Wordle & the Speeches

Here is a wordle I created using the text of Obama's Lincoln Memorial speech.

Of course, he is not president yet and I haven't figured out how to put the actual picture of the wordle on the page so it can be read, but it is interesting to compare the frequency of his words with those of some of the inaugural addresses of the past.

I hope to create a similiar wordle with the inaugural address to use for class discussion, as well as compare that speech with this one.

A Brand New Day

I thought I would title this post after a song that is currently online which was recorded earlier this year by some members of our student body and written by one of our parents, Ira Antelis. Our school community has been Commemorating MLK Jr. with a school wide celebration called Justice Day which incorporates a study of the ideas of justice and diversity in conjunction with the arts. We will celebrate Justice Day on Friday, 3 days the history-making day when Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of our country. There is so much excitement, not just because he is from our town of Chicago, but because he represents so much to so many people. Our students have a lot of energy and curiosity about what the future holds.
Like many schools, the majority of us will be watching the inauguration live. ( I am not too worried about those who will miss the live presentation because I am sure it will be shown over many times, not only during the course of the day, but throughout the year.) To me, the challenge is to make sure the students don't just see this as time to get out of class, but time to think about what their world will be as a result of this man's leadership. I have been following a number of fellow blogger's who have generously posted links and ideas, as well as some who are attending the actual ceremony and plan to utilize twitter, you tube, facebook,etc. This is truly a 21st century learning explosion! I am excited to see the various technologies we will hear about and read about over these next weeks, as we begin a real 21st century presidency.


Anyhow, I am also posting the wiki we have created for the middle school's examination of the events. The centerpiece is really a study of different perspectives around both our country and the world as to how they tell the story and where they place their hopes. I am also hoping to get some responses about the hopes and dreams of the students themselves on an edublog I am experimenting with.

Thoughts While Driving

While I am very excited about the prospects of new leadership in our country, I was struck this week with the impossible task this same leadership has in front of them. Driving out to meet some friends for dinner on a Thursday night, I took a quick route through a residential neighborhood,noticing a number of for sale signs.
As a drove past a number of new developments on commercial streets, I noticed empty storefronts, still with bare concrete walls because there are no tenants to customize them for. As I passed a strip mall shopping area on a busy street, I noticed that on either side of me were closed business with lights out...one,a Circuit City and the other a Bennigan's Restaurant. At the mall, every store had prices slashed to 70% off. Might seem a great bargain to some, but we need to read between the lines.

Working with technology, I guess I have become more and more visual. The images along my drive really struck a chord with me. The effects of some very bad decisions, on the part of consumers, banks , and our federal government are coming home to roost. The darkness of those storefronts made me think about the workers. These people are not making tons of money to begin with. Where does one even go too find a job if they are unemployed now? School will stay open, so in that regard I am lucky, but what will happen to our families? How will this affect the kids?
Even the restaurant we visited was only about 1/3 filled. The wait staff were working hard, but their income is certainly not the same as it was on a Thursday night in more prosperous times.
So, as I look forward to the new administration, I keep prayers for them in my heart.Their task is daunting; there is no clear cut solution.There is no pie in the sky that will change things tomorrow.The road will be long, hard, and difficult.People will be looking for someone to blame for what is happening and will be hoping for a quick solution.Patience will take on a whole new meaning.

Vocabulary

There has been quite a bit going on with my Google Reader and talk about Vocabulary. The emphasis seems to be on the visual, which is a much higher level thinking skill that recall. I like the way that Langwiches put a couple of posts all together on her blog. It seems that Mr. Robinson, who must currently be teaching in China, has taken some old school ideas about drawing pictures to illustrate meaning and kicked them up a notch by adding a visual component. I like this idea and was intrigued when the emphasis on a variety of visuals was presented by Jamie McKenzie, Garr Reynolds, and Daniel Pink. I think this is a good time to note about the power of Visual Thesaurus, by Thinkmap, which is a very reasonably priced product to purchase for a school. A school subscription also allows for at home usage by the students as well as in house. you may be familiar with the product if you use i Google as it provides the user with an option to have it appear on their home page. Without a subscription, you only get to try out about 2 definitions.
I really like this product because of what it has to offer. Pronunciation, color coded parts of speech, multiple definitions, and grouping based on denotation as well as connotation. You can also look for images which explain the word.
I had wanted my picture today to be from spell with Flickr, and I finally did!! I guess you have to get the HTML code from the spell site , copy and paste into Blogger using the edit html tab in the editing box. Phew!

Is Lurking a Bad Thing?

