Portfolios: Not just a big leather satchel anymore

I remember back during my post bac days I created an efolio, which served as a resume and teaching portfolio. I included lots of links, documents, web pages, and the like, all highlighting my teacher preparation. At the time, efolio was about the only thing that was out there for this purpose, but since then blogs, wikis, and nings have come onto the scene...

I'm thinking that I will eventually take my own efolio material and convert it into a wiki. I'm planning on doing something similar with my students as the year progresses.

At the moment, we're working on a unit wiki around the novel "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry". This is going to be a bit of a warm up for the "big show". Right now, we're adding chapter summaries, comic life adaptations of key points in the story, and down the line we'll add some voice thread and imovie files that they will work on, all based on their own narrative writing.

The "big show" I reference will be individual (hopefully) wikis that include each of their large writing assignments, transcripts of their online feedback and critiquing, and some of their online collaboration work that they will be doing over the next few months. I'm hoping that this will serve as a map of where they've been that can be useful to both my students as a reflection piece to help them decide on where they want to go, and myself as an instructor so I can have an easily accessible record of assessments and instructional pieces for my future planning. I've always had access to all kinds of numbers based on state assessments, but to have constant access to a year's worth of tangible performance assessments will be so much more useful to me. It's one thing to see mathematical representations of a student's ability, but another to actually see the influence of the instructional process. Of course, it's possible that the push to meet standards will eat up more of my time than I can spare, thus making my utopic vision impossible. I'll try anyway.

So what the heck have I been writing about?

Looking back on my blog posts was a good idea. I hadn't realized it, but I've gotten a lot more specific in my reflections on using these digital tools in writing instruction.

Early on, I focused most of my thoughts on how and when I might implement these different tools. Over the past few weeks, I noticed that I focused a lot more on some of the possible pitfalls of using these technologies, which then made it possible for me to anticipate instructional problems as I pushed my students forward.

I'm sure that a large part of this change in focus was due to my incorporation of the blog, wiki, and a bit of a chat session in class. A year ago, I would've been too scared to attempt these things, but in the past few months, the class has forced me to learn more about things like blogs, wikis, comic life, voice thread, etc. Granted, there have been a few disasters as my students and I stumbled though some technical difficulties, embarrassing mislinks, and a few hilarious misuses of our new tools, we have begun to reach a point where the technology is now working for us rather than being beaten into submission by a bunch of Neanderthals. It's really been an exciting professional development experience.

As far as feedback goes, I’ve been doing the tired old written comments and small conference setup that has worked well for so long. But I’m not happy with it. Ultimately, I would prefer to do all audio feedback, but at the present time, my students’ lack of technology expertise and access has made that rather difficult. I’ve done word comments before, but I find that even getting my students to email a copy of their paper I can actually read can be a rather daunting task. Some of them don’t even know how to compose an email unless I show them.

In their defense, they’re making progress. A science teacher and I have ganged up on our common students and are both using the same technologies in class in an effort to increase the students’ level of exposure. Our collective goal is to get our students to a point where we use very little paper, if any. We have a long way to go, but we’re going to try our best…and probably fail miserably. Oh well.

Interactive Power Points: Is that an oxymoron?

I learned pretty quickly in my teaching career that if you actually want students to engage in your power points, they have to be engaging. What I mean is, they have to be set up in a way that makes the students DO SOMETHING! Taking notes doesn't count.

In the embedded presentation below, I include links to websites, a few questions to ponder, and a short clip of a stand up comic routine about the pagans and christians. I used this in class back in my days of high school teaching and it was a big success. We used it as a precursor to Beowulf so that the students would understand the presence of so many contradictions in philosophies.

As of late, I've had to compromise a bit with the power points because my students have limited access to computers when not at school. When they are at school, so many of the teachers are using web 2.0 technologies that it can be quite difficult to get the necessary resources to make a really interactive presentation...at least by my own personal standards.

