https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3jPgE2I0HnOUTJhUG4tMmc1ZTg/edit?userstoinvite=scanlanfruean@gmail.com

Slightly non-plussed about all these problems with linkage.  Try this?

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3jPgE2I0HnOUTJhUG4tMmc1ZTg/edit 

Copy and paste.  

Interesting.  LMK Shootz!

Mr. Leary

Here is the link to my presentation on the Data Teams Process.  I tried Jing and then Voicethread.  Just when I had given up on Snagit, I figured out how it works and thank goodness, right on time!  Mele Kalikimaka everyone.  I hope your Holidays are filled with joy and happiness and I would like to extend a wish for love and joy to blanket your students, as well.  This has been the most challenging class so far.  I am so glad it is nearly done but I am gonna miss it as well.  I hope we can all keep in touch through blogging, etc.

Aloha everyone!  A hui ho!

Mr. Leary  :-)

Snagit on DTP Prezi, Helping kids and teachers through DTP.

I am also adding the links to my annotated bibliography and the original proposal written in Word.  Two separate links.   Thanks!

https://www.diigo.com/list/noel_leary/Annotated+Bibliography+for+Action+Research+on+the+Six+Step+Data+Teams+Process./2v



https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3jPgE2I0HnORzJFcjRkOTZ3Ym8/edit

Aloha sixth graders!  Today.  I have a challenge for you!  When you are done with your Edison testing.  please relax and enjoy the air conditioning.  Here's what I want you to do!  The following narrative is written in Third person!  Can you rewrite it so that it is written in First Person?  Let's give it a try!  Have Fun!

Lionel crouched beneath the low hanging mangroves on the edge of the beach, his skin blending with the half light.  Though his eyes were as round as golf balls (he was sure of it), he held deathly still, quaffing his breath, releasing it slowly, praying he would not let out the gasp that would surely give up his location.  Stealthily he began to inch his way into the forest, away from the ocean, away from the danger that warbled along the sand.  The dragon's red eyes hungrily probed the tree line.  Lionel was thankful for the windless dawn, but he knew he had to move quietly in order to avoid making any sound.   He walked on the balls of his bare feet and crouched low to the ground, avoiding the dry wood of the mangrove  that would snap! Lionel froze!   Horrified he realized that now he would surely be found out!  Game over!  His mind was a flurry of fear, but the excitement was too difficult to contain.  He stifled a bout of of involuntary laughter!

 From down on the beach, he heard his sister call out, "Okay.  I know you're up there!  Come out now and I won't tickle you to death!  Lionel!  You're so funny!  Come on!  Game over!  We have to head back to town!"  Lionel smiled as he watched his older sister, Mei Ling, carefully lift the dragon mask from her shoulders.  Her straight black hair shimmered in the waning sun's rays.  From beneath her dark lips, Lionel could see her white teeth glinting, perfecting her smile.  Lionel transformed from hunted to hunter as he crouched low to the ground, his knuckles touching the sand in a defensive line stance.   When he could no longer contain himself, he sprung from the tangle of mangroves and grabbed his sister in a waist hold and tried to wrestle her to the sand.  But she was too strong and her smile gave way to laughter and she said, firmly, still smiling, "Okay, Lionel.  It's time to go!"  Together they walked up to the  life guard stand and drove off, happily chattering about the events of the day.

Hello sixth graders, I trust your Thanksgiving was restful and that you enjoyed your turkey.  I happily watched the Dallas Cowboys beat the Oakland Raiders. WOOT WOOT!  I was a little disappointed to see the Baltimore Ravens beat the Pitsburgh Steelers, but only because I used to live in Pittsburgh.

Now here is a bit of information to help you study for your post test.  Memorize and think of examples from Judith Viorst's poem "Who's Who" to help you.

Rhyme Scheme=The pattern of rhyming words in a poem or song.

Alliteration=The repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together in literature.

Alliteration: 

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in literature.

Answer the following questions.  Tweet your responses to #alliterationjv or respond in the comments section.

What are some examples of alliteration from the poem?
Can you find two words that do not begin with the same letter, but have the same sound?
Find one example of alliteration using the m sound.

