Today was an interesting day. Last night an artic blast of very cold air made it's way to Texas and beyond. The problem started with the precipitation that was falling before the temp got below 32 F. Anyway there was lots of ice in many areas of the roads to the point that some freeways here got shut down due to the ice and accidents. We initially decided on a late start and then ended up calling off the day and switching to our online curriculum. Our problem with students is that we have no set boundaries that we draw from and some of our faculty travel 45 miles one way to teach at BD.
On the second call notification that I sent out, it was a simple statment: "Due to declining road conditions and the weather school will not meet today. Students are to check their online classes in Edline for today and follow the red day schedule." This was also sent out to our students and parents in email, on Facebook as well as through our school Twitter feed.
So what does moving to our online curriculum do for the students and the faculty as well as the school? It keeps the process moving forward. We don't lose a day. After spending time with the Diocesan office and explaining what we do and how we do it they agreed to let us give it a go. They were pleased about the approach we wanted to take. We started working with the Diocese last year on this venture but our online programs have been in place for more than 4 years. Our online coordinator lives in Wisconsin and he is helped by another teacher that is located in New York. They both travel to meet with students and parents face to face about 4 times a year. At other times they are in contact via email, phone and twitter. There are specific subject teachers at the school that students can work with if they need.
Today I have had several emails from students who were not able to log in to Edline or needing their school email address and password as they were not able to log in at all. I would hope nearly every school has the ability to do the same thing that we did today. Also know that while we are a private school, we are also an inner city school with at least half of our student population qualifying for free or reduced lunch if we were part of that program. So please, do not think we are some rich, private school because we are not.
We will evaluate tomorrow how today went but later in the year we will not be looking for a day to have school, we were there today online.
The tools that we all have available at Bishop Dunne are Edline and in Edline we have the ability to send out email to each of our classes both students and parents. We also have the ability in Edline to set up discussions, online homework turn in as well as quizzes or tests. Each student at the school is also given their own school email address that is web based and virus checked. Individual teachers then can take it a step or two further and use things like DimDim, Skype, or other free online 2.0 tools to work with their students.
I hope that you are working on the same things with your students to help them become learners no matter what the circumstances.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Conversations and Educon 2.2
My boss called me in today and asked what conferences I was going to and who I was taking with me. We all know it has been a lean year and it gets even leaner when you are an inner city, priivate school. I told her I would gladly be willing to go to Philadelphia to attend Educon. She said make sure you take someone with you as long as they will get something out of it. Anyway, I spoke to my curriculum director and aksed her to look over the Educon 2.2 material online and see what she thought.
She came back with it looks very good. We got her registered and now we are working on flights and such as well as accomodations for the trip. This will be my second year to attend Educon and for me I am sure it will be a calmer experience now that I have the first one under my belt. I met so many people face to face that I knew online and I was almost star struck seeing all of these people walk around and then to be able to sit in a room and hear them begin the conversations that were so good. The biggest problem was the fact that I couldn't get to everything and listen live.
My hope is that my curriculum director will get as much out of this trip and find it as meaningful as I did last year. When I returned last year I told my boss there were more meaningful discussions that weekend than any conferences I had been to all together. No when I attend conferences I do it so much differently. I attend with what I need to learn for myself and for my faculty. I look for ways to engage, enliven and energize students as well as faculty members.
If you are going to Philadelphia, I look forward to seeing you there and hopefully learning with you or from you. I hope I can contribute to your learning as well.
So little time to try and get it all done and rolling in the right direction. Safe travels.
She came back with it looks very good. We got her registered and now we are working on flights and such as well as accomodations for the trip. This will be my second year to attend Educon and for me I am sure it will be a calmer experience now that I have the first one under my belt. I met so many people face to face that I knew online and I was almost star struck seeing all of these people walk around and then to be able to sit in a room and hear them begin the conversations that were so good. The biggest problem was the fact that I couldn't get to everything and listen live.
My hope is that my curriculum director will get as much out of this trip and find it as meaningful as I did last year. When I returned last year I told my boss there were more meaningful discussions that weekend than any conferences I had been to all together. No when I attend conferences I do it so much differently. I attend with what I need to learn for myself and for my faculty. I look for ways to engage, enliven and energize students as well as faculty members.
If you are going to Philadelphia, I look forward to seeing you there and hopefully learning with you or from you. I hope I can contribute to your learning as well.
So little time to try and get it all done and rolling in the right direction. Safe travels.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Taking a Byte of Wireless
I had the chance the other night/morning to see Wes Fryer over in Hong Kong participating with Kim Cofino & Julie Lindsay in their Flat Classroom Project at the Hong Kong International School. While I am sure there are a lot of reasons for me to be asleep at that time of the morning, I wasn't and it is always nice to be able to see what other people are doing in other parts of the world.
