Exercising the Mind

An opinion in response to the ongoing debate over the usefulness of AR...

I hate exercising. I will go to lengths to avoid it. I will write a blog post instead of hopping on the elliptical (right now, for instance, I should be at the gym). We all have things that we dislike doing.

Any doctor will tell you to exercise 30 minutes a day. As adults, they cannot force us to do this, but instead tell us that it is for our own good. But do we exercise? Some do, some don't.

I think of my aversion to exercise when I see kids with an aversion to reading. They don't want to open that book any more than I want to go on the treadmill. I look to my own experience to figure out how to motivate them. One of the best ways to get me moving is to take out Dance Dance Revolution. I won't go on the treadmill, but offer me a chance to best my high score on DDR, and I'll be sweating away to the techno beat! I avoid the stairmaster like the plague, but put on Wii Fit and my Mii is high-stepping down the street.

What does this have to do with kids and technology? I think that some kids need a reason to read besides the fact that it is just fun. Some people *gasp* think the treadmill is fun, but it certainly doesn't help me get on board! So how do we encourage these reluctant readers? I think one of the ways is through Accelerated Reader. Students read a book and take a quiz. The more quizzes they take, the more points they get. The better they do on the quiz, the more points they get. Just like the arcade that posts the high scores, our students get their scores posted on the wall. You can only go up! The more competitive students want to beat each other. The less competitive students just want to see their own score rise. We set goals together, then work on achieving them.

Some of these students are going to read whether or not they get points for it. But some students need a purpose beyond the promise of "fun." They've already figured out that reading is not their idea of "fun."

A teacher long ago told me that we don't like to do things we are not good at. This is my problem with sports. I'm simply not good at them. That, in turn, is incredibly embarrassing, and as a result, I avoid them even more. But a sport like DDR, or Wii Fit, doesn't pit me against the world - it is me against me. And it turns out that I actually do enjoy exercise, as long as it is disguised as fun. So if AR disguises reading as "fun" for other kids, and in the process they discover they actually DO like reading, then isn't it a worthwhile activity?

But what if AR isn't "fun" for the reluctant readers? As a last resort, it is a chance to experience success. Each student chooses a goal he/she can reasonably expect to accomplish. On the elliptical for me, it was a certain number of minutes. And I did it. And it wasn't so bad. Some students have the same experience with AR. So they push themselves a bit further, as I did on the elliptical. And because our minds/bodies are more in shape, we reach that goal too. As it turns out, the elliptical is becoming my friend. I've seen that happen for reluctant readers and books too, through the feedback and appropriate leveling in AR.

I also don't think it discourages the avid readers. To test out my theory on a true reader, I let myself take some AR quizzes. I did pretty well on my favorite books. It was fun to relive the books, and see if I had missed anything in my reading. Personally, I'd much rather take the quiz than have to do a diorama (have I mentioned my aversion to art?)

As I learn about the technology available for students, I think that students have many tools available to them. Just as in the classroom, no tool is a comprehensive solution, but each tool has its potential benefits. As teachers, our craft is to figure out how to exercise each mind so that every "muscle" is developed and maintained as its peak performance level.

In the meantime, I will continue to push my best on the elliptical, beat my high DDR score, and maybe even tackle the weight equipment that looms in front of me every time I visit the gym.

On Self Editing

I mentioned in my previous post my frustration with grammar and spelling mistakes. We had been posting comments to our class blog, and they were filled with errors. Our In2Books pen pal letters had some problems too. I spent quite a while guiding students to edit their own work. This is a painful activity for me, one of my least favorite as a teacher.With 27 comments waiting for me to help with editing, I wasn't looking forward to today. I often wonder if it is worth it.

IT IS! Today I assigned the students another commenting activity, and sure enough, the comments were far better. I was able to approve many without editing. Some have even written back to their In2Books pen pals, and I already see more attention to detail (the shift key is for more than just filling out a rectangular keyboard!).

Sometimes it is frustrating to teach and teach, wondering if it is really making a difference. Today was a pleasant reminder that the hard (and sometimes painful) work pays off.

As a side note, I'm also able to bring the students to the lab, where they log on, follow a link to my blog, and follow the directions on my blog. The only verbal direction I give is, "Log on and go to our blog." This frees up so much time for things like editing and specialized instruction. If only my students had laptops in their desks at all times...

Overwhelming!