I have been checking my Twitter account and always find the stuff that Will Richardson puts up to be fascinating. today, he talks about "Why Blogging is Hard" and I think he hits the nose on the head. it is about risk, risking failure or disagreement, or not being good enough. I have a hard time keeping up with blogging because i am not always sure I have something worth saying. i started out using the blog more as a journal, and have made it a personal mission to try to stick with it. I am just not certain that I have anything interesting to say.

I have listened to a learned from a lot of people in the last year. THEY are experts; I am not. I seem to lurk on twitter and lurk at webinars. Ironic that my interest in Web 2.0 has been primarily 1.0 on my part. So, I need to share, I guess. Build up confidence.

Maybe that is how a lot of our students feel too. As new learners, it has a far greater social consequence for them in their world. It is all about how they want to be perceived, which is often far from what they really are.

So, if nothing else, I am learning not just tech, but about taking risks and being willing to "put it out there." The other great lesson is about empathy, especially with my students, who feel this same way about new content, processing, and presenting.

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons

Kicking off 2009 @ school

Today we had a presentation by Nichole Pinkard at school. As the director of Innovation at the U of C and recipient of a $1.6 million grant from the MacArthur Foundations, she has been really making some changes in the way kids do things. Our hope was that her presentation would get people thinking about teaching the kids where they are and implementing more technology in the classroom.

The important idea to me right now is that people understand that there is actually more to technology than just computers. Actually, I sometimes think that 1:1 could be isolating. Of course, that is just my opinion today, could change. The main idea is that, given the current state of the economy and the amount of technological hardware our kids have at home, we should be thinking outside the box a bit. Flip cameras are technology that can be used to have 4 kids collaborate on one computer to make a film. Mp3 players, especially those with video capabilities, allow the students to be consumers of information on a different scale. Start thinking about MP3 files as homework assignments and take advantage of that downtime they have between travelling from one destination to another.

About the picture?

This is from the blog of Eric Langhorst in Liberty, Missouri as he prepares his students to pilot a Zune project for Microsoft called the Speaking of History project . Podcasting and the use of MP3 players are an important part of his 8th grade social studies class.

A New Year , same old plan?

Well, I have had an adventurous year to say the least, meeting lots of people and learning some much at a variety of conferences. I attended Larry Fletcher's speech about boys and writing in Wilmette, attended an ICE COLD conference in Lisle, ICE in St. Charles , 2 archdiocesan conferences, one featuring Alan November,NECC in San Antonio where I also met the head of ICE, Ginger, and the head of Chicago chapter of ICE, Hattie. I had an exciting and stimulating trip to BLC in Boston that rocked my world in many ways, including my epal class as well as meeting and seeing so many tech "rock stars." I have a treasured picture of my and my gal groupies with Alan on my desk at school. I also attended 2 classes in Wheeling at the NSLS center on gaming. Come fall, I was really fortunate to be invited to attend the Urban Education Institute at Carter Woodson Middle School that also made a great impression on me. Again, movers and shakers! The following weekend, I spent in a Classroom 2.0 regional meeting Steve Hargadon and others coordinated by Lucy Gray. Lots of learning.

Since ICE COLD, I have been following some blog and learning so much at times I thought my head would explode. I also started to Twitter, but I hang around the edges and pick up information more than contributing, which is probably not a good thing. Nevertheless, I have picked up tons and actually viewed photos of the fire in California from someone's window and the New Year as it is celebrated on the beaches of Thailand. How cool is that?

So, 2009 is the year for me to build up my confidence and really start to get seriously into it. I have prepared a couple of power points following the suggestions in Presentation Zen and noting the warnings in Death by Powerpoint slide share as well as YOU TUBE which I will try out on Monday. My first project of the year is going to be to try to think more visually and take to heart the idea that a picture makes a greater impression than a bunch of text. In addition, I will try to follow my own guidelines that presentation software is just an " accessory' to the real star of the show which should be your story or speech.

My photo for today? A great photo that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times as the story of the sale of the Obama Senate seat broke. My favorite part? NOT DOCTORED AT ALL!!! What are the odds of such a perfect shot!

Will I blog every day? I doubt it, but I hope that I learn something everyday.

Today goal to me is to investigate istockphoto.com upon the recommendation of a friend. It is a fee that requires no royalties, but you need to purchase the art you want. There is some fabulous stuff out there. I also have looked into Spell by Flickr...so clever as well as the creative commons section of flickr.

I think I am off to a good start. I have blogged 50% of the days of this year. How small will THAT percentage get?