5th Grade Reflection Activity on Japan Voice Conference

Below is a collection of responses from Will Piper's 5th grade social students student on what the learned from our voice conference with my friend in Japan, George Ayrault. Will had the students write down what they learned and Will summarized this information below.

Things I Learned from our Japan Voice Conference:
-Most of the streets in Japan are very skinny.
-The Japanese take their karaoke seriously.
-When they do karaoke people rent rooms.
-Their houses are small and packed in.
-They have the biggest working clock in the world on a Ferris wheel.
-They’re 9 hours ahead of us.
-Their houses are right next to each other.
-Tokyo tower is based off the Eifel Tower.

-All the kids walk to school in groups.
-They have double-windows because airplanes and army jets pass over their school.
-It takes the same amount of time, sometimes, to ride a bike to work than to drive a car to work.
-Many people use bikes for transportation.
-When it’s morning here it is about midnight in Japan.
-Kids get out of school earlier than we do (around 1:15)

-When it’s 8:00am in Milwaukee it’s 12:00am in Japan.
-I learned that kids in Japan take off their shoes in school and put them in shelves. After that they put on slippers.
-Usually if you live in a house, the ceiling will be around 6 feet tall.
-Since the houses are so close together, some houses have the same address.
-The streets are really narrow.
-Japan has one of the biggest digital clocks in the world.
-There is a big statue of Buddha that survived a tsunami.
-A lot of people ride their bikes to get around Japan because it’s faster.
-Kids walk to school in BIG groups.
-There are pushers that put people onto the shinkonsen.
-They have a Tokyo Tower similar to the Eifel Tower.

-They have a tower in Tokyo like the Eiffel Tower.
-They have a Ferris Wheel that has a big digital clock in the middle of it.
-The streets are really narrow.
-Kids walk to school in large groups.
-Kids put on slippers when they get to school.
-There are earthquake hats.
-The houses are close together and almost attached.
-There is a really big statue of Buddha that didn’t get destroyed by a tsunami.
-A lot of people ride the shinkonsen.
-You don’t really drive your car to work. Most people ride bikes or take the shinkonsen.
-It takes 15 minutes for George to drive or bike to work.

-Japan is really safe.
-Because the houses are so close together, some of them have the same address.
-At the school they had to put in double windows because planes were flying by.
-Football is not a popular sport at all in Japan. Sumo and baseball are really popular.

-Bicycles are very popular transportation in Japan.
-Streets are VERY narrow.
-They like baseball a lot.
-They take karaoke seriously.
-The world’s largest digital clock is located on a Ferris Wheel.
-Japan is mostly based on tradition.
-The kids walk in groups to school for safety.
-Bikes are popular… basketball is starting to become popular.
-Driving is slow and expensive.
-They park their cars in special garages.
-It costs a lot of money to park your car.
-There isn’t a lot of snow there.

5th Grade Computer Skills-Podcast Project

Using the photos that we took earlier this semester, you and a partner will be making a brief video podcast tour of USM. You and your partner will pick 10 of your favorite photos and write a script that you'll use to narrate your podcast. Your script should be completed using "google docs." Remember, you'll need to use your newly created google account to access the file that you and your partner are working on. You'll use the "collaborate" feature in google docs-this feature allows your partner to access the file and work on it from his/her google account.

Key points to remember for this project:

• Click here to view my podcast sample (there is also a "subscribe" button on this page that will allow you to load the podcasts on your iPod in iTunes). This is where your podcasts will be located when they are completed.
• Use Google Docs to create your script. To access google docs, go to http://docs.google.com (don't include the www before docs).
• Your script should include a brief description of each photo that you are your partner(s) are using in your podcast.
• You will then write out the script that you'll be saying for each picture.
• What program will we use to complete our podcasts? We'll use garage band, which is software that runs on the iMacs. The iMacs are located in the small film lab on the second floor of the Middle School. You'll also use garage band to create some bumper music that plays in the background of your podcast.
• Click here for to view the script that I created for my podcast.

5th Grade Class Japan Voice Conference

During first period today we were fortunate enough to be able to conduct a voice chat with my good friend, George Ayrault, who is an American citizen living and working in Japan. It was 8:15 am in the morning here in Milwaukee when the bright and smiley faces of the 5th grade students rolled into Mellowes hall with a great deal of excitement. However, it was 11:15 pm in Japan and George and his son were wrapping up a long day. In the first photo on this page you'll see George's webcam on the left and the webcam with the students in Mellowes hall on the right. We had the entire 5th grade class (and Will Piper and Debbie Judge) come into Mellowes Hall to speak with George about Japanese culture and about his experiences living in Japan for the last 17 years. We talked about many different aspects of Japan this morning including: school in Japan, WWII, famous Japanese baseball players, Sumo, geography of Japan, transportation, US military presence in Japan, population density/statistics, the Packers-Lions game, popular sports in Japan, foods, technology, and housing to name a few. In 2003 I visited George and his family in Japan--it was a great trip and we did many neat and memorable things. I was able to share many of my photos from this trip with the students. Unfortunately we were not able to conduct a full photo sharing (and web cam sharing) session with George as the software sort of froze up. George had many pictures that he wanted to show the students as well. At least we didn't lose our voice chat though (chatting through voice is similar to a telephone conversation). The second picture on this page is from our visit to the Mt. Fuji area in Japan in 2003. Pictured from left to right you'll see George, his son Leo, his wife Yumi, and yours truly. This is the third or fourth year we've done this talk with Will Piper and his 5th grade students. We are thankful that George is able to spend a little time sharing stories and experiences with Japan

The students were extremely well behaved and engaged in the presentation. We had several students come up and ask George some excellent questions about Japan--we would've easily continued on for another 15-20 minutes asking George questions, but at 9:05 we had to move on to our next class.

