Mr. Rennie's Class

  Last week the kids posted, indeed reposted some stories and poems. We discussed the fact that the audience for these pieces of writing could be people all around the world. We are widening our audience to provide kids with the opportunity to share beyond the warm embrace of our school community. I hope this in turn results in increased confidence and purpose for the writers. We posted them as blog entries under News. You'll have to scroll through and go back to pages to find what you're looking for. In the lab today we had a shortened period which focused on sharing their work by inviting more classmates to share their writing through google docs. We'll continue to write and share throughout the year and I hope the parents are getting a chance to read the student's work.

  On Thursday I'll be going to Southgate to spend the day in the lab with Rob Hatfield and his students. I hope to get further insight into what our students need in order to arrive at middle school prepared for using the lab. I also hope to discover other applications that our students can explore at O.G.and advice on managing the website,

  I have altered the website so that the students or parents can post their own blog entries. Just go to News and you'll see a "post new entry" button. You can add a poem, story or rant on a topic of your choice. Remember please that we don't use this forum as a place to put someone down or be negative. Otherwise be creative and have fun writing and reading. This week we will be sharing poems and stories with invitees from class. The kids will invite their classmates to read (but not edit) each others I Am From poems, memoirs and lessons from childhood pieces. Parents should feel free to read their kids work with them and even share their own connections and childhhod memories with their kids. Later next term the student's will explore third person narratives by interviewing and writing a parent memoir.

  On another issue, all students have been asked to remove theor last names from their site profiles. A form is coming home Monday to get permission for photo publishing. Please look for it.

   I am very satisfied with the work the syuden't have done so far in writing. We have explored a lot of what makes good writing and the improvement already is remarkable. Way to go us.

  After working with Google Docs, Toondo and Wordle the students have developed a few skills and avenues through which they can represent their learning and ideas with more variety. This coming week the kids will be applying their recently introduced writing skills to a memoir piece. They have worked with teacher provided samples and their own, to practice skills and revise their work by improving leads, adding thoughts and feelings and providing descriptive detail. They will create a new piece or rework a previous effort and apply what they've learned as writers. They will then proofread it with a partner, word process on Google and present it for marking. Their choices will determine how much work and time is required since reworking an existing story will take far less time. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they produce as many have already gotten right to work eagerly when I gave them the heads up this week.

  Today the kids worked with wordle for the second time. Last time they created word groups to represent themselves. Today they did a wordle to represent their novel's main character and their traits. They were quick and efficient, most taking them home to color for Monday or finishing them in class.

  Many moved on from there to reading the web site posted poems and explored Toondo, a cartooning site linked here under resources. They need more time with it but they enjoyed creating cartoons with text. This site requires the user to set up a free account but really helps kids see writing in a different light showing the narrative in a different way. It will help cement use of dialogue and voice and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next week. One boy actually thought it wasn't fair at first because the person beside him was on a game site. He was thrilled when he realized he was expected to "play" on the site.

  Today the students word processed personal stories (memoirs) in Google Docs. They first listened to a story from me, then told stories in their groups. They are getting better at maintaining their silent writing in the lab. Today they lasted almost twenty minutes before many finished drafting and then went to inquiry project work which they love to share and talk about.

  The lab has become a work place as opposed to a play place. The fact that 95% of them go to project work when done is a testament to that. Only one student, who shall remain nameless went to a game when finished drafting today. We will next revise this piece for T&F (ask your kid) and for main message or "so what".  I have also had kids start to post their writing on this site and really hope they are getting read. The students have really embraced the new routine and everything is going well.

  Yesterday and today the students had the following list of items to work on in the lab.

1. Word Process "I Am From " poem on Google Docs and hand in a hard copy.

2. Invite four classmates to share online "About Me" slideshows using class gmail list.

3. Work on producing Inquiry notes and topic slideshows using google Docs and Internet.

4. If done WP new memoir from topics list in binders.

  They've been working on some of these things for weeks and were finally able to share them and work on them in the lab. Some students are at the end of that list while others are done one or two items. What they all had in common was they were working at their own pace, on their own writing and projects they selected, utilizing technology to complete and individualize their finished products. Their slide shows are cool and sometimes funny or touching. Their poems based on some we read written by older poets, are amazing. Their projects are on topics from wildlife species to ancestral homes and grandparents. Best of all, they are available for them and for their parents and those special few invited to do so, to share anytime anywhere with an internet connection. They won't be lost or ripped. They have an audience of classmates and families. They are really proud of this work and they should be. Please read and discuss it with them. John Palfrey and Urs Gasser in their work titled Born Digital, say "As students research and write, and create collaboratively through online environments, they will be learning skills that will serve them well over time, even as digital economies evolve." The skills these kids are learning and the work they are undertaking is preparing them for the future, a future where technology is not a luxury but a necessity. Are we already there? Before we left the lab on Thursday I asked the kids, " please raise your hand if you had fun in the lab today". Every hand went up. They are enjoying school work. Hmmmmmm.

  This week in the lab many students were able to finish their slideshows. They are all to be done by Tuesday. The cool thing about this is that is that they will be able to invite their classmates to share their document. This means that each of them will be able to view their peer's slideshow, all of them while sitting at their own desktop. Having this skill and capability also means that starting next week we will not only be able to share, even edit each others work but more importantly, they have an alternative way to present and demonstrate their learning. The students will publish some excellent poems about themselves called "I am From". These will be published on Google Docs so you will be able to read them at home either through your child's account or your own if they share it with you. I am really pleased with how it is going and the kids are generally excited to get into the lab, to work not play.