Therefore, I've also embedded an example of a power point I use in vocab instruction. The interaction comes from me. I act like a game show host and draw names out of a hat to address each of the slides because each one has them doing something with the word. In fact, the only thing they are supposed to write down from the slides is the word and definition at the end of the process. They will ultimately write and discuss much more than that, which is the goal and compromise I've made to try and make this technology work for me.

Beowulf PPT

Beowulf Prereading

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Vocabulary PPT

Chapter 4 In Context

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

I hope you enjoy!

Making Videos

Below, you'll find an embedded video I put together with clips I took while driving from my house to Perkins in Minnetonka. It was a lot of fun doing that.

The process of putting the video together was extremely fun for me! The details involved in sequencing, editing, and adding the right effects really appeal to me. I feel like I could spend an entire day messing around with iMovie and not feel it was a waste of time.

As I worked to edit my movie effectively, I realized a few things:
1. The clips I made weren't always long enough. While I was shooting, I felt that I had a good length of tape, but it was far less than I thought when I began to edit
2. It's easy to spend way too long trying to figure out how to get the timing just perfect

Therefore, when I put this program into action in my classroom, I will have to make sure I tell them to take clips that run for at least 5 seconds a piece. In fact, 10 may be better so as to allow more room for editing and cutting. This was my biggest problem. I'll also have to spend...days, I'm sure, teaching them how to use the program with some premade video clips. This way, when they start working with their own content, they can have a better idea of what it is they want and how to do it.

I will also require storyboarding, which I've just recently introduced to my students. So far, we've storyboarded existing stories, but down the line, they will have to storyboard their own ideas ahead of time.

Without further ado, "Night Driving"...

The Making of a Podcast of Epic Proportions

If you haven't noticed yet, I like a bit of hyperbole in my post titles. I find it adds a bit of dramatic anticipation that fades quickly upon reading the post. What can I say? That's how I roll!



I just finished making my first legitimate podcast and overall, things went pretty well! I figured I would have to plan ahead a bit so in talking with my parents about their upcoming retirement and move, I not only wrote questions ahead of time, I told my parents what I would ask as well. I wanted this to appear spontaneous, which worked well because my parents are pretty good at doing the acting thing. Thinking about the use of voice, this could have been a pitfall had I interviewed someone else. I know that in doing a lot of drama in the classroom, students can sound overly rehearsed in a lot of ways. Interviewing is always more interesting when it sounds spontaneous, which will require some instruction from me. This part of the podcasting was awesome. I had problems, however, with the Audio Hijack limits.

Since I had a limited amount of time to get my information, I felt that I came off as dismissive in the interview. That came to me after I got over hating the sound of my own voice. Down the line, I suppose if I did something like this with my students, I would have to make sure that our software was all legitimate because trial versions can make things really annoying. In fact, I had to cut the best thing my mom said because the program started putting noise all over the recording!

My topic for this might seem a bit off, but I thought it would be a practical way to try out the technology since I'm looking to do some type of inquiry project with my kids. This topic is something I'm actually quite interested and now have a more personal stake in this topic since it will directly involve my immediate family.

I like the idea of doing a podcast type interview instead of the standard written type because it gives kids the opportunity to roll with the punches as it were. In a written interview, I see kids write answers to their questions and then just move on. Doing it over Skype and podcasting adds the "off topic" factor to things, which can often take the interview into much cooler territory than anyone anticipated at the outset. As mentioned above, it would also be a great way to teach kids about the use of their voice. We can look at how they sound in different social situations by listening to recordings of themselves and then work to emulate those sounds depending on the topic and questions they ask in their interviews. I think that they would really enjoy this because a lot of them, I'm sure, would start to see some rather "unsavory" applications to voice manipulation. I suppose they'll start to see how I can always tell when they're lying to me!

I really enjoyed doing this assignment! I can't wait to build up the courage to now teach the technology to my students! Pray for me.

To subscribe to this podcast, copy this URL into iTunes.

A bit off topic, but worth a look...

I live for the possibility of getting an answer like this from a student!

They didn't study - Upload a Document to Scribd

Podcasting: Fabulous Classroom Innovation or Just Another Excuse to Play with Garage Band?