If anyone would like to drop George an email, you may contact him at the following email address: gtayrault@jcom.home.ne.jp . Be certain you give your email a good subject line so George is aware of the email prior to opening it up.

As a side note, it was a little sad talking to George today. A guy we knew from high school, Trane McCloud, a Major in the US Marine Corps, is being buried today in Arlington after losing his life in a helicopter crash in Iraq on December 3rd. George and I both grew up with Trane's younger brother, Richmond. We were all grade school buddies growing up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. George's older brother by three years is actually out at Arlington today for the funeral and burial. George was in the US Navy and is quite familiar with the military life. The Iraq war actually began in March of 2003 while I was visiting George and his family in Japan. To me it is somewhat ironic how this is all tied together.

8th Grade French Class Podcasts

Click here to listen to the projects from Madame Nosbusch's and Madame Barthenheier's 8th grade French classes. These are very short diaglogues/conversations in French. Some of the podcasts have pictures that go along with them. They are pretty cool!!!

December 5th Grade Computer Skills Update

Dear Parents-

We recently wrapped up our digital photo tours of USM. The students did an excellent job photographing the school and assembling their photos in a digital tour. Students shared their photo tours in computer skills class over the past week and a half.

We are now moving into our short unit on email. In this unit we'll discuss both the mechanics and responsible use of this technology. Students are welcome to use their home email accounts (yahoo, aol, hotmail, gmail, etc) for this unit. If students don't have a home email, I will set them up with an email account at www.gaggle.net. Gaggle is a school friendly email service that contains a host of features that allow us to monitor and supervise student email. One of the unit assignments will involve sending emails to a few family members-please make sure your son/daughter knows the email addresses of at least two other adult family members.

Thank you very much!

Matt Montagne
5th Grade Computer Skills Teacher

NCSS Conference Summary

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be able to attend the NCSS Conference in Washington DC with this Middle School History Department. To the left you'll see a picture of Brian, Will and Chuck on the steps of the Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery. Why would a technology specialist go out to a social studies conference you might be wondering? My goal was to soak up as much information about educational technology applications in a different curriculum area. The conference was quite loaded with presentations and vendors dealing with educational technology. Below are a few thoughts and reflections on the experience.

Using Handhelds in the Social Studies Classroom
This was the first session that I attended at this year's NCSS in Washington DC. It also happens to be the best and most useful session. The presenter (I'm pictured here with the presenter-the photo was taken with the camera feature on a Zire Palm Pilot) is a technology specialist and researcher from Kent State University. He runs a technology lab where students from area schools attend for six week sessions. Upon completion of the six week sessions, they measure the impact of the technology on student achievement. His NCSS presentation focused exclusively on handheld computing devices, which he defines as a personal computing device that can be held in one hand easily. This includes devices such as PDAs, the new generation of iPods, mobile gaming devices (eg: Sony's PSP), wireless graphing calculators, multifunction cell phones, etc. All of these devices share the traits of having a small footprint and a high degree of mobility. To a certain extent, because they are so small they often times are barely noticed when in use with a classroom full of students.

The presenter made a strong case for the use of handhelds in the classroom environment. First and foremost, handhelds provide immediate access to a variety of tools in one small device at any place and at any time. They make it easier to achieve a 1:1 computing environment, offer excellent potential for collaboration, and easily allow for differentiated instruction to take place.

We also talked a little bit about how handhelds will affect the future of educational computing Because these devices are so affordable and many students have them, he suggested that schools in the future will provide fewer and fewer desktop/laptop computers for students to use. Instead, the schools will provide the connectivity for these devices. This is something that I completely agree with...why should schools continue to provide expensive desktop computers and network storage solutions when students can use an inexpensive handheld computing device to do the same kinds of tasks? This presentation actually ties in nicely to what we’re talking about doing with public WiFi here at USM in the future. Because student owned handheld personal computing devices will have an impact on future technology use here at USM, I think it is wise that we’re taking a look at the benefits of installing our own public WiFi system.

Presenter Information: Marck van ‘t Hooft, Ph. D.
Technology Specialist Researcher
Research Center for Educational Technology
mvanthoo@kent.edu – http://www.rcet.org/

Vendor booths:
I spent a fair amount of time perusing the vendor booths in the exhibit halls. The online textbooks from Holt, Rinehart and Winston were extremely cool. The online version of the textbook is identical to the print version but has a host of cool features-interactive maps and images (the D-Day landing interactive map was super cool) and digital annotation and highlighting capabilities. Online texts have a nice advantage for students and teachers...they can't be lost and they don't add weight to a backpack. This kind of technology for textbooks will certainly become more prevalent in our classrooms in the not-too-distant future.

Special Speakers:
Will and I attended the National Geo Bee hosted by Alex Trebek. Several social studies teachers from around the country were called up to compete in the Geo Bee. This was something that was neat to see.

Brian and I attended a talk be Herman Viola and his good friend and brother, Chief Joseph Medicine Crow. A distinguished Crow historian, warrior, and World War II hero, Chief Joseph Medicine Crow spent the better part of an hour sharing stories from his life experiences. It was astounding to hear this talk-he is is a 93 year old man with a compelling life history full of anecdotes and life lessons.

Monuments and Museums:
We spent a little time working our way around the DC area to view some of the historical sites and museums. We did night tours of the WWII, Viet Nam, and Koren War Memorials and we also visited the Lincoln Monument. We had a chance to take some photos on the steps of the Capitol building at night as well. On Sunday prior to our flight we visited the Civil War battlefield at Fredericksburg, the new Marine Corps Museum in Quantico and ended our trip by touring Arlington National Cemetary. The photo you see above was taken in the Union cemetary where the battle at Fredericksburg took place.