Rhyme Scheme:  Take a look at the poem above.  What are some words that rhyme?  Remember, rhyming words usually sound the same at the end of the word, right?  Tweet your response to #who'swhorhymes or enter your answer in the comment section below.

In class we assigned letters in each stanza to words that rhyme.

Check out the first stanza:

What are the words that rhyme at the ends of the lines?

We assign the lines a letter based on the words that rhyme in order of the alphabet.  

Agrees rhymes with Louise so we name or assign lines 1 and 3 the letter A. 

Undeniable rhymes with reliable so we assign lines 2 and 4the  line B.  

The rhyme scheme tells us which LINES rhyme with with which lines.  The rhyme scheme for stanza one is ABAB.  

With a new stanza, there are new rhyming words so we assign new letters to the new stanza.  Let's take a look at stanza 2:

Find the rhyming words and assign new letters to the lines containing rhyming words.  Remember to assign new letters to the lines.  What is the rhyme scheme.  Include your reply on Twitter, via email (nleary@hawaii.edu).  

Point of View=The vantage point from which a story or narrative is being told.

In the first person point of view the narrator, the person telling the story,  is a character in the story.  The pronouns used to describe himself or herself and others around him  or her include I, me, us, we, my.  One way to remember the first person narrative is I=1st person

In third person point of view, the narrator is telling the story from the outside, Perhaps he is watching the scenario from far away.  The pronouns used to describe third person are he, she, they,  etc.  One way to remember third person is Three=she or he.  

Here is a link to Haiku learning for a bit more information and some practice worksheets that you can print and try on your own for practice.

www.myhaikuclass.com/nwleary/owlenglish/cms_page/view.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I'll see you on campus at CKMS!  I am looking forward to reading your responses on twitter, in comments or via email!

A hui ho!

Aloha everyone.  Here is a link to my Haiku Learning Management  System page.  I hope you will enjoy watching a short video clip "The Lion King."

https://www.myhaikuclass.com/nwleary/owlenglish/cms_page/view

Aloha and a hui ho!

Here is a link to my Jing.com presentation on unwrapping an embedded assessment.

http://screencast.com/t/qT0pweFDd

Now I can see why I everyone is flipping out!

Blog 7: Assessments

Post: 

• How do you assess student learning in your classroom?  What might you do differently to prepare student for the next generation of assessments based on the readings, activities and resources explored?

Currently I use Jumpro.pe, a mastery based grading program which allows me to look at the most recent work and to assign assessments to particular standards.   The assessments I include are major projects that highlight certain standards.  Formative assessment includes my ticket out the door and journal entries on standards related topics.  At our school, this is our second year of incorporating the Common Core State State Standards.  Students are subjected to a pre and post test schedule to indicate growth from the inception of the content.    Teachers are asked to submit detailed data that follows the six-step data teams process pioneered by Douglas Reeves.  These pre-tests and post-test are supposed to be formative in nature.

In our current text, SpringBoard by the College Board, we have just begun the first unit. The process for every unit seems to follow the pattern established by an the article in education week.  I have created a Powerpoint on the unwrapping phase here: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1COlHSQ7R8Suj5wDMqTR9zuz4d-oT6K9-0S9VYh3Enak/edit
It is key to remember that there are many formative assessments or worksheets that fill the pagges between the unit overview and the Embedded Assessment.  Throughout the process of unwrapping the unit prior to the embedded assessment, students are constantly reminded of their goal.  Self-assessment is part of the process as well as peer review.  I believe the writers of SpringBoard, a product of the College Board, have this is in mind as they develop units for this consumable text.  Further, collaboration is part and parcel of the process of learning in several assessments between unwrapping the unit and the final result.  Feed back from students and peers is part and parcel of the process of leading the students through each unit so that they might understand what the end product looks like.   

At our school, we are in the process of trying to improve our school's outcomes by the Data Teams Process in which we provide formative assessments frequently in pre and post test cycles.  The danger here is that the data becomes more important than the feedback students should be receiving.  Not enough feedback is given since students are not viewing the assessments in a timely manner.  The records do show that students are improving  overall.  However, I am not sure teachers fully understand that formative assessment is not a type of assessment. CITE  Rather, it is a process in which scaffolding and feedback are embedded.

