shown why it worked.  I had the same problem with other classes.  I was asked to memorize until I felt my head would burst.  And then, one glorious day, I discovered science.  The world would never be the same for me again.

Science.  That wonderful class where I took nothing at face value.  I was given information and asked to prove that it was correct.  I did research for answers, conducted experiements, and reported my findings.  It was great!  And now “they” have come up with another word for what I was doing in science.  Critical thinking.

Critical thinking.  That wonderful phrase that means being able to ask a million questions, get your hands dirty, experiment, come up with some more questions and find out some answers.  It means not taking information you receive for granted.  Instead you look elsewhere to see if other resources with information will back up what you were told.  What a great way to use technology to assist a student in gaining knowledge.  The computer isn’t just used to tell a student the answer but is used to guide the student to the answer.

Needless to say, yesterday’s classroom didn’t support critical thinking (i.e. the hated multiplication tables).  Memorization was the key to learning.  Questioning the teacher’s knowledge by asking too many questions was looked down upon.  I remember my aunt telling me once that in school while studying the globe she commented on how the continents looked as thought they were once one piece.  The teacher was less than thrilled with her.  My aunt continued to point out her observation and I believe she went to the office for her ”outburst”.  Guess what…the continents were once one piece!

In today’s classroom students aren’t only invited to ask questions, they are expected to question the answers they are given.  My classroom will be one of great exploration into knowledge and technology.  Who, what, when, where, how, and how come will pour out of my students’ mouths.  I hope that they take nothing I say for granted.  If they question me, I will challenge them to prove me wrong.  I will make available any and all technology that I can get my hands on to make sure that they are able to use a multitude of resources when finding out the answers they seek.  I will use groups for in class assignments.  In this way more questions can be asked about the topic than if I let one student ponder alone.  Those questions can lead to others that one person alone wouldn’t be led to ask.  By grouping I can also make sure that those who might not have technology at home get help from their peers.

By asking my students to constantly question I am preparing them to ask questions about all aspects of their lives.  I am asking them to question everything.  They’ll learn how to find answers in places they’ve not thought of before.  They’ll start driving every adult on the planet nuts with questions but, they’ll learn.  I’ll learn too.  I’ll have to keep on my toes if I’m to be able to help them through the jungle that is technology today.  

I LOVED Webcast!!  I wonder if I can use it for anything other than Excel.  I guess I’ll be posting the answer to that sometime soon. 

Let’s see…how can I, students, or other teachers use this tool in the classroom?  My first response is that the IT person at my school can use it to teach the staff how to use Excel to do actions that they would use most often (Bold, Center, etc.).  It could also be used to guide students in doing projects in the classroom.  With Webcast the students using the computers wouldn’t have to interrupt the teacher and interrupt her working with other students.  I would love it to help my Special Education students learn how to work touch math problems and graph.  I would like to use it for me so that when I learn something new I can record it for when I have a brain cramp and forget how to recreate the action.  This way I wouldn’t have to ask the person I learned the action from over and over…and over.  It’s a great tool and I highly recommend it, especially with voice over.

The TappedIn tour was interesting but a little less than I expected.  I was hoping for some mind-blowing experience which would allow me to, if not whiz, stumble through the site.  That’s not exactly what I got.  I did however have some fun and meet a really nice tour guide.

The K-12 site is calling my name and I’ll make sure to catch that tour on Saturday if I’m not bogged down with Soccer, Dance or the other various activities that the weekend holds.

I will be sure to do some more exploring and joining of the MANY groups available.  It ought to be an interesting trip.  Fasten your seat belt and join me!