Today, Wes posted a link to his blog about Best Practice Wi-Fi Networks in Schools which was timely for me as we are at the end of a wireless install at our school. After a lot of research and half bids and no bids we settled with a company that installed a Cisco Wireless "N" network. We also at the same time upgraded all of our hubs and switches to a complete switch setup with gigabit backbone.
In order to do all of this I had to squeeze the heck out of a very tight and small budget but we were able to make it happen thanks to a great leader, Kate Dailey, my boss. The reason that Wes' post was so timely for me was that it gave me some additional ideas as to how to segment things out. We have posted in our online management system the passcode for the students and given it to all of the faculty. The difficulty that still exists for us is we also have proxy servers in place. We are educating the students about what they need to change when they go home so they can pick up their wireless there.
We are still working on how to make it the best situation for our students and one of the things we do is allow them to bring in their own connectivity. I have helped students connect Macbooks, iPod touches, PCs, netbooks and I have helped parents do the same for when they are here for extracurricular events. We have things open like Twitter, Facebook, Wiki's, Nings Skype, Diigo, Delicious and heading toward YouTube as well as other programs for the students to use. We have adopted a simple mantra "The world is unfiltered." Based on that, we want to truly help our students learn ethical use, how to be good digital citizens as well as how to be safe online. We also want to make sure we teach them that this is one way to work and that it is still so very important to make sure we connect face to face. We do block porn and spam.
The benefit of all the upgrades is that the 20 mbps pipe we have with ATT is so much quicker and it is also a joy to see students sitting around connecting, answering email, checking their Edline pages for homework, tweeting with a teacher and yes even Facebooking.
I know we are not the only school out there with this setup and we need those schools to share their stories more and more for those who are battling to have that type of setup for their students. Is there wireless in your building but yet very few get to use it?
What can I do to help you?
Today, Wes posted a link to his blog about Best Practice Wi-Fi Networks in Schools which was timely for me as we are at the end of a wireless install at our school. After a lot of research and half bids and no bids we settled with a company that installed a Cisco Wireless "N" network. We also at the same time upgraded all of our hubs and switches to a complete switch setup with gigabit backbone.
In order to do all of this I had to squeeze the heck out of a very tight and small budget but we were able to make it happen thanks to a great leader, Kate Dailey, my boss. The reason that Wes' post was so timely for me was that it gave me some additional ideas as to how to segment things out. We have posted in our online management system the passcode for the students and given it to all of the faculty. The difficulty that still exists for us is we also have proxy servers in place. We are educating the students about what they need to change when they go home so they can pick up their wireless there.
We are still working on how to make it the best situation for our students and one of the things we do is allow them to bring in their own connectivity. I have helped students connect Macbooks, iPod touches, PCs, netbooks and I have helped parents do the same for when they are here for extracurricular events. We have things open like Twitter, Facebook, Wiki's, Nings Skype, Diigo, Delicious and heading toward YouTube as well as other programs for the students to use. We have adopted a simple mantra "The world is unfiltered." Based on that, we want to truly help our students learn ethical use, how to be good digital citizens as well as how to be safe online. We also want to make sure we teach them that this is one way to work and that it is still so very important to make sure we connect face to face. We do block porn and spam.
The benefit of all the upgrades is that the 20 mbps pipe we have with ATT is so much quicker and it is also a joy to see students sitting around connecting, answering email, checking their Edline pages for homework, tweeting with a teacher and yes even Facebooking.
I know we are not the only school out there with this setup and we need those schools to share their stories more and more for those who are battling to have that type of setup for their students. Is there wireless in your building but yet very few get to use it?
What can I do to help you?
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
One of the Lucky Ones
I truly am one of the lucky ones. I have been in education for what will be my 34th year this year. On top of all those years, I have even been at the same school.
Recently I have been haunted with thoughts that I couldn't quite pinpoint and then today it hit me. A post by Ryan Bretag back in May of 2009 which you can read here, struck me then and for reasons I could not understand was haunting me now until just recently. While Ryan was talking about how we need to honor those who go before us, I have been thinking about the ones who leave us. This past year I had a wonderful young man who worked with me in the tech department, helping teachers, helping them understand things like podcasts, why we do some of the things we do and how to do it even better. Kyle Stevens did a lot. However, the biggest thing Kyle did was let me throw new things at him to try and he was off and running. He was good with the faculty and would do his best every day. Understand I am not here to nominate Kyle to sainthood but I use Kyle as the example that we all see happen so many times, someone really good leaving our school.