Mr. Markwald-Digital Harassment Reflection

Dear 7th Grade Students:

Please write a paragraph in response to the following post regarding our conversation in advising this week on digital harassment (aka-"Cyber Bullying"). Please include a topic sentence in your paragraph and a summary/conclusion sentence at the end. Your reflection paragraph should contain a minimum of six sentences.

Over our last three meetings I hope you had the time to reflect upon on what it means to be a good digital citizen. Remember to never post private information about you, your friends or your family online. Also, be sure to tell your mom or dad if you are ever in a situation online that doesn't feel right. I enjoyed working with you all and I thank you for your participation in this blog reflection project.

Please reflect on the following post:
What can teachers, students and parents do to help put an end to digital harassment/cyber bullying? Think about your experience in adivising today and the DVD that we watched. For more information on Ryan Halligan and his story, visit the following link: http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

Senor B-Digital Harassment Reflection

Dear 7th Grade Students:

Please write a paragraph in response to the following post regarding our conversation in advising this week on digital harassment (aka-"Cyber Bullying"). Please include a topic sentence in your paragraph and a summary/conclusion sentence at the end. Your reflection paragraph should contain a minimum of six sentences.

Over our last three meetings I hope you had the time to reflect upon on what it means to be a good digital citizen. Remember to never post private information about you, your friends or your family online. Also, be sure to tell your mom or dad if you are ever in a situation online that doesn't feel right. I enjoyed working with you all and I thank you for your participation in this blog reflection project.

Please reflect on the following post:
What can teachers, students and parents do to help put an end to digital harassment/cyber bullying? Think about your experience in adivising today and the DVD that we watched. For more information on Ryan Halligan and his story, visit the following link: http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

Madame B-Digital Harassment Reflection

Dear 7th Grade Students:

Please write a paragraph in response to the following post regarding our conversation in advising this week on digital harassment (aka-"Cyber Bullying"). Please include a topic sentence in your paragraph and a summary/conclusion sentence at the end. Your reflection paragraph should contain a minimum of six sentences.

Over our last three meetings I hope you had the time to reflect upon on what it means to be a good digital citizen. Remember to never post private information about you, your friends or your family online. Also, be sure to tell your mom or dad if you are ever in a situation online that doesn't feel right. I enjoyed working with you all and I thank you for your participation in this blog reflection project.

Please reflect on the following post:
What can teachers, students and parents do to help put an end to digital harassment/cyber bullying? Think about your experience in adivising today and the DVD that we watched. For more information on Ryan Halligan and his story, visit the following link: http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

Mr. Jacobs-Digital Harassment Reflection

Dear 7th Grade Students:

Please write a paragraph in response to the following post regarding our conversation in advising this week on digital harassment (aka-"Cyber Bullying"). Please include a topic sentence in your paragraph and a summary/conclusion sentence at the end. Your reflection paragraph should contain a minimum of six sentences.

Over our last three meetings I hope you had the time to reflect upon on what it means to be a good digital citizen. Remember to never post private information about you, your friends or your family online. Also, be sure to tell your mom or dad if you are ever in a situation online that doesn't feel right. I enjoyed working with you all and I thank you for your participation in this blog reflection project.

Please reflect on the following post:
What can teachers, students and parents do to help put an end to digital harassment/cyber bullying? Think about your experience in adivising today and the DVD that we watched. For more information on Ryan Halligan and his story, visit the following link: http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

Ms. Abraham-Digital Harassment Reflection

Dear 7th Grade Students: Please write a paragraph in response to the following post regarding our conversation in advising this week on digital harassment (aka-"Cyber Bullying"). Please include a topic sentence in your paragraph and a summary/conclusion sentence at the end. Your reflection paragraph should contain a minimum of six sentences.

Over our last three meetings I hope you had the time to reflect upon on what it means to be a good digital citizen. Remember to never post private information about you, your friends or your family online. Also, be sure to tell your mom or dad if you are ever in a situation online that doesn't feel right. I enjoyed working with you all and I thank you for your participation in this blog reflection project.

Please reflect on the following post:
What can teachers, students and parents do to help put an end to digital harassment/cyber bullying? Think about your experience in adivising today and the DVD that we watched. For more information on Ryan Halligan and his story, visit the following link: http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

Ms. Reimer-Digital Harassment Reflection

Dear 7th Grade Students:

Please write a paragraph in response to the following post regarding our conversation in advising this week on digital harassment (aka-"Cyber Bullying"). Please include a topic sentence in your paragraph and a summary/conclusion sentence at the end. Your reflection paragraph should contain a minimum of six sentences.

Over our last three meetings I hope you had the time to reflect upon on what it means to be a good digital citizen. Remember to never post private information about you, your friends or your family online. Also, be sure to tell your mom or dad if you are ever in a situation online that doesn't feel right. I enjoyed working with you all and I thank you for your participation in this blog reflection project.

Please reflect on the following post:
What can teachers, students and parents do to help put an end to digital harassment/cyber bullying? Think about your experience in adivising today and the DVD that we watched. For more information on Ryan Halligan and his story, visit the following link: http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/

USM Net Portal Training-Reflections and suggestions

Thanks for taking time to work through the new USM Net training portal. There are many, many interesting features associated with the program and like anything that is new, it takes some time to gain familiarity with the many different pieces. Hopefully everyone is comfortable with the process of adding nightly homework assignments at a minimum. There are obviously many other things that can be done, but the homework assignment feature is what we are starting with.

Please post a comment about today's training. What did you learn, what suggestions you have for the training sessions with the other grade levels, what would you like to know more about, etc.

Thank you,
Matt

5th Grade Writing Prompt #2-Computer Skills

Hi gang-

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! Today's writing prompt really doesn't have anything to do with computers or technology, but that is OK. See the writing prompt below.

