my version of transparent, collaborative leadership...with a Teamann twist

Blogs R US

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I’ve said before that I think blogging has become ubiquitous. It’s like Brad Pitt, you can’t escape it! That being said, I think there are several things to understand and consider before one jumps into the foray of “blogging”, especially when talking about with a classroom.

Are you blogging to communicate with your students? Their parents? both? Are you talking to your peers, as I am? By keeping in mind who you are talking to, you’ll be able to gauge what you’re talking about.

I read a LOT of blogs. It’s insane. Some are completely random people that I’ve never met but who have touched my life, some aresorority sisters I adore, some are aboutcooking cheaply…however, the ones I savor are professionally driven. Wes Fryer, Jeff Utecht, and Miguel Guhlin for example. These educators are constantly challenging what and how I do my job. Not only that, but they are SO helpfula dn encouraging. I’ve contacted Mr. Guhlin on several occasions and he never fails to respond, comment or move me along. As an educator, this is SO very valuable!

If YOU want to blog, consider reading a variety of blogs to help get you started. Decide how often you want to blog, what you’re going to talk about and if interests your audience. If you’re communicating with parents, remember that they will come to depend on it as a resource and you will have to be consistent. 🙂

I originally blogged with fourth graders. It was…greatness. We chatted over vacations, over breaks, over losing grandparents…amazing conversations that allowed me into my student’s worlds in a way I’d never seen. I’d always had “good” relationships with my students but this was a whole different ballgame. Parents joined in, administrators joined in, and then people from ALL over began to comment on what we were doing in our fourth grade world. The kid’s loved it. They monitored themselves, they helped each other and they helped me, 🙂 a win win for all.

This blog will be used for me to communicate with my campuses and hopefully providing more great resources and trends in educational technology. I hope many of you will be more involved with reading and commenting. (I’m no Brad Pitt, but I do amuse myself greatly. Heh.) I’ll also be highlighting and showcasing what I see as I make my rounds in your classrooms. I want to brag on you!

bloggingly,
Amber

BreakN it down

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One of my favorite IST peeps emailed me this week about a video on TeacherTube. I love the collaboration amongst our teams, we truly do all try to work together, don’t we? Take advantage of the smart pople in your world.

In fact, I have a twiend (a twiter friend) who tweets quotes from historical figures from the past and one of my favorite’s from her this week was “When you surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are, you prove you are smarter than they are.” I <3 that!

“Teacher tube has a lot of really cool videos, if you haven’t already checked it out! Here is a link to a Punctuation Rap done by some high school students. Really cute!”

Thanks, Marsha!

 

rappingly,

Amber

Avoid blogging blunders!

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In keeping with the theme of the last post of helpful Garland peeps, Phoebe McAlister, our fabulous Library Systems Specialist, shared with me a site that discussed blogging with elementary students and the guidelines they developed. They closely resemble the ones from my fist blog post, but I like some of their additions. Keeping in mind student safety and how important it is to model for students what we expect of them, I figure you can’t have too may examples of how to get your students creating their “digital foot print” correctly.

“Student Blogging Guidelines” is a great post to get started if you have any free time. I’ve copied below their key student driven blogging how-to’s.

Click for full-size image

Blogging Guidelines

As a student blogger at ISB, you are expected to follow these blogging guidelines below. Use the questions in italics to help you decide what is appropriate to post on your blog.

1. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know.
Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?

2. Do not share personal information.
Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?

3. Think before you post.
Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post?

4. Know who you’re communicating with.
Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?

5. Consider your audience and that you’re representing ISB.
Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?

6. Know how to give constructive feedback.
Ask yourself: What will I cause by writing this post?

7. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?

8. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling.
Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?

9. Only post information that you can verify is true (no gossiping).
Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?

10. Anytime you use media from another source, be sure to properly cite the creator of the original work.
Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?

Commenting Guidelines

As a blogger, you will be commenting on other people’s work regularly. Good comments:

  • are constructive, but not hurtful;
  • consider the author and the purpose of the post;
  • are always related to the content of the post;
  • include personal connections to what the author wrote;
  • answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic;
  • follow the writing process. Comments are a published piece of writing.

Bloggingly,
Amber

Document camera coolness!

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Via the Twitter (8Amber8) I was sent a GREAT link to all kinds of different ways that you can use the document camera, some of these we’ve seen…some are new! I thought I’d share my faves to remind you that the document camara can be SO much more than a place for you to work out problems on the “big screen”, 🙂
  • training or initial introduction to any other piece of equipment everyone can use, but can’t gather around to see easily
  • Students can draw the background scenery for a play or skit they will perform in class. Move your projector at a 45 degree angle to the white board. Project the drawing onto the white board, angling it behind the actors. The image will naturally distort, but the overall effectiveness is well worth it.
  • In math problem-solving use the doc camera to take a photo of a problem and solution (use a kid’s). Put it in your teacher blog and have students individually respond to the query: How might the writer have arrived at this solution?
  • More ideas can be found here! I’ve also attached “101 ways to use the document camera” that was presented at the METC conference this past summer.
  • Some videos that were found on document cameras/document readers: (yes, youtube is blocked at school…watch these this rainy weekend….in all your free time!
SayN cheese,
Amber

PLN plethora

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I have written a couple of blog posts and mentioned tweets where I have referenced my PLN. I hate it when people use acronyms and just assume everyone knows what they mean, don’t you? I’m SO guilty of that, 🙂 even more so with the texting language I have started using. I told my daughter today to grab her jacket, JIC…and I got the blankest look ever. Ya know… “just in case“…sigh. 🙂

So an explanation…anyone who is actively involved with learning online is part of a PLN. My twitter “twiends” are the largest part of my PLN. I gather greatness from them daily…and many I also follow via their blogs, their conference presentations, their contribution as a whole to growing me professionally. PLN stands for personal (professional) learning network.

Which brings us to the point of this post. I have mentioned Miguel Guhlin before. He’s the Director of Instructional Technology Services in San Antonio ISD. He writes in the TechEdge, which I believe is where I first discovered him. Now, I read his blogs regularly, invest time in his tweets, and am able to consult him on a professional basis. How beneficial as an educator involved in instructional technology to be able to email him and reap his wisdom. Back when I taught, he commented and wrote about the 4th grade blog I had with my students. He recently wrote a post about the benefits of blogging with students and I commented…which led to this.Please go read and discover how “little gems of greatness” can make a difference!! 

It’s like I’m famous in the blogsophere, 😉 Another of my tweeps, Shelly Terrell (@ShellTerell), let me know she featured one of my tweets in her blog, Teacher Reboot Camp. Shelly is in Germany…that’s how useful a PLN can be! We’re colloborating and sharing across the world. And that? is pretty cool!

internationally yours,
Amber