If I were to do anything differently, I would try to find ways to guide students incorporation of new knowledge during the learning process by developing better questioning skills.  I will seek their feed back in new and innovative ways, such as Twitter and other programs that invite feedback online.  Further, I will do my best to implement the suggestions of students whenever possible.

The ear mouse, a scientific abstract.

Through his abstract art, Picasso could distort the human face in some kind of a beautiful irony. Now it seems scientists can shock the public in equally appalling ways.  Scores of earthlings have scrutinized the alien image of a hairless mouse with a human ear growing from its back.

Perhaps even more curious is the fact that the ear is not human at all; rather, the cells are of bovine origin. Nonetheless, the photograph of the mouse lends the supposition that the mouse was cultivated in a petri dish and that the human ear growing from its back is a result of genetic engineering, that somehow, scientists have spawned a new evolution that will save humankind from all its ailments.

One such ailment is the failing liver.  Many patients requiring liver transplants often die before they placed on a growing list of transplant patients, states an article in the BBC news suggests that scientists are on the path to growing functioning human livers with the aid of the hairless mouse.  While  the article hooks the reader with marvelous possibilities in its opening, it falsely claims that the mouse has human genes growing inside of it.  It turns out the cells are not human at all and the mouse is just a host for a sort cellular mold using bio-degradable polymers as the form.  More alarming, given the photograph's implications, the reader is led to believe that a cure for liver disease is eminent. If the reader continues, the article becomes more technical and spells out the details of the scientific quest to recreate human organs.  In reality, the idea of recreating a human liver is very far away.  No genetic engineering is really taking place: rather, cell cultivation, growth and scaffolding the structure of the organ represent the  path to human organ replacement.  Further, the mouse is no longer mentioned; the focus is the scientist, Jay Vacanti, and the seemingly formidable task he has undertaken to grow and cultivate a functioning liver to contain hundreds of millions of human cells.
    Others take a less sensational approach to the matter of the ear mouse.  In Australia, ABC presents no photo of the ear mouse at all.  Instead, the focus is on the history of cell cultivation and growth, providing a buffering zone against the sensational photographs and rate bolstering science features.  The focus is not on genetic engineering, nor a 3D liver.  Instead, the ABC article focuses on a more mundane topic, cell cultivation.  The ear mouse is mentioned but only as an historical account of what has  happened until now in the scientific realm of cell growth and cultivation.  While the title is somewhat intriguing, the author, a scientist named Dr. Karl, quickly refutes any claims that the mouse born ear contains human tissue and that the mouse and ear were genetically engineered to benefit humans, that the cells were implanted in the mouse over the muscle layer so that the mouse's blood supply could nurture the cells implanted.  In fact, the cells that made up the ear were from a cow's cartilage, which would quickly be rejected by human immunity systems.
     Wikipedia provides a brief description of the ear mouse, choosing not to invoke sensationalism at all, not even in the title.  The Wikipedia entry is entitled "The Vacanti Mouse."  Like the ABC article , the truth about the mouse and ear are told, but the scientific facts are highlighted.  It seems ironic that the very figure that spawned a controversy over genetic engineering is now used to defend it.
   With the truth being told the matter  makes more sense and practical applications of cultivating cells can be exposed.  Of the three articles provided, I found Dr. Karl's take on the ear mouse to be most credible.  He high lights the truth and does not extend hype and fraud.  Instead he highlights the real good that can come from science, such as ear reconstruction and the case of the star baseball player born with chest plate covering his heart and lungs, whose cartilaginous chest plate was grown in the same manner as the cow cartilage grown in the mouse.  In either case, the truth is that no genetic engineering took place: rather, human ingenuity.
     As to the question, What would I do next to ensure accuracy?  I would continue my research of the ear mouse and get as much information about the experiment as possible.   Developing good sources for research requires answering essential questions about the material.  While the BBC information is useful, its intent seems cloaked in hype and sensationalism rather than the truth.  As for me, seeing how Dr. Karl refutes implications that the mouse rose out of a petri dish in a clinical lab bearing, not only a human ear, but a new evolution for the benefit of mankind is highly valuable.  However, I feel the best information comes from the source of ty he experimenters, Dr. Vacanti and his team.  I would take the time to read the work of his team and utilize the implications directly from the source.
     I think the most valuable lesson taken from having taken a closer look at topic of the ear mouse is that even refutable sources can be questionable.  Even then, the information, though somewhat dubious, may provide inside into some research topics.  I have learned to go directly to the source when sources are cited and to glean information first hand.  When it comes to teaching students how to evaluate sources, my primary advice is to avoid websites flooded with advertisements and to be sure to continue beyond that dubious source to find core of the matter, perhaps from the original author, researcher or scientist.  In my own practice, I gravitate toward source from online libraries or journals that are available to me as a student.  While researching topics, students should be given lessons which help them to evaluate the credibility of the source and to avoid plagiarism. Some of these sources can be found through John Hopkins University or Scholastic.   I will embed these guidelines in my personal learning network, share them on my blogs and with colleagues at school. In addition, students can evaluate each other's sources through peer evaluation. It is important  to also teach students about the ramifications of plagiarism.  Further, I will model the process of researching the ear mouse to my students whenever possible.  In this way, students may still enjoy the shock and awe of a Picasso or an ear mouse, but they will be able to better filter the truth and the intent of such shocking images.