Kyle left us this year. Like the post that Ryan had about the wisdom and the knowledge that these veteran educators brought to the classroom, I have been linking his post to my thoughts about what do we impart to those people like Kyle that decide to leave? Kyle, in my humble opinion left for all of the right reasons. We tried to get him to stay but he still left. He would have a chance to bring his talent, wisdom and ability to so many new young men and women.
My thinking about this was the fact that I hope I was able to impart the importance of the traditions of Bishop Dunne and the importance that they play in not only my life but the life of so many other people especially those who bring their children back to be educated by us as another generation begins walking the halls. How much of what Kyle learned here, or any of the other Kyles at all of our schools, how much have we taught them about the importance of the students they will be in charge of and the future they will be bringing to those next generations?
I feel comfortable knowing that Kyle will take a lot of Bishop Dunne with him as well as a whole lot of "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" as well. But I also think it is important that the time we do get to spend with our new teachers is time well spent, so that if they do decide to move on, they continue to take a little bit of our traditions and spread them around for others to learn from. It is our job to help these teachers grow so that they may also leave the nest to help others grow as well.
I am one of the lucky ones. I was taught well by what I would call a lot of old school folks, but that tradition does get passed on to those who are willing to take the time. I just hope I am making enough time and being open enough for those who are new here at my school.
Thanks Kyle and thanks Ryan and thanks to all those who have gone before me.
Recently I have been haunted with thoughts that I couldn't quite pinpoint and then today it hit me. A post by Ryan Bretag back in May of 2009 which you can read here, struck me then and for reasons I could not understand was haunting me now until just recently. While Ryan was talking about how we need to honor those who go before us, I have been thinking about the ones who leave us. This past year I had a wonderful young man who worked with me in the tech department, helping teachers, helping them understand things like podcasts, why we do some of the things we do and how to do it even better. Kyle Stevens did a lot. However, the biggest thing Kyle did was let me throw new things at him to try and he was off and running. He was good with the faculty and would do his best every day. Understand I am not here to nominate Kyle to sainthood but I use Kyle as the example that we all see happen so many times, someone really good leaving our school.
Kyle left us this year. Like the post that Ryan had about the wisdom and the knowledge that these veteran educators brought to the classroom, I have been linking his post to my thoughts about what do we impart to those people like Kyle that decide to leave? Kyle, in my humble opinion left for all of the right reasons. We tried to get him to stay but he still left. He would have a chance to bring his talent, wisdom and ability to so many new young men and women.
My thinking about this was the fact that I hope I was able to impart the importance of the traditions of Bishop Dunne and the importance that they play in not only my life but the life of so many other people especially those who bring their children back to be educated by us as another generation begins walking the halls. How much of what Kyle learned here, or any of the other Kyles at all of our schools, how much have we taught them about the importance of the students they will be in charge of and the future they will be bringing to those next generations?
I feel comfortable knowing that Kyle will take a lot of Bishop Dunne with him as well as a whole lot of "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" as well. But I also think it is important that the time we do get to spend with our new teachers is time well spent, so that if they do decide to move on, they continue to take a little bit of our traditions and spread them around for others to learn from. It is our job to help these teachers grow so that they may also leave the nest to help others grow as well.
I am one of the lucky ones. I was taught well by what I would call a lot of old school folks, but that tradition does get passed on to those who are willing to take the time. I just hope I am making enough time and being open enough for those who are new here at my school.
Thanks Kyle and thanks Ryan and thanks to all those who have gone before me.
Friday, August 14, 2009
School and Social Networking
On one of the listservs I am on I received this the other day:
“I am on a mission to find out which, if any, school districts allow student access to any or all of the following during school hours: 1. Facebook or any other social networking site 2. Twitter 3. YouTube Also, do you provide student email accounts either on your domain or through a service like Gaggle. Thanks for your input!”
More and more schools are exploring the possibility of using these types of media tools for educational purposes. I was however amazed and somewhat saddened to see the responses from directors of technology that came back with what struck me as almost emphatic NO’s for the response. I could almost hear “We are not allowing that on MY network.”
A clean working network is a great thing don’t get me wrong, but what will it take for some folks to see the benefit of the tools that are out there and available being used for instructional purposes? I also know that nothing beats great teaching. However, are we using our great teachers to connect with our students where they are and in a way that they communicate or are we merely breaking their spirits to conform to our standards? I also know that we need to leverage what we do with what is sustainable. What if one of these free tools that we sink time and energy into goes away? We have to make sure that we do not lose more time with that happening. I also know that we don't need to use "tools" just so we are able to say we are using tools.
