Ye' Old Stomping Grounds

I learned this week that the Technology Integration Specialist job that I have had the pleasure of doing last year and this year is not going to be renewed (There is always a chance that could change, but not looking likely) due to state budget cuts.  This move will take me back to teaching Social Studies again.  I am disappointed that I will no longer continue to do this job, which I have loved.  There is, however, some excitement about returning to the classroom to use and share so much of what I have learned about in these past two years.

At the same time, I feel there will be a bit of pressure on me to "prove" that I can do what I have been encouraging so many other teachers to do.  I am not worried about that pressure, I just know that it is going to be there.  I always like a challenge, and I feel going back is a challenge, because so much in education has changed since I "left" the classroom.  Like I said, there is some excitement about interacting with the kids again, but there is less excitement about the increased "paper work" that now goes with teaching.

The best thing about these past two years is my increased passion towards the teaching profession.  I have learned some valuable lessons.  I have learned about some valuable tools.  I have met (both face to face and online) some outstanding educators, administrators, students, and technology staff.  Looking back, I feel like my brain has been overloaded with #edchat, #edtech, and everything in between. 

Because of this new found knowledge and passion, what will I be doing differently with my students?  This is definitely just the short list.  There are several classroom management and instructional tools/ideas that I will also incorporate into my classroom as well.  I will have high expectations for my students when it comes to being engaged in my classroom.

1.) I will be using Twitter and Group Tweet to interact with students and provide homework, extra credit, links, resources, etc.  I also hope to use it as a teaching tool like the Teaching Paperless Blog did. 
2.) I am contemplating creating a Facebook Page for students which I will provide information, extra credit, etc.  My first order of business though, will be to explain to students how to make their profile private.
3.) I want to have my students writing blogs.  I am not sure yet how I will integrate that into Social Studies, but I am researching ideas.
4.) From the video The Independent Project, students talked about their "Individual Endeavors" that they did.  I would love to incorporate something like that into my classroom.
5.) I will be incorporating more video and webpage production as well.  I want students to be creating as much as possible
6.) I will have to completely revamp my lessons and lecture because I will have so many new tools at my disposal.
7.) Create a blog for my students to interact with as well and provide an area for discussion over various topics.
8.) Using videos, like TED Talks, to create discussion.  Most of the videos I showed before, were just time consuming.  I really want them to invoke discussion among my students.
9.) Use available resources to teach history by teaching today.

So what will become of "The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness?"  Well, my goal is to keep it going.  Whether I can post to it as often is still up in the air because I will be focusing more on student lesson and activity development.  My blog might turn into a combination of resource sharing and classroom sharing.  I really am not sure, I just know it will be something I think about over the summer.

Would love to hear what you all think, and if you have gone back to the classroom, what have you done differently?  What new things would you do with your students?

March - Most Popular Posts

March was a pretty good month on the blog.  I found a lot of interesting resources and had 39 blog posts.  For the month of March, here are the most popular posts.

1.) 10 Resources for Teaching Writing with Technology - A lot of valuable resources out there for writers and English teachers. 

2.) 10 Resources for Teaching Reading with Technology - If you teach writing, you probably teach reading, so this list is worth checking out as well.

3.) 10 Wikis Worth Checking Out - I just posted this yesterday and it came in third place.  Not bad for 24 hours. 

4.) Idea Paint - A Technology in its own right, Idea Paint allows people to paint a whiteboard anywhere they want.  A fantastic idea. 

5.) INTEGRATING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY - An acronym of Web 2.0 resources for students, teachers, and administrators. 

Some Other Good Posts:
- It Isn't Going Anywhere - My 400th post about Social Media in Education. 
- Group Tweet - A valuable Twitter application for teachers who use Twitter with their students. 

