In my visits to schools around the district, I try to drop into our Inspired Writing classrooms and see how the EeePC netbooks are being used in the writing process. 



(Here, Mr. Reiner leads an all-class discussion)

Today I had a chance to get over to Centennial Academy for the Fine Arts and visit Mr. Reiner's 5th grade.  As I walked in the classroom, the students were gathered in the front of the room discussing the different lenses they use to evaluate writing.  Mr. Reiner was showing how one student had sent a message through their wiki to the class asking for specific feedback on a piece of writing.  After the discussion, students went to their desks, the floor, even out of classroom to the media center with their EeePCs to engage in writing.  Some students wrote on paper, but most used their computers.  But even then, there were differences.  Some students were writing on their own wiki pages, others were writing in a word processor and still others were using the web cam and microphone built into the computer to record their voices or take a picture of a book cover.  After about 30 minutes, during which time students wrote, conferenced with each other and with Mr. Reiner, they came back to together to consider a nice section of writing from one of these Inspired Writers.  Mr. Reiner went to the front of the room while a student took control of the computer and made sure the writing came up on the screen.  The section of the story we heard was very descriptive as the author slowly allowed an image in our minds form as she told her narrative.  At first, I thought the narrator was a child, but after a little while, I realized she was a lion or tiger!  Nicely done.

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Any day when I can visit a school is a good day.  I do miss my classroom (can it really be 13 years?) and having even just one hour with teachers and students is a real gift.

Yesterday, I visited Field Elementary and watched Ms. Moore's 5th grade classroom where netbooks are a part of the daily activity.  The students were totally on task and worked on the main assignement which involved drafting a thesis.  They made use of their wiki (http://moorelearning.wikispaces.com/ this is a secured site so if you want to join, you will need to identify yourself to Ms. Moore) to compose drafts and share information both with their teacher and with each other.  What really excites me about classrooms like this is how students come to really own their learning. 

Several students had been sick earlier and needed to catch up with the group.  They were working on the previous assignment and were getting help from others to catch up.  Students used the wiki, accessed...

Last night's class was a fun exploration into different ways to engage students in writing on the computer.  We looked into word processing, etherpad, and coveritlive.  We had already touched on Google Docs.  The etherpad linked below is an activity where we explored various bibliography management tools.  Thanks to everyone who joined us for the session!

http://etherpad.com/toKksS2uhW

I visited Twain Elementary yesterday and had a chance to visit Mrs. Jordan's 5th grade class during their writing block.  The class was working on an Olympic unit in which they were developing various writing skills that will be required both on the CSAP and in the life of an educated person [;-)

I have linked their unit plan and wiki rubric here:

Olympic Unit Page 1

Olympic Unit Page 2

Wiki Comments Rubric

The students welcomed me right away and yet stayed on task.  They handled their technology well and were keenly focussed on their work.  I watched as they researched various nations competing in the Winter Olympics and they took notes in preparation for a brochure project later this week.  Some students wrote their notes on paper and others used their EeePC netbooks to jot down important tidbits of information. ...

Today, the Learning 2.0 was hosted at Loveland High School.  Our own Arapahoe HS and Heritage HS hosted this event last year.  Scott Elias and the leaders from Thompson School District have done a great job taking this event forward for 2010.  Wifi is working great and the agenda looks delicious!  I will return to this blog post several times today to capture some notes.

Melinda Miller: http://weprincipal.blogspot.com

Toni Theisen: http://globalcompetency.wikispaces.com/

recommended: www.edsteps.org

John Creighton: http://colearning.wikispaces.com/2010l3

Some reflection: I thought the conference (or unconference) went well despite the snowy conditions.  This meant that the organizers (thanks Scott Elias for taking on the hosting this year) had some extra sandwiches by the end of the day.  The theme was very much about how to tie technology to support the instructional practices of the classroom.  Nobody seemed to need convincing that technology for technology...

Summary of the PD Components of the Powering Up the Writer's Workshop (EETT) Grant.

In a report released by the US Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics, a number of trneds have been identified for IT in public schools.  You can read the report for yourself HERE.  I will pull out the "Selected Findings" from page two and compare them to LPS. Green indicates where we meet or exceed the national trend and red indicates where we don't.

97% of schools surveyed have Local Area Networks and 100% of those with a District network are connected to the Internet. LPS: All schools have a Local Area Network and are connected to the Internet 55% of schools linked to a District network are connected via fiber-optics. LPS: The District network is fiber-optic and does connect all LPS schools.  The Charters are also linked to our network via a Qwest leased connection. 37% of Districts have a direct fiber-optic connection to the Internet.  LPS: The District has a direct fiber-optic connection to the Internet. 67% of Districts have a formal...

The video presented here is a summary of the report presented to the Board of Education on January 28th, 2010.