To start, a brief update on Comic Life:

I started using it today in my Creative Writing class. So far so good! The students are using it to convert one of their longer stories to a graphic novel. They are frustrated that I won't let them use copyrighted pictures, but they're getting over it...

And...the issue of the week; podcasting.

I'm a bit behind on my own podcast at the moment, what with the end of the quarter and all. I was upset at this until class tonight when we learned how to record a Skype conversation. Before that, I didn't think I had anything worth podcasting about. I mean really, nothing. I think, for my first real attempt, I'm going to do a Skype interview with my brother, who now teaches south of London, about the differences he sees in our systems and what kinds of things he has to do to comply with standards. I might be the only one that finds this interesting, but that's okay. It might be good to play for my students this spring when they all start to complain about having to take MCA tests. I'll show them the podcast and say, "You're not alone. Suck it up!"

I was reading the ning tonight and saw Scott's post about hating his own voice. I feel exactly the same way, so unless I either become intoxicated or get over my own self deprication, I don't see myself being overly creative with the podcasting medium. I will DEFINITELY have my kids work with it. I subscribe to a few podcasts such as "Car Talk", "This American Life", and "The Onion Radio News". I especially like the format of "TAL" and "TORN" as and English teacher because they lend themselves so well to storytelling. I think it would be engaging to have students mimick the style of one of these shows, much like they did at West with "A Prairie Home Companion". With a "TAL" format, we could focus on personal narratives, autobiographies, or interviews. With "TORN" we could concentrate on news reports and, more importantly, satire!

I'm a little scared about teaching them the technology after the great wiki debacle of 2008, but after a nice Christmas break, I think I'll have the courage to tackle such a daunting task...or at least have a little less sanity making me more prone to engage in self destructive behaviors. Only time will tell...

The Online Con aka The Online Role Play

I have to admit, I love these things! I sometimes get a bit too into them, which is a bit odd considering that when I have the choice as to what side of a debate I will be in one of these things, I purposely choose the one with which I disagree. It forces me to look at the other side of things.

I started out this role play be trying to be very academic, professional, and formal by citing research and staying relatively low key in my tone. I noticed, quickly, that most others were doing the same thing. At least those on my side, so I went the other direction and focused more of my energy on emotional appeal through anecdotal evidence, which was actually all true. This seemed to work better because people began referencing my posts and even responding to them! I was most pleased when I received a rather rude reply to something I stated. I figured I must be doing something right!

It seemed pretty clear that most people were not going to change their minds, so I took the Sarah Palin approach: There is no bad press (at least that's the approach she seems to be taking).

Throughout the whole thing, I felt like I had very little power. It was hard for me to decide who really had it at all, but it definitely wasn't me. This made me realize, quite sadly, that we as teachers don't have nearly the level of power we should in deciding issues such as this. People always listen to "experts." I guess I was out when those that work in the field all day, every day were deemed incompetent.

In the end, I left the role play still feeling that coeducational classes are a good thing, but I wouldn't be opposed to trying a single gender approach in at least a few. A colleague has told me numerous times that she loves "how super laid back [I am]" because I'll try anything once. If it doesn't work, I won't do that again!

Digital Storytelling

I'm totally going to use this in my class soon. We have some short stories coming up and a few are more difficult Edgar Allen Poe stories. I had students draw comics last year, but I think combining Comic Life, which our school has, along with flickr will be a lot more engaging and relevant since it's technology based. It will also add a real fun factor!

I put this comic together (quicktime format) using pictures I've taken over the past four years. They're all completely out of context, but it's still pretty funny...at least I think so. I'm not sure what my brother and friends will think when they see it...

Please Excuse me while I wiki my moodle...

Wikis, Moodles, Blogs...who thought these names up anyway?

As I've stated in class, my idea for my final project is a collaborative research project incorporating a wiki, a blog, and voicethread (which will probably then make flickr necessary). We will research topics related to one of two novels and create voicethread presentations based on our findings, which we will then post to a course wiki.