Without mentioning real names, tell about a time when someone you know did something real funny.

5th Grade Computer Skills Journal Entry

What do you like about computers? List a few things that you like to do and some of the reasons you like to use computers. Please sign with your class day and your initials.

~Mr. Montagne

Wildcat Mountain Bike Club-November 2006 Turkey Chase and Scramble Mountain Bike Ride

8 hearty souls braved the chilly temps and the snow covered trails of New Fane to join us on our 6th Annual Turkey Chase and Scramble Mountain Bike Outing in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest this past weekend. The snow from a few nights ago provided a completely new challenge for the young Wildcat Mountain Bike Club members. While we didn't actually see or chase any wild turkeys, we did have a great time getting out to take in some of the super vistas that the Northern Kettles have to offer (and Blake spotted at least 5 hawks). After attempting to ride our bikes on the Brown Trail at New Fane, we quickly shifted into a different gear and went for a ride along the Kettle Moraine Scenic Roadway. As we were riding along the road we noticed a cool bridge over a branch of the Milwaukee river. We road our bikes over to the bridge and threw a few snowballs into the cold and fast moving waters. After this fun diversion we saddled up and stopped by the YMCA's Camp Matawa where I was a mountain bike instructor back in the late 90s. We then returned back to the New Fane parking lot and packed up the cars and headed back to USM. A special thank you goes out to teacher Brian Markwald and parent David Meisinger for giving up their day to help out on the ride. Our next ride, the "Spring Picnic Outing," will take place on a Friday after school in late May. Until then, get out and ride and ride on!

Matt Montagne
Wildcat Mountain Bike Club Advisor

English Period 1...7th Grade Digital Citizenship-Meeting #1 Reflection Activity

As a follow up to our meeting in advising today, I would like you to do a short little reflection activity by leaving a comment regarding the two points in bold below.

#1 Create an account at blogger.com. Follow the tips and suggestions for setting up your blogger.com account. Your username will be your email address that you use when creating a Google account. Your display name is what is used to sing your posts and comments. It is critical that you pick a display name that is nebulous in nature and does not reveal any personal information about you. After you pick a display name, please email it to Mr. Montagne at mmontagne@usmk12.org. For more tips and suggestions on setting up your blogger.com account, visit Mr. Montagne's post on this subject from last week.

#2 Please write your own dictionary definition for the term, "Netiquette." The definition should be 2-3 sentences and should follow the basic format of a dictionary entry (see dictionary.com for an example).

For the second response activity, answer the following question.

#3 What advice would you give to a fifth grader who is starting up an IM account for the first time? Please include a topic sentence in your response with 2-3 points that support your position. Round out your response to this question with a concluding statement.

Your responses should be posted no later than 4:30 PM on Friday, November 17th.

English Period 2...7th Grade Digital Citizenship-Meeting #1 Reflection Activity

As a follow up to our meeting in advising today, I would like you to do a short little reflection activity by leaving a comment regarding the two points in bold below.

#1 Create an account at blogger.com. Follow the tips and suggestions for setting up your blogger.com account. Your username will be your email address that you use when creating a Google account. Your display name is what is used to sing your posts and comments. It is critical that you pick a display name that is nebulous in nature and does not reveal any personal information about you. After you pick a display name, please email it to Mr. Montagne at mmontagne@usmk12.org. For more tips and suggestions on setting up your blogger.com account, visit Mr. Montagne's post on this subject from last week.

#2 Please write your own dictionary definition for the term, "Netiquette." The definition should be 2-3 sentences and should follow the basic format of a dictionary entry (see dictionary.com for an example).

For the second response activity, answer the following question.

#3 What advice would you give to a fifth grader who is starting up an IM account for the first time? Please include a topic sentence in your response with 2-3 points that support your position. Round out your response to this question with a concluding statement.

Your responses should be posted no later than 4:30 PM on Friday, November 17th.

English Period 4...7th Grade Digital Citizenship-Meeting #1 Reflection Activity

As a follow up to our meeting in advising today, I would like you to do a short little reflection activity by leaving a comment regarding the two points in bold below.

#1 Create an account at blogger.com. Follow the tips and suggestions for setting up your blogger.com account. Your username will be your email address that you use when creating a Google account. Your display name is what is used to sing your posts and comments. It is critical that you pick a display name that is nebulous in nature and does not reveal any personal information about you. After you pick a display name, please email it to Mr. Montagne at mmontagne@usmk12.org. For more tips and suggestions on setting up your blogger.com account, visit Mr. Montagne's post on this subject from last week.

#2 Please write your own dictionary definition for the term, "Netiquette." The definition should be 2-3 sentences and should follow the basic format of a dictionary entry (see dictionary.com for an example).

For the second response activity, answer the following question.

#3 What advice would you give to a fifth grader who is starting up an IM account for the first time? Please include a topic sentence in your response with 2-3 points that support your position. Round out your response to this question with a concluding statement.

Your responses should be posted no later than 4:30 PM on Friday, November 17th.

English Period 6...7th Grade Digital Citizenship-Meeting #1 Reflection Activity

As a follow up to our meeting in advising today, I would like you to do a short little reflection activity by leaving a comment regarding the two points in bold below.

#1 Create an account at blogger.com. Follow the tips and suggestions for setting up your blogger.com account. Your username will be your email address that you use when creating a Google account. Your display name is what is used to sing your posts and comments. It is critical that you pick a display name that is nebulous in nature and does not reveal any personal information about you. After you pick a display name, please email it to Mr. Montagne at mmontagne@usmk12.org. For more tips and suggestions on setting up your blogger.com account, visit Mr. Montagne's post on this subject from last week.