I would imagine that if we were to ask those same directors of technology if sites like Delicious and Diigo were open or whether Wikispaces, Wetpaint or PBworks were available for collaboration the answer would probably be a NO as well. I thought the whole idea with education was just that education. How do we show proper use of tools and ethical use of sites and the Internet as well as collaborative ways for students to work with others and learn from others if we don’t allow them to experience things through the virtual worlds that exists via the Internet? Our faculty members also need to have the opportunities to learn in educational settings because I can imagine that most have a social networking site and before long we will hear, if we haven’t already, about someone getting in trouble for what they have posted because they don’t use them properly. Is it the students we are afraid of or the adults?
At our place we have opened up Facebook, Twitter and are exploring the best options for YouTube. We also have access to Discovery Streaming, Diigo, Delicious, Wetpaint, Wikispaces, TeacherTube, and we are even allowing our students to bring their own connectivity as we have gone wireless on our campus. Do I expect there to be some difficulties, sure I do. But I work at a school where we educate and the way we educate is not just what is contained in the curriculum. We educate the whole person in as many ways as possible. What I also expect more of are the chances for our students, as well as our teachers to do their best to shift the way they are taught as well as the way we teach and sometimes there needs to be a little push. My hope with a more open network is for the students to help with that push and then we get the benefit of teaching the ethical use as well as proper modeling of what is truly available out there to help our students prepare for their future.
I feel that if we truly believe in what we are doing we have to make strides in the direction of being more open with our students, with our parents and with our networks. Sometimes it is hard to let go, yes it can be a scary world out there, yes I want to protect my students and I do everything possible to make that happen, and yes we do teach online safety across the board, but I also want to share what is available, open the eyes of my students and teachers to all the possibilities and hopefully help to make them successful for their future.
“I am on a mission to find out which, if any, school districts allow student access to any or all of the following during school hours: 1. Facebook or any other social networking site 2. Twitter 3. YouTube Also, do you provide student email accounts either on your domain or through a service like Gaggle. Thanks for your input!”
More and more schools are exploring the possibility of using these types of media tools for educational purposes. I was however amazed and somewhat saddened to see the responses from directors of technology that came back with what struck me as almost emphatic NO’s for the response. I could almost hear “We are not allowing that on MY network.”
A clean working network is a great thing don’t get me wrong, but what will it take for some folks to see the benefit of the tools that are out there and available being used for instructional purposes? I also know that nothing beats great teaching. However, are we using our great teachers to connect with our students where they are and in a way that they communicate or are we merely breaking their spirits to conform to our standards? I also know that we need to leverage what we do with what is sustainable. What if one of these free tools that we sink time and energy into goes away? We have to make sure that we do not lose more time with that happening. I also know that we don't need to use "tools" just so we are able to say we are using tools.
I would imagine that if we were to ask those same directors of technology if sites like Delicious and Diigo were open or whether Wikispaces, Wetpaint or PBworks were available for collaboration the answer would probably be a NO as well. I thought the whole idea with education was just that education. How do we show proper use of tools and ethical use of sites and the Internet as well as collaborative ways for students to work with others and learn from others if we don’t allow them to experience things through the virtual worlds that exists via the Internet? Our faculty members also need to have the opportunities to learn in educational settings because I can imagine that most have a social networking site and before long we will hear, if we haven’t already, about someone getting in trouble for what they have posted because they don’t use them properly. Is it the students we are afraid of or the adults?
At our place we have opened up Facebook, Twitter and are exploring the best options for YouTube. We also have access to Discovery Streaming, Diigo, Delicious, Wetpaint, Wikispaces, TeacherTube, and we are even allowing our students to bring their own connectivity as we have gone wireless on our campus. Do I expect there to be some difficulties, sure I do. But I work at a school where we educate and the way we educate is not just what is contained in the curriculum. We educate the whole person in as many ways as possible. What I also expect more of are the chances for our students, as well as our teachers to do their best to shift the way they are taught as well as the way we teach and sometimes there needs to be a little push. My hope with a more open network is for the students to help with that push and then we get the benefit of teaching the ethical use as well as proper modeling of what is truly available out there to help our students prepare for their future.
I feel that if we truly believe in what we are doing we have to make strides in the direction of being more open with our students, with our parents and with our networks. Sometimes it is hard to let go, yes it can be a scary world out there, yes I want to protect my students and I do everything possible to make that happen, and yes we do teach online safety across the board, but I also want to share what is available, open the eyes of my students and teachers to all the possibilities and hopefully help to make them successful for their future.
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