Check out the ear mouse articles here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1949073.stm
-www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/06/02/1644154.htm
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacanti_mouse

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZmfQoSx8wVN_Z-2E1zoWXv4RvM8jxtVoCXdf5NAvQV4/edit

The above link should take you to a Prezi on the skills and knowledge needed to complete Embedded Assessment One.  Look at EA 1, attached and examine the Prezi.  To what skill or knowledge base does each task apply?

Post:  Discuss your thoughts about flipping the classroom.  What are the benefits, challenges?  How might you overcome them?

                                                                                           

     Kids get bored when they hear the same voice and see the same things.  They get frustrated when their minds are not visually stimulated by light, color, contrast and action.  They “blow out” when they are bored, tired and hungry all at once.  Maybe it's a visceral reaction to lack of control.  Maybe they expect to get what they want when they complain. Is the solution to flip the classroom?  When I think about the idea of flipping the classroom, I get really sort of pumped up and excited about the implications, the possibilities and the potential outcomes. Discipline problems could quite possibly become eliminated.  Students who don't like reading at home may never have to do it in a traditional way.  They could see it and hear it from the light source they ultimately desire, an iPod, a tablet, a lap-top or even a Smart TV.  Their minds could be stimulated by music and images that are vivid and visually pleasing.  Kids could download their teachers’ lectures onto thumb drives or burn them onto cds. Students could weigh in on wikis, blogs, podcasts and what’s more, when they need help in the classroom, the expert is there to guide them.  Students can work collaboratively, as well and they can get help from students in different blocks or teams.  In addition, students could work at their own pace, conferring with each other electronically.   Further, an increase in the number of students completing major assignments becomes the norm since kids have class time to collaborate with their peers. 

     In a perfect world…A digital Utopia…an electronic Nirvana…—This is the phraseology of an ideal before it is put into practice.  The truth is that the caveats could be so plentiful that the ideal is veiled. The challenges include availability of devices, connectivity to the internet and the sense that the same boring lessons are being taught the same way as they are in the class room but with an added dimension of the electronic device (Novemberlearning.com). For me the latter is the gravest concern.  You Tube has countless videos on the subject and the concept is growing in popularity; however, I think the lessons need to be more interactive and the same principles of engagement need to apply to flipped lessons.  The availability of the teacher as the expert is realistic but its emphasis overshadows the importance of the on-line or the flipped lecture.  I believe teachers need to import the relevance of the flipped lecture so that students have something to which they can refer during the collaborative time with teachers and other students.   Some teachers are asking students to meet via Skype to confer about lessons or projects.  In any case, anticipatory set and closure are key in concretizing the essential elements of a lesson.  The importance of engagement in the classroom is such that students will retain the essential learning by the end of class.  Therefore students need evidence of the relevancy of a flipped lecture.  Hand in hand with relevancy is rigor.  What evidence can be provided by the student to show that he or she can demonstrate the relationship between the digitally transmitted material and the class work?  Cornell notes or interactive journals may be some old school solutions, but students can also journal online or email teachers. Perhaps the answer lies in a wealth of survey sights which teachers ask students for their feedback intermittently or by responding through Twitter, etc.   Students can respond in chat rooms, even on Facebook or Instagram.  I say, therefore, flip the lesson when students can understand and demonstrate relevance, thus providing rigor. 

