EdCamp Madison

I got to meet Makulu at EdCampMadWI and read some of his journal yesterday. He is traveling with Tim Nielsen @teach1tech right now and is part of a learning project from South Africa similar to what people have done with Flat Stanley. We might even get a visit at our school before Makulu moves on to another state.

If you weren't able to make it to EdCamp Madison, here is a tagboard of the tweets. Also, the schedule has live links to pages of notes that were taken in sessions. I appreciate that because I wasn't able to go to all of the sessions that I was interested in, but at least I can see some of the ideas and resources that were discussed.

My first session was on Gamefication. This was not on how to use video games in the classroom like some people might assume, but rather on how to use a game type model for motivation in the classroom. For example, Michael Matera (@mrmatera) the presenter, has a courtly type of situation set up in his class with guilds and the students are vying for control of the kingdom. I felt that it was much like the Oregon Trail simulation type of learning activity that I participated in when I was in 8th grade where we were in wagon train teams and each day there were learning activities in a game type situation. I still remember that because it involved a bit of drama and was not simply listening to a lecture or reading a textbook to learn the history.

My second session was Race Equity in Education. There aren't notes for that one, but it was a good time to hear what is going on in this area in other districts. We are at varying stages of awareness and change.

The next session I attended was one on Makerspaces. Karie Huttner led the session. Her website is www.icreateilearn.weebly.com We got some information on 3D printing at the elementary level in addition to coding and many more ideas for what students can do in Maker Spaces. This is one more encouragement for me to get going with that.

My final session was on Diversity in Literature. I actually proposed that one and led it. I enjoyed having the time to talk with other librarians about the resources we have available. I did learn that one ought to set up the sharing document for notes ahead of time or have a participant do it. I didn't think about it and was trying to get it done while the session was happening so then I thought it was shared for editing, but nobody could contribute notes. I didn't realize that until after the session and just figured nobody was in the document. :(  I learned the hard way - but I bet I won't do that again.

There is another EdCamp scheduled in April that I would like to go to. It will be in Eau Claire so the drive will be a bit shorter. Yay! And even better - there is talk of having one in the Onalaska area. That would be really cool.

“@librarygrl2: Hearing some murmuring here at #edcampmadwi about having an edcamp in the LaCrosse area @nharm @teach1tech” let's do it
— Curt Rees (@CurtRees) January 25, 2014

This was another great day of learning and I am so thankful to the organizers for making it all happen!

Summer Learning

Image source Gerd Altmann

I just finished signing up for the American Indian Studies Summer Institute. I am pretty excited about learning how to be more culturally responsive and also learning more about the tribes here in Wisconsin. I will spend five days in Greshom, WI (better find out where that is) and then finish the course online.

Signing up for that class made me start thinking about all of the things I am doing this summer as a student in life. I am participating in Teachers Write throughout July and into August. I am having a wonderful time sharing and learning with a whole passel of educators as we stretch ourselves as writers.

Of course #Titletalk hosted by the fabulous duo of Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp is still going on during the summer and I can't wait to talk about fantasy books this coming Sunday.

I am over the moon excited about nErDCampBC next week! I will get to meet so many Nerdybookclub members in person! Of course we will also get to share about literature and technology too.

It's not as flashy, but I am also learning about the Common Core this summer. I am part of a district team working on curriculum and resource choices. It is a lot of responsibility and work, but we are also becoming better teachers as we go.

I am also getting to READ! I love that part of summer. I am reading for blogging at Rich in Color, for #summerthrowdown and even for #bookbootcamp (though I don't teach at a middle school).

What learning opportunities are you a part of this summer?

EdCampMadWi

My first official EdCamp came and went. I can't believe it has taken me a week to find the time to process the new learning and get everything gathered into one place though.

The organizers did a fantastic job and everything went so smoothly. There were so many great sessions lined up that it was difficult to choose. I had a hard time right off the bat because I wanted to go to the Book Titles/Talks session, but there were others that were calling my name too.