#2 Please write your own dictionary definition for the term, "Netiquette." The definition should be 2-3 sentences and should follow the basic format of a dictionary entry (see dictionary.com for an example).

For the second response activity, answer the following question.

#3 What advice would you give to a fifth grader who is starting up an IM account for the first time? Please include a topic sentence in your response with 2-3 points that support your position. Round out your response to this question with a concluding statement.

Your responses should be posted no later than 4:30 PM on Friday, November 17th.

English Period 7...7th Grade Digital Citizenship-Meeting #1 Reflection Activity

As a follow up to our meeting in advising today, I would like you to do a short little reflection activity by leaving a comment regarding the two points in bold below.

#1 Create an account at blogger.com. Follow the tips and suggestions for setting up your blogger.com account. Your username will be your email address that you use when creating a Google account. Your display name is what is used to sing your posts and comments. It is critical that you pick a display name that is nebulous in nature and does not reveal any personal information about you. After you pick a display name, please email it to Mr. Montagne at mmontagne@usmk12.org. For more tips and suggestions on setting up your blogger.com account, visit Mr. Montagne's post on this subject from last week.

#2 Please write your own dictionary definition for the term, "Netiquette." The definition should be 2-3 sentences and should follow the basic format of a dictionary entry (see dictionary.com for an example).

For the second response activity, answer the following question.

#3 What advice would you give to a fifth grader who is starting up an IM account for the first time? Please include a topic sentence in your response with 2-3 points that support your position. Round out your response to this question with a concluding statement.

Your responses should be posted no later than 4:30 PM on Friday, November 17th.

7th Grade Parent response activity

Dear 7th Grade Parents-

During advising sessions in grades 5-8 this year, we are going to focus on "digital citizenship" and what this means. Our essential question in grades 5-8 is, "What does digital citizenship in a global environment look like, feel like, and sound like?" This is a tough question, but an important one to consider as we prepare our students to be leaders in a "Flat" and global environment.

Today in advising we began the first of our three advising sessions that deal with this topic. We talked a little bit about citizenship in the physical world and how it is different and like citizenship in the electronic world. As a way to deepen our discussion, students are required to respond to a blog post just like you are doing now. Students are required to create an account at blogger.com. We spent some time talking about the proper way to create a blogger.com account so that students are not revealing personal information. Learning to communicate effectively in a digital world is a key skill and one we will practice and work on with our students over the course of their Middle School experience here at USM.

Please take a moment and reflect on what digital citizenship looks like, feels like and sounds like. How does it compare/contrast with citizenship in the physical world? Please respond by leaving a comment below.

Peruse the following links on digital citizenship as you reflect on this post. Please include some of your own web links and resources in your comments if you'd like.

http://www.educ.ksu.edu/digitalcitizenship/ : Very nice piece on digital citizenship with links to some nice resources on the web.

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/03/05/digital-citizenship/ : Very short blog write-up on digital citizenship.

http://www.educ.ksu.edu/digitalcitizenship/1stL&L.pdf : Kansas State is even offering a 3 credit class on digital citizenship. This link will take you to an article from Leading and Learning with Technology that speaks to this topic. The article is written by Mike Ribble, who works at K-State and is a leader in this area.

Thank you,
Matt Montagne
Middle School Technology Coordinator
University School of Milwaukee

First quarter summary of Web Animation/Design Class (7th Graders)

We had an excellent first quarter in web animation/design class. I must say, in all my years of teaching, this is one of the best sections of this class that I’ve ever had the chance to work with. The class is nice because we have a very good mix of students who are interested and engaged in the course material.

During the first quarter we spent a good deal of time working with Paint Shop Pro to create web ready still images. Learning to work with layers is a key component of learning the more sophisticated techniques of Paint Shop Pro. We also spent a good deal of time completing tutorials where the students learned how to drop effects on text and images. Finally, we spent the better part of a class period discussing file types (proprietary file types vs. open file types), files sizes (eg-what is kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, etc), file extensions, folders and file hierarchy/organization when developing materials for the web.

At the start of the second quarter we began working with Macromedia Flash, which is a professional level multimedia authoring tool for the web. Look for some Flash holiday greeting cards in your inboxes in December!

Bike Commuting

I’ve enjoyed getting back into the world of bike commuting over the last few months. Since the start of the school year in late August I’m estimating that I have close to 25 days of commuting under my belt. This number would be a little higher, but the fall has been rainier than is typical. Lately the weather has been a little mild which has made the rides to and from work much more enjoyable. Another thing that has made the rides more enjoyable is the fact that I’ve been commuting with a few other co-workers. Todd Schlenker, Mike Snyder and myself all live within a few miles of each other and have been meeting up along the way and riding in together. Todd teaches Spanish in the Middle School and Mike teaches math in the Upper School. Unfortunately we’ve lost Mike due to his coaching responsibilities with the varsity basketball team, but Todd and I have continued to ride in as much as the weather and schedules have allowed.

We’re quietly trying to recruit others to join us on our rides into work. Hopefully we'll have a small train of bicycles riding up to USM every day!!

Below is a little list of recommended items to carry along if you’re considering taking up bike commuting:

Bike commuting essentials:
Helmet
Good clothing
Good shoes
A headlamp and a taillight. I use the Niterider Digital Pro 12E with their LED tail light...this makes me quite visible on the road. http://www.niterider.com/
Spare tube and pump to change out a flat

A small little notepad and a pencil-unfortunately, many motorists are not bike friendly. In the event that you are involved in a hit and run (which happens quite a bit to cyclists), it is important to have something to jot down license plate number, description of the vehicle, etc.

Bike commuting links:
Corey the Bike Fixer: http://www.corythebikefixer.com/ Corey has an awesome little shop on the east side of Milwaukee with some really cool bikes.