The really fun part of the wiki is going to be when we start using it to debate the ethics of Charlie's surgery in "Flowers for Algernon". We've just finished part I of the story and are already getting some nice discussions that touch on ethics based on how others have begun to treat Charlie. Over the next few days (weeks?? who knows with the limited availability of computers) we will learn the ins and outs of the class wiki by debating different ethical dilemmas. Last year, we did this in a course discussion format, which was marginally successful, but as I discovered with blogs, some students will be more apt to participate in the written format. Since much of the content will be old, we can focus more on the logistics of the wiki...at least at first.

I'm hoping that our course wiki will be an ongoing thing this year that will bring a lot of good resources to the students for each unit we study. This will not only help them as we study for tests, learn strategies for research, and practice literacy skills for the MCAs; but will also help me prepare for next year when we do all of this over again. I'll have models of work to show, experience to share, and a chance to revamp things that don't work the first time around.

Flickr and Voicestream: Innovative Classroom Tool, or Another Way to Procrastinate Grading

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to make Flickr and Voicethread a part of my final project. Right now, I just have to decide on which unit I will use them.

My two options are "Call of the Wild" and "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry". In the past, I've gone out and located images that depicted the time period and struggles present in these two stories. What I'm thinking is a combination research project and synthesis assignment in which students locate photos and images related to each story and create a slide show in which they include a narration describing the pictures, why they chose them, and what specific character or event from our story the pictures can help us understand. To keep the higher ups happy, I will also have them write and turn in a printed script of what they decide to narrate. To culminate, we'll have a share session of our voicethread projects and then comment on each others' work on the class blog (or ning if I can get that up and running in time).

I'm hoping that some of the less motivated students will turn it up a notch knowing that their work will be seen by their peers, and possibly their parents once we get everything posted. The technology aspect won't hurt the motivation part either. I think that as a teaching tool leading up to the actual assignment, we'll spend a day or two in the lab putting together small voicethreads that show off our personalities. As they say in some of the NUA trainings I've done, "New strategy, old content. Old strategy, new content". By the time we get to the actual assignment, we'll be able to focus on the content more than the technology...that is, until the internet crashes in the middle of 1st block again like it did last time. Perhaps a writing prompt as a back up...? sigh.

Here is a slide show of pictures I put together at my favorite dog walking spot where I used to live. The Voicethread version includes a narration that explains the ridiculousness of that day because it was a snow day. As a native Minnesotan, I felt obligated to photograph this hike...for reasons, I think, are obvious in the pictures.

Now that I can run it, how am I supposed to use this in the classroom...?

It's funny you should mention that! I actually gave this a shot last week and had a pretty successful run! To see what we produced, click here.

That represents a small bit of what I want to do with these down the line. In this example, I was able to produce a great discussion by first having my students post comments about an IQ test we all took in class. Part of their posting assignment was to first read what others had posted. This actually worked a lot better than I could've imagined because we were able to debate the claims of cheating while tying that into the bigger issue of intelligence and how one could effectively measure it. The students were engaged the whole time because they knew that 1. Their comments would be read and 2. They got to read the comments of others! Fantastic all around!

One of the things I'd like to do with this in the future is stage an active debate on issues surrounding ethics, which we will highlight in the coming weeks. I'd like to post some ethical dilemmas on the blog and have people weigh in. I would to this in 2 ways: During the first one, I would allow students to stick to their own viewpoint on whatever issue comes up. In the second scenario, I would tie in role playing so that the students would have to attempt to understand other perspectives.

In addition to this, I think the blog can be a useful communication tool between students, parents, and me. I currently run a moddle site, which is okay, but the blog format offers a lot more in terms of 2 way communication. The moodle doesn't really allow for that.

Speaking of blogs, here's a digital map about the experience...

I hope it all makes sense!

Home backpackers hostel

Home backpackers hostel
Originally uploaded by heatheronhertravels

I stayed here with my brother when we were in Valencia. It was like a 20 minute walk from the train station, but the place was so awesome, that it was totally worth it! I definitely recommend it. There's an awesome kitchen, a rooftop terrace, and ultra friendly staff!

Searching for Information That isn't Garbage...