I love to try new things in the classroom, and my year plan is never the same twice. This year is full of change, and I am determined to infuse technology into the curriculum. Though this is exciting, it is incredibly challenging too.

Blogging With Students

• They like going online and seeing what is new on the blog. They don't like having to watch their grammar when they comment. I get frustrated when I see blatant spelling and grammar errors! I'm working on ideas for managing the comments and helping them grow as writers through the blog.
• Many students are excited about starting their own blogs. However, with one computer in the classroom, and one day a week in the lab (if I'm proactive and find out which teachers aren't using their slot that week!), it doesn't leave much time to teach blogging. I need to get a couple of students on board and have them train the others.

In2Books

• I must shout out In2Books right now. If you are reading this, I hope you'll sign up to be a Pen Pal! My kids were so happy to read their introductory letters and to choose the book they will read with their pen pal. They proudly told me who their pal was and what their pal does for a living. I am curious to see how these relationships evolve over the last 3 months of the school year. Plus, FREE books for us! We love that!

Digital Storytelling

• Student engagement meet video camera! All I have to do to create salivating students (a la Pavlov's dog) is pull out the black camera bag with the two video cameras inside. I have one reluctant learner who will ask me hourly when he can use the camera (or blog). His excitement level is high. I have three girls who have been praised for their professional use of camera angle terms.

This is great stuff! It comes with a price tag. First, managing all of these technologies is overwhelming and time consuming. I worry about fairness to all (how do I tell reluctant learner that he will not get to edit because the three girls get to go first?) I worry about getting pen pal letters from everyone, even though not everyone can type quickly, or even write well? Not to mention, to type in the letters we need to have computers - and did I mention the lack of computers? Soon, that problem will be solved by the classroom set of laptops that I believe will eventually come to our school.

Then there are the inevitable technology issues. The editing program didn't work on my laptop, so it needed to be sent back for repair. I had to teach myself how to download video onto the laptops. I am fairly tech savvy, and was able to do this easily, but what about the other teachers who do not enjoy their tech as much as I do?

All of this technology use also comes with a steep learning curve. I am pushing forward, hoping that the learning curve will lead to a deeper exploration of writing and our curriculum. However, I do worry that it is time wasted - and that I could have spent that extra half hour focused on the all important state standards. This year I will learn if the end justifies the means.

The one thing I am certain of - the technology does create engagement. And engagement, to me, is one of the most important things I can foster in my students. Now I just need to figure out how to channel that engagement into truly productive and useful learning.

Just Starting Out

A bit of background about me...

I love to write. This does not mean I am a good writer, but I enjoy putting words on a page. Writing teachers in the past have criticized my writing in the following ways: too vague, not enough information, poor punctuation, too vague, poor sentence structure, too vague. You get the picture. In most of my educational career, I have been all but discouraged from writing. Teachers can be very powerful inspirations, but also can be downright poisonous to dreams.

I also love technology. I can engage myself for hours by simply playing around with my laptop. This "playing" has led to much of my computer knowledge. There is a lot to be said for "just" playing around!

So, when my school principal told my grade level about a grant that would give us a class set of laptops, technology training, and writing training, you can imagine how excited I was. The trainings are done, and the laptops still haven't arrived, but my enthusiasm for integrating technology into my curriculum has soared. I find myself at a point where I am looking for new, innovative ideas to add depth to my teaching.

In the past three months, I have created a classroom blog, and had my students post comments at least twice. I recently developed a classroom wiki, where I intend to store all of my files for parents and students to access. I'm also hoping parents will jump in and add to the wiki in the hopes of creating a tighter parent/classroom community. Many of my students are inspired by the technology they have only "played" with so far, and several of them are beginning their own blogging journeys (naturally with all of the standard internet warnings from me!). When we receive our voice recorders (I'm sure there is a special name for these, but it escapes me now), I look forward to creating podcasts for them to listen to before posting. Eventually, I hope they want to develop their own podcasts!

Already a parent has posted a comment, and a brother of a student has commented on our blog as well. Students have seen comments from my own technology instructor, as well as numerous replies from me. They look to the links on the side of my blog to find educational websites. They ask me daily when our laptops will arrive.

To recap, I'm excited and they're excited! So where do we go from here? I'm starting the surfing now, looking for ways that other teachers are incorporating technology into their classrooms. My philosophy of education is shifting, and I'm looking away from the basal reader and worksheet, towards the 21st century literacies that my students will require for success.

How do you use technology in your classroom?