Bike Commuting Blog http://bikecommutetips.blogspot.com/ The "Bike Commute Tips Blog."

Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips: http://www.runmuki.com/commute/


The ultimate commuting machine
http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/853_commuter.shtml

ISACS Fall Conference Follow Up

All-in-all, this conference went quite well. I traveled down on Thursday, Nov. 2nd and made it to the Gateway City in time to join Ward and the crew for a nice dinner in town. The drive surprised me a bit in that it took me much longer than I anticipated (this is probably due more to the fact that I took the wrong turn on I-90 toward Chicago!) Next time I’ll be sure to fly!

Unfortunately I presented at the 1:30-2:45 time slot and did a repeat at the 3:00-4:15 slot. After anticipating 40 participants in the first section and 35 in the second, I was a little disappointed that only 9 showed up during the first session and 5 in the second. Even though attendance was lower than I had hoped, I thought the sessions were lively and the participants seemed to be appreciative of the offering. We had a nice talk about the pros/cons of contemporary communication technologies such as myspace, IM, blogging, etc. We moved into cyber bullying and finished with the story of Ryan Halligan. This story strikes me in an incredibly powerful way each time I see it (and I must have seen it over 10 times now).

Now I’m back at USM and ready to start discussing the topic of “Digital Citizenship” with our students during advising sessions.

Digital Citizenship...what does this look like?

During advising sessions in grades 5-8 this year, we are going to focus on "digital citizenship" and what this means. Our essential question in grades 5-8 is, "What does digital citizenship in a global environment look like, feel like, and sound like?" This is a tough question, but an important one to consider as we prepare our students to be leaders in a "Flat" and global environment.

Please take a moment and reflect on what digital citizenship looks like, feels like and sounds like. How does it compare/contrast with citizenship in the physical world? Please respond by leaving a comment below. Your responses and comments will certainly help us as we prepare for our advising sessions on "digital citizenship" during the year.

Nice article on digital citizenship: http://www.educ.ksu.edu/digitalcitizenship/1stL&L.pdf

Advice for students who are setting up an account at blogger.com

Step 1: Create an Account
User name-create one that is nebulous and doesn’t reveal personal info such as age, sex, location or other personal info. Tell your user name to your parents/teachers

Password-should be a “strong” password and should never be shared with anyone

Display name-this is the name used to “sign” blog posts. I would recommend using their user name

Email address-this is fine to reveal (as a matter of fact, an email is required) but make sure it isn’t revealed in the profile and don’t give permission to blogger to share this

Step 2: Name your blog
Students will have to come up with a name for their blog page. Something simple that might reflect the nature of the blog would do…for example, “A View from a Historian,” for a blog dealing with a little history. Or “My Little Corner of the Web,” for a blog that is going to deal with a wide range of topics. Or “Thoughts on World Events” for a blog dealing with the topic of current world news events.

Again, you'll need to come up with a name for your blog...but you don't need to write any posts (what you are reading now is a post).

Step 3: Pick a template
After the blog is created, here is what I suggest the students do:

After the account is created, students should then work through some of the settings and controls of the blog. See below:

Go to the settings portion after logging in.
In the basic tab:
Add your blog to our listings: choose no.
Take the rest of the default settings

In the formatting tab:
Change the time zone to central

Comments tab:
Under who can comment, take the default setting of only registered users. If there is a problem later on with offensive and/or unsolicited comments, this can be set to “only members of this blog” which would allow the blog owner to better control who can comment.

Consider turning on comment moderation. This allows you to read the comments and approve them before their posted. This might be useful for a post on a very spirited and lively topic. The comments will be emailed to you and they you'll have the option to approve them or not approve them. More on comment moderation at: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42537


Take the defaults for the rest of the tabs.

Profiles:
Be certain that you do not fill out any information in the profile section of your account. This is extremely important-you do not want to fill anything out about your favorite movies, location where you live, etc.

Click the Edit your profile link and do the following:
Share my profile: leave unchecked
Show my real name: leave unchecked
Show my email: leave unchecked

Identity: your username, email address, and display name should appear here...you may leave this alone.

First name/last name: leave blank

Leave everything else blank...do not specify your gender, city where you live, state where you live, etc.

Leave the fields empty that ask about your favorite music, books, movies, about me, etc.

Revealing this kind of information in the profile section of blogger.com, your IM service, your myspace page, etc raises your risk for being contacted by strangers who may want to harm you.

Addendum for new features at blogger.com as of 11-12-2006:
Google Accounts:
Blogger.com now has a partnership with google...when you create an account at blogger, you'll need to create a Google account. Everything is pretty much the same. Google actually has some really cool features like "Writely," which is a really awesome word processing program that is free and allows you to access your files from any web based computer in the world via your google account.

Permissions:
This is now a new tab that appears once you login with a google account...this is totally a cool and useful feature of blogger. Permissions allow you to let other people author or create posts to your blog. In the past, blogger only allowed the account holder to create a blog post. This might come in handy for a group presenation or project for a class. In order to add authors to your blog, click the add authors button and enter their email address. They'll be sent an email that they have to respond to in order to begin writing posts to your blog. You can also define who may read this blog by setting it to Anybody, Only People I Choose, or Only Blog Authors. If you want or need more privacy for your blog, set this to "Only People I choose," or "Only Blog Authors."

ISACS Presentation on Internet Safety/Ethics

On Friday, November 3rd I'll be presenting on the topic of Internet Safety/Ethics at the ISACS annual conference down in St. Louis. This entire presentation is currenlty online at the following web address:

http://2006isacstalk.wikispaces.com/

Cybersafety with 6th graders...October note to parents

The following is an email that I sent to the entire sixth grade parent body after we did our first cybersafety session in advising for the 06-07 academic year. I typically will send a note home like this after each advising session.