Book Titles/Talks
It turned out to be a great session with fantastic titles and resources mentioned, but also in that it made me think about some things I can do to help create change in our school and district. One issue brought up was that some teachers are telling students that reading a certain type of book, such as a heavily illustrated non-fiction book or graphic novel, is "not reading." There are times when I have heard teachers say that the students are "too old" for picture books or that they need to check out harder materials. This is a bit of a hot button for me. Choice is a huge factor in creating a love for reading. I think we do need to encourage exploration of many types of reading, but insulting their favorites is not going to help our cause. Sometimes it seems that teachers would like me to be a police officer making sure that students come back from the library with books they can use to practice reading. I feel like they have reading group books and other materials to do that with, but that their library time is a time to find materials that inspire them, that interest them and that encourage a love of reading, not make them feel like they are checking out their homework.

Another issue that came up was that someone recommended a book that I have not yet read, but have heard is a problematic representation of a First Nation. There were glowing praises about Touching Spirit Bear from many in the room. I have yet to read the book though I have read a review of it on Debbie Reese's blog.

Goals after Book Titles/Talks Session:
With these two issues in mind, I would like to read Touching Spirit Bear so I can speak with some knowledge of the book, but also continue to be an advocate for quality literature from First Nation authors. During the last #titletalk I was able to offer many historical fiction titles that were from diverse authors. The "canon" will continue to be predominantly white unless we make a concerted effort to seek out, buy and talk about diverse works. I would also like to do something with our district literacy leader and/or our staff to have the conversation about promoting a reading culture in our school and district.

Student Blogging
The next session was with Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp). She shared a lot of good recommendations and resources. She is also very eager to help people get started. Her students are using blogs to discuss literature, improve their writing fluency, and share their thoughts and ideas with a real audience. As a side note, I have visited her blog about fashion and so was not surprised that she looked stylish and of course classy all day long. She also tweeted about Innovation Day. I think we could use some of those ideas for our family night this year or next.

Goals after Student Blogging Session:
I will plan to present a shared leadership session this spring for teachers interested in blogging with their students. I may also test out blogging by having a blogging club or choose a grade or class to blog with next year if none of the teachers are interested. I will keep thinking about possibilities with that one.

Chrome
I am always happy to go to a session with Chad Kafka (@chadkafka) and Tammy Lind (@taml17). In their session Chrome Rocks we got to see the many extensions and apps that are available when you use the Chrome browser. I still need to go through and add a few of these to my account and give them a try.

Goals after Chrome Session:
Experiment with some of the extensions and apps and pass on some good ideas to students and staff.

Common Core
This session was a difficult for the end of the day. There seemed to be more questions than answers for everyone. Districts are still muddling there way through what the Common Core State Standards are going to mean for us all. Teachers seem to be frustrated, stressed, and not sure where to turn. The session did result in a document with some resources, but people appeared more stressed rather than less stressed as a result of our discussion.

Goals after Common Core Session:
I will continue to collect resources for Common Core implementation and will present a session about it at WEMTA in April. Is it bad to say I am not sure what I will present there? I said it anyway. Being on the Common Core Steering Team, I thought I would be more knowledgeable about it by this time and I signed up to do it ages ago. I am not feeling like an expert, but I do think I'm becoming more comfortable with the CCSS as we move through this challenge.

Whew! That is a lot to think about and I am glad that edcamp stretches the participants. I also appreciated the opportunity to meet new people like Renee (@ReaderRenee) and reconnect with others like Sarah (@pageintraning). Hopefully, we will be able to have one here in the La Crosse area sometime in the not-too-distant future. If so, Pernille has given people a great post about what they learned by hosting. I am so glad that they organized EdCampMadWi!

On an Exciting Ride

I have just begun to discover what kind of wild ride I am going to be on for the next few weeks.  I have joined a collaborative learning environment called Digital Storytelling for Young Learners.  This workshop will be lead by some amazing people from all over the world.  As I see other students signing on from Istanbul, Argentina, Japan, Greece, New Zealand, and many other countries, I feel excitement because we are truly working together globally.  We are sharing from our classrooms and from our wide variety of backgrounds and I will be happy to learn with and learn from so many teachers.

I am getting ready to go play in the digital sandbox that the moderators have set up for us.  It has all sorts of fun new toys for me to play with like Comic Master, Story Bird, and Creaza.  All of these toys or tools are useful for digital storytelling.

I hope to learn a lot and bring some of these great tools to our school.