As of late, my primary search method has been creative googling. I admit that it can get pretty hard to sort through some of the bogus information from the good, but I feel that I've become quite adept at finding exactly what I'm looking for.

A lot of times, all it takes is a search for the exact question I'm asking such as, "how can I rewire my garage door opener to get around the safety sensor?". This search lead me to the realization that I shouldn't, under any circumstances, do this. I'm now searching for a new sensor pack, another task google with which google has helped me.

Since my school doesn't have access to a lot of online databases, I usually default to google in all my searches on the academic level as well. When I taught high school, I found Lexis Nexis and the Expanded Academic Index to be invaluable in the information they could bring me. I directed my students to both of these databases as they researched literary criticism and theory for their final papers. We had a lot of success with this searching for multiple terms such as "1984, World War II, Facism, and Individualism". I guess if you know what you are looking to find, just a few key terms is enough. Sometimes, we would start with something simpler like a book title. Reading our findings from this search would boost our thoughts to include other topics, thereby, narrowing our search to something resembling the above list of search terms.

In the event that we had to, and do now, have to default to google, we end up spending a lot of time evaluating the credibility of the source. If a name is available, we search just the name to find out some information about them. We do the same for organizations, colleges and universities, and sometimes screen names. This usually gives us enough information to know whether or not we can believe what the article is saying.

Another thing we look at is the date updated and the domain name of the webmaster's email address. This can often point us to new information like an organization being funded by an oil company, for example.

We often times run into an argument that never ends because everybody has a bias. What we end up doing is agreeing or disagreeing that a particular source is about the best we are going to find, but still pick apart the biases we find so that we can come up with some idea of the truth of the matter at hand.

I'm debating subscribing to RSS feeds from NBC, CNN, Fox, and BBC for my news to compare the different slants on stories. I got this idea during the RNC when, after a lovely prime time medical drama, Fox news reported that protesters exploded pipe bombs in Saint Paul. Upon checking Kare11.com, I saw a video that clearly showed the same explosions to be flash grenades from police. Interesting, don't you think? The experience showed me that many sources are important to getting a balanced look at events as they occur. Everybody has an agenda.

The First Post

Here it is, The Blog of Eckhoff! I find it funny that it took a class for me to start one of these since the peer pressure for just such an action has been mounting over the past 2 years!

I think that this will be a very interesting experience both professionally and personally as I try to get away from emailing everybody with pictures, updates, assignments, etc. I love the fact that people can just pop over to a blog and get what they need at their convenience. Once I figure out the RSS feed system, there’ll be no stopping me!

The things I can do with this tool as a teacher seem endless! With commenting as a possibility, I can now successfully take class discussions out of the classroom, which will open up many an opportunity to my students but especially the shy ones that don’t speak up in class very much. Last year, I learned about embedding using slide share and youtube resources, which can also take this blog to new levels by combining different modes of expression both for the benefit of my teaching, and teacher reflection. My hope is to then pass these skills on to my students so that they can start their own blogs and complete projects that include print, audio, video, and pictures. I’ve directed assignments like this in the past, but with my limited technical know-how, they tended to be rather sloppy as we attempted to move from medium to medium by way of complicated equipment setup and time wasting transitions.

About the only downside I can see to this tool is the lack of knowlege in some of my students and their parents. Even with email as a communication tool, I ran into many families that were not adept enough to handle it. In fact, I have a moodle site that I currently use in my job and I’ve spent the past week trying to get my students oriented to it. This has proved to be rather challenging despite my many links, emails, and directions. Hopefully, down the line, I will be able to teach them enough skills to make all of this much easier.

As far as a personal blog goes, I have the perfect topic: Obnoxious Neighbors. In just the past 2 days I’ve had to listen to a string of expletives from across the way, watch as a scantilly clad man weeded his garden…while I was weeding mine, and deal with my garage mate (I live in a townhouse/condo) and all of her worthless garbage all over both halves of the garage. Last night, she leaned a bag of garbage on my car. I should start documenting all of this stuff. I think it could be very funny!

I think I’d better post this now and see what the rest of the class has come up with. Enjoy!