  The children today are so technologicall aware that they are easily able to access these new ways of working and to quickly master them. I've been taught by Kennedy and Sydney how to  transfer images in a faster more effective way.  This was then passed on to the others so they could all put it into practice. I have been wanting to tackle these types of things for years and am so glad I'm finally doing it. Our school district has announced that in the new year all SD 72 users will have access to wireless capabilities when on site. So staff and students with lap-tops and PED's will be able to use them at school by logging in with a personal user name and password. The future is here,

  A quick thank you to the Kretzschmars for allowing us to use their loo and property for our lunch on Wednesday. Also thanks to Teresa Kretzschmar, Teresa Boyd, and Amanda Cromer for helping us with supervision while we were away from school. I'd lastly like to thank Leah Kay for her excellent work and for really getting involved with the class in her introductory week. She did very well teaching four lessons in total and the student responded well to her while she taught. Way to go students you were great and deserve an extra day off this weekend so you can all take Monday off. Have a nice long weekend.

  This week in the lab many students were able to finish their slideshows. They are all to be done by Tuesday. The cool thing about this is that is that they will be able to invite their classmates to share their document. This means that each of them will be able to view their peer's slideshow, all of them while sitting at their own desktop. Having this skill and capability also means that starting next week we will not only be able to share, even edit each others work but more importantly, they have an alternative way to present and demonstrate their learning. The students will publish some excellent poems about themselves called "I am From". These will be published on Google Docs so you will be able to read them at home either through your child's account or your own if they share it with you. I am really pleased with how it is going and the kids are generally excited to get into the lab, to work not play.

  The children today are so technologicall aware that they are easily able to access these new ways of working and to quickly master them. I've been taught by Kennedy and Sydney how to  transfer images in a faster more effective way.  This was then passed on to the others so they could all put it into practice. I have been wanting to tackle these types of things for years and am so glad I'm finally doing it. Our school district has announced that in the new year all SD 72 users will have access to wireless capabilities when on site. So staff and students with lap-tops and PED's will be able to use them at school by logging in with a personal user name and password. The futurenis here,

  Yesterday was a big day in the lab. I got a hint of what the future could hold for the students as they interacted with the Google Docs presentation option. The kids have all been working on About Me slideshows. Many have gmail accounts but others have been using mine. Today, by inviting them to share, the new account holders were able to simply have their work transfered to their accounts. This is an indication of the type of capability and versatility this application has.  Students will be able to share documents with a partner, small group, or whole class. They will even be able to edit each other's work if the author permits it. So group projects can be worked on simultaneously  by the group from any computer with an internet connection. I find this an exciting option for the students to represent and demonstrate their learning.

  And now a few words about the new OG morning routine. We're talking about ten minutes that seem to be stirring up a mess. This mess in large part has been fueled by misinformationa and misunderstandings. The students in the past were allowed in classes at 8:15 am and they were supervised by roaming supervisors. Very often this loose supervision resulted in behavior by a segment of the student population that created an atmosphere of wild, physical, noisy play. This would carry over into the first half hour of school and meant that it was a challenge to restore a calm and cooperative learning environment. This loss of instructional time was an unfortunate waste. The new routine has provided a calm and orderly start to the day. Students are greeted by me at the door and we get right down to it with little wasted time. In  addition to this positive atmosphere change students are:

-supervised in a specified concentrated area by two staff members. The group includes those students who arrived early and not the bus students or those that arrive near bell time. It would be around 70 kids not 185.

-welcomed into the school during inclement weather

-able to use the washroom, entering through the unlocked front door if needed.

-spending as little as one minute or less behind the school once the bell rings and are with their teacher as they line up.

-greeted by their friendly neighborhood teacher.

While the students are outside their teachers are (contrary to misleading and incorrect newspaper rants):

-conferring and collaborating regarding school events and activities (this morning for example Mrs. Hatfield and I talkied through the days buddy activity).

-marking student work.

-making copies

-displaying work or other visuals (today I put up spome portraits and a Canadian flag).

-teachers are not doing or discussing post graduate course work. This work is imbedded into our daily practice or done at home. You are reading part of my field study and I'm writing this at 8:00 pm.

As for working till 2:30 pm, most teachers work  till around 4:00 pm at school as well as at night and on weekends. I was at school till 3:15 pm today, then at the school board office for a district course till 5:30 pm.

I hope this clears some things up and if anyone wants to talk about anything please contact me at school or by email and we'll have a chat.

Mike

  Today we went to the lab to explore Google's Docs presentation feature. This slide show format is an excitinf way to represent content, anything from a science project to a birthday slide show. The students messed around with the text and image inserting cpabilities to begin an "About Me" slide show. They really seemed into it and many picked it up really fast. Some were frustrated by forgotten passwords or didn't have accounts yet but it went well and now I have 8 slides shows on my account. The enthusiasm observed makes me hopefull about future projects and writing tasks. The use of such programs will I hope encourage those not always so motivated to do projects. We will tackle the new application again on Wednesday.