                                                                                           

    

How do you currently network and learn about teaching resources?  What have you learned from reading and watching the resources provided?  What will you do to expand your PLN?

There is so much information available on the internet that people have begun to express their frustration through humor by creating new words like intronet, worldnet, or interweb.  You Tube and Facebook were romanticized on a national sitcom when an obvious digital immigrant lamented seeing his picture on “The Face Tube.“  LOL!   Many teachers are equally as dumbfounded by technology as the general public.  There are so many ideas to use out there, that many of them go unnoticed, in spite of their merits. 

A Personal Learning Network is one way to help teachers organize, utilize and proselytize the benefits of engaging kids through electronics. 

Currently,  my educational networking capacity includes interaction with the staff of my school through email and professional development, and more recently, Edmodo.   There is so much useful information available through the worldwide web it is hard to recognize what would be useful.  I thought of the following funnel analogy. 

A funnel is a device that allows the use to control the flow of liquids into a small opening.  A funnel prevents waste and saves time and money.   Having a funnel around can also offer peace of mind.  What do you do when you can’t find your funnel? You buy another one, or you ask your neighbor if you can borrow their funnel.  If your neighbor is not home, you give up and watch football or a movie. Sunday’s are for resting anyway, you convince yourself. 

How can we teachers funnel what tools we want to use from the web and put them to use efficaciously?  Perhaps that frustration is what many educators experience when they begin to think about ways they can utilize the many wonderful resources such as Facebook, You Tube, Pinterest, and others to help students become engaged.  Think of all the resources available as the fluid from a vast ocean that you want to pour into a small opening, recognizing that you need only so much and too much would be wasteful, or  perhaps you don’t have time to decipher through all the information.  A Personal Learning Network, [PLN], is a good way to funnel all the resources available in that vast sea of  of information known as the world wide web, a container of sorts for educational tools.

In my current practice as a middle school teacher, I rely on what I learn about technology through professional development and the testimony of other teachers.  I have a couple of blogs for students, which I share with my cohort in the masters of education classes I am taking at the University of Hawai’I at Manoa.   This is an exciting beginning and has opened my eyes to a ton of possibilities.  I really want to use technology in school and I so look forward to implementing all that I am learning about engagement with the use of electronics.  Following are some of the ways I plan to use what I have learned.

1^st.  In the new paradigm shift of flipping the classroom, Twitter can be a useful tool.  Teachers are using Twitter to write their Do Now lessons on their own devices.  I have seven beautiful screens in my room which are not being used but most would be happy to use them for a change of pace from their tablets.   Fundamentally, I don’t get Twitter, but I can see how useful it could be.  I could Tweet a vocabulary word a day, or a link to a poem.  I could Tweet my thoughts about the extended metaphors of bowling and seafaring in Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, how his life as a World War II pilot surely found its way into the adventures of James Henry Trotter and his menagerie of super-insect friends.   I can imagine myself relishing each response and holding my smartphone as though it were a gold medal or a scepter of truth, the way I do when I hear from an old friend on Facebook or the way I used to feel when I got letters from my high school friends over the summer, reading them over and over again.            

2^nd   Beyond flipping the classroom, I saw the idea of Pinterest and Facebook as tools to share really great ideas and useful practices.  I can like a Pinterest item that is shared on Facebook and Twitter instantaneously and others will like it and sort of  “pay it forward.”  Edmodo is another great source of funneling information.  It’s like Twitter without the character limit.  Teachers can share ideas and links and blogs and decipher whether any new information will have impact on their current practice.