Dear 6th Grade Parents-

We began the first of our three part series on Internet Safety in advising this morning. We discussed the importance of protecting our personal information and potential consequences of our online actions. We’ll be meeting again on January 5th and April 3rd to continue our discussions on this topic.

Students were given a “homework” assignment in advising today—the assignment involves reading through an Internet safety pledge with you. Students should return the signed bottom portion of this slip to his/her advisor by Friday, October 13th. I’m also attaching a copy of the safety pledge to this email.

Also, please be aware that the students will be designing bumper stickers to raise community awareness about this important issue. We’ll take the 1-2 most effective bumper sticker designs in each advising section and send them off to a printer. The bumper stickers will then be passed out to parents at the January Internet safety presentation for parents.


Thank you,

Matt Montagne
Academic Technology Coordinator
University School of Milwaukee

Digital Media Production-October Update

We are nearing the end of the first quarter for our digital media production class. Students completed three video projects this quarter and we're in the middle of a project where we are practicing some new camera shots and techniques. Additionally, all students are working on a collaborative "wiki" project that outlines and elaborates on the skills we're learning in this class. Check the wiki out by visiting: http://digital-media-production.wikispaces.com/ . Feel free to add to the wiki if you have some experience in film, photography, or video production.

Game 2 of the World Series

I had a great time going back to Detroit to catch game two of the Tiger-Cardinal series. It was cool because on my way back home to Motown on Saturday I heard a replay of the '68 World Series game between the Tigs and the Cards where Bob Gibson struck out 17 batters in a single game...that was really quite cool. Saturday when I got home I went straight over to my sister's home to watch game 1. Many family members were there watching the game-my brother from DC, my nephew from Michgain, aunts, uncles, etc. it was alot of fun. On Sunday the weather was pretty foul leading right up until game time. My brother-in-law drove us downtown as he had tickets to the game as well. On our way to the parking garage we drove by the Spirit of Detroit statue and snapped the photo that you see here. My brother and I went to Comerica park about 2.5 hours prior to the game starting...we walked around and took tons of photos (see the attached group of pictures). Fortunately it stopped raining about 30 minutes prior to the first pitch. The game itself was awesome--Doug Jones even managed to create a little un-needed stress at the end of the game by loading up the bases before getting the final out. All-in-all, it truly was an epic weekend-while the tickets were expensive, it was a great time that I'll remember for the rest of my life.

The Tigers are going to the World Series!!!

And so am I! I'll be out of the building on Monday, October 23rd due to the fact that I'll be at Comerica Park for game 2 of the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and either the Cards or the Mets! My brother, Mike, is coming in from DC to go to the game as well. Who knows, maybe I'll even make a little podcast with some pictures from the big game in Detroit. Go Tigers!!!!

October Division Meeting

Chuck gave a really cool presentation on his summer civil war travel/camp experience going through Virginia. He shared some really nice pictures from his trip and told some neat stories (eg-the grave of Jackson's arm, the guy he talked to at the baseball game about "Yankee Aggression," etc). His trip was funded by a faculty grant program here at USM...his presentation inspired me to put together a proposal to go to a summer film institute of some sort.

Trudi gave an overview of our new portal system by Whipple Hill. She gave a preview of what the system looks like during a student, parent, and faculty login. At a minimum, teachers in the MS will use the portal to post nightly homework assignments-this doesn't require any more work on the part of a teacher as they're already posting homework assignments on web pages.

A 1/2 will be set aside for each grade level to work with Whipple Hill. We'll also take examine and explore some possibilities with tools of the "New Web." Blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks and their academic implications will be covered during this 1/2 day.

5th Grade Collaborative Wiki Project

I will be working with the entire 5th grade class during our computer skills meetings on a couple of collaborative Wiki projects. My goal here is to explore the frontiers of Wiki technology with a couple of projects in our computer skills class. We talked in class this week about how we all have a responsibility to use the wiki as a tool to effectively promote our ideas. We'll use this experience with our students and wikis to teach principles of ethical use of computer technology.

We will create two Wiki projects for starters...the first project is a computer "Tips and Tricks" Wiki. In this Wiki we'll highlight all of the cool tips and tricks that we know for working with computer hardware and software. We'll see what this collaborative Wiki becomes as we delve into this project more.

This first one is titled, "Milwaukee...from a Kid's Perspective," and may be viewed by visiting: http://milwaukee-kids-perspective.wikispaces.com/ . The project is fairly self explanatory, but our goal is to use our own background knowledge about fun/cool things to do in the city in creating a collaborative guide of sorts. This will kind of be an "OnMilwaukee.com" from the vanatage point of a kid. Again, we'll see what this grows and morphs into as we move along.

Later in the school year when we complete our Internet safety sessions during advising, 5th grade student will collaborate on a wiki about cyber safety topics.

Stay tuned for more information on our wiki projects!

October LMAIS Meeting Summary

Kristin, the Upper School Technology Coordinator, and I traveled down to North Shore Country Day school today for the first of our two meetings for this academic year (the next meeting is schedule for Lake Forest CD on April 19th).

We started out with a lively discussion of social networking...most schools indicated that they block the big social networks such as myspace, facebook, xanga etc. All schools, however talked about the importance of figuring out ways to incorporate the popularity of social networking/blogging into the curriculum. We discussed the importance of educating students about the kind of content that should/should not post on their spaces. And we moved into a conversation about leveraging this technology in the classrooms—perhaps something this popular could be used to expand classroom discussions outside of the classroom.

Later in the meeting we talked about the role of technology support personnel in a school…is the role to provide services that teachers ask for, or should technology staff provide teachers with materials, support and suggestions that they think are applicable in the classroom--probably a never ending discussion but an important one to continue to come back to as technology and the needs of teachers/students change.

I asked a question about managing podcasting on an enterprise level…nobody really had a strong opinion on best practices for this tool. It is still hard for me to picture a way to do this on a large scale. It is nice that we're starting small with this technology!!

I asked another question about providing public side WiFi access in schools…some already have it, and some are preparing to make that service available. Some schools filter their public side access, some do not.

Near the end of the morning we talked about classroom presentation systems, their replacement cycle, and how they’re installed/managed. Latin school actually did 70 in-house installations this past summer for a cost of $5000/room. I think most people were pretty shocked by this. They do have a central control consul via a web browser/Crestron control solution that at a minimum allows all projectors to be shut down at a certain time if they’re still on. They also have a simple wall control that allows the teacher to push a button to select a source and it has a knob to adjust volume. That sounded like a nice, simple system with a central management solution that has the potential to lower maintenance/system operating costs over time (eg-bulb replacement should theoretically be less as projectors will not remain in the on position 24/7).

We had a nice lunch and walked around the school a bit before driving back to USM. All-in-all, it was definitely a day very well spent. It was fun connecting with this group once again as it has been over 2 years since I’ve been to a meeting.

Teacher Blogs and Wikis

In this post I'll create links to some innovative teacher blogs, Wikis, and interactive classroom websites.

Chris Craft's Website:
Excellent site-each student in this teacher's class maintains his/her own blog...the teacher also does some cool stuff with podcasting and Gcast (he leaves an audio file on his website through a telephone call...how cool is that!!!)

http://www.christophercraft.com/

What did the 5th graders do in computer skills this week?

Between October 6th and October 13th, 5th graders are shooting digital still photographs of the school campus. The tower, Victory Bell, Fine Arts Center, athletic fields, and the new Science Center are just a few of the places that we've been taking pictures of. The students really seem to be enjoying the experience...many have taken some really unusual and clever photographs using close ups and angles.

Next week in class we'll take these photos and arrange them in a timeline using Garage Band. Students will narrate the photos and add a little music--when they're done, they'll have a podcast tour of the campus at University School.

I'm looking forward to seeing how these project turns out...it really is my first attempt to do a podcast with an entire group/grade of students.

Perhaps we'll start our own blogs next...who knows!!

6th Grade Cybersafety talk...round 1

On Monday I began the first of three meetings that I'll be having with the 6th graders on the topic of cybersafety. We met in Mellowes, which is an excellent space for large group meetings like this. During our talk we talked about the following points:

1. The importance of not revealing personal information in online forums...personal information includes things like (but is not limited to) age, sex, location, address, phone number, school, names of family members, etc...we discussed the importance of leaving profile sections blank when creating an account with any online communication service.

2. Choosing goog screen names and passwords...screen names shouldn't identify a student's A/S/L or other identifying features. The password should be a random set of letters, numbers and characters and should never be shared with anyone. Sharing a password with someone is NOT a sign of friendship.

3. We discussed the importance having a full understanding of communication software prior to actively using an account. Students and parents must know how to fully control the experience to minimize risk.

4. Homework assignment for 6th graders-complete the parent-student internet safety pledge.

5. Finally, we discussed the 6th grade outreach/community awareness activity...6th graders will be designing bumper stickers to highlight this topic in the community. The 1-2 most effective bumpers from each grade level will be printed as bumper stickers and passed out at the January Internet safety presentation.

Students and advisors will do a short bingo game review at some point over the next month in advising. Our next meeting isn't until January, so hopefully this will provide some kind of bridge between our sessions.

Next up for the cybersafety talks...meetings with the 7th graders in November and December.

Blogging 101-Some Ideas and Suggestions for blogger wannabees!!

Introduction
In this post I will attempt to break down the myths about blogging, compare/contrast blogs with traditional web sites, and give some tips for getting started with blogs if you are interested in doing so…I’m certainly not an expert in this area, but I hope this serves as a useful guide if you’re considering a blog…

What is a blog??
Blogging really seems to be the craze of the Internet of late. It seems like just about everyone is blogging these days…from Marines stationed in Iraq, mountaineers in the Himilaya, the over 100 million registered myspace.com users, to Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. What is all this hulaboo about? Some people blog to keep in touch with their families, others blog due to a special interest, and some blog because they are simply outstanding writers who are looking for a venue to share their thoughts. A blog is basically a web page that has features that allow for more interaction between the blog author/editor and the visitors to the blog. Typically speaking, the blog editor (aka-“blogger”) will leave a post on a certain topic. A reader of the blog has the option of leaving a comment or spurring off in another direction relating to the blogger’s original post. A blog can provide a forum for individuals with like interests to express themselves and exchange thoughts and ideas. Myspace, blogger.com, elgg.net, typepad, and Windows live spaces, are all examples of web logs, or “Blogs.” By the way, the term “Blog,” is a contraction of two words: the “B” from the word “web” and the “log” from the word log (just like MODEM is a contraction of modulator/demodulator). Unlike traditional websites, blogs require no specialized software, are easy to update, and can be updated from any Internet connected computer on the face of the earth (unless you happen to be in China or any other country whose government applies heavy censorship on thought).

Aren’t blogs bad and dangerous?
Yes and no. Some blogs, like many different pages on the Internet, are full of content that is highly offensive, objectionable, scary, etc. If used inappropriately, a blog certainly has the potential to create a dangerous or embarrassing situation for a young person and/or family. Just search the news at google for myspace and you’ll get countless stories dealing with incredibly dangerous or embarrassing situations that young people have put themselves in. However, many blogs are extremely entertaining, informative, and enjoyable to read. From first hand accounts