The Independent Project

The Independent Project(Link to New York Times Article) is about a group of 8 students at Monument Mountain Regional High School who set out to form their own school.  The essentially formed a school within a school.  Each student involved in this project developed Independent Endeavors.  The idea was to find something that you are passionate about and create it.  What were some of those Endeavors?  Wrote a Novel, Wrote a Play, Created a Short Film, Experimented with Culinary Arts, or Learned to Play the Piano.

Students are coming to school and getting an education in material they have no interest in learning.  These students felt that if they were going to spend 6 hours of their day, 30 hours a week at school, they wanted to learn something that interests them.  I was very intrigued with the video below.  I applaud the school for supporting these students.  I also like the idea of an Independent Endeavor.  What would your students do?

To learn more, see the video below:

10 Wikis Worth Checking Out

Last school year I would dedicate Wednesday's to sharing a Wiki or a few Wikis that I thought were of value.  Looking back, it has been almost 11 months since I did a Wiki Wednesday post, so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do.  So I present 10 Wikis that I have recently discovered that I think are worth sharing.

1.) First Day - We all have our First Day of School routines.  The question is how many have activities for the content area that they teach?  This wiki provides some interesting ideas for First Day of School Activities.  Worth looking at.

2.) Project Elite Wiki is specific for Librarians.  With the advances in technology there is a fear (and in some states a reality) that librarians will soon be removed or replaced in schools.  The purpose of this Wiki is to encourage technology use by Librarians.  It is important to be able to present yourself with additionally abilities, and this Wiki is a great starting point for Librarians. 

3.) iPods, iPhones, and iPads in Education is a great homepage for all you need to know about integrating iTechnology into the classroom.  Several resources as well as descriptions of apps for various subject matter. 

4.) Open Source Graphics and Visualization Tools is a wiki providing links to web based resources that provides ways to create, share, and edit graphics and visuals.  Very well organized. 

5.) Paperless Posters is a wiki all about Glogster.  You will find helpful tips, samples, and ideas for using Glogster in the classroom.  A helpful link for learning how to use the website and worth sharing with teachers who are interested in using the site. 

6.) Backchanneling Wiki is a one stop shop for all things backchanneling.  The idea of communicating with students through a backchannel is gaining a lot of steam.  This wiki provides links to web-based applications, ideas for use, and links to other resources about backchanneling.

7.) Educational Wikis is all about how to use Wikis in education and it provides various links to articles, tips, ideas, and other resources for using Wiki's in education.  You will also find 100's of examples of educational wikis being used by teachers across the world.  They are listed in alphabetical order.....wow!

8.) Cool Tools for Schools is a great starting point for finding Web 2.0 based resources to use in the classroom.  Each resource is linked by category and provides a short description for them all.

9.) Book Leads is a Wiki all about books.  There is information about authors, information for librarians, information about eBooks, as well as Young Authors.  A valuable resource for Librarians and English teachers.

10.) Student Innovation is a wiki that has the single purpose of sharing how students are using technology to create innovative projects and how as teachers, we need to be sharing what our students are doing with others.  Although this Wiki is still a work in progress; I believe with all the great things that teachers are doing out there, that this will grow rather fast. 

Better World Flux

I am a graphics guy.  I think teaching with graphs, charts, infographics, etc makes learning material more interesting.  I came across the site Better World Flux which provides interactive visualization of information on what really matters in life. Indicators like happiness, life expectancy, and years of schooling are meaningfully displayed in a colorful flowing Flux. Better World Flux visually communicates the world state in terms of standards of living and quality of life for many countries and how this has changed, and mostly improved, over a period of up to 50 years. This site is a tool for building a consensus, telling a story and sharing it, all whilst raising awareness for the UN Millennium Development Goals.

When viewing the data you can look at individual countries or you can look at the world averages with all the countries included.  For students completing geography projects over countries, this would be a valuable resource.  I could also see this being used in other social studies classes as well.  You can look at the data change over time as well, at least from when data was made available.  You can customize your own data sets and combine them as well.

You can see an image sample of the data graphic below as well as a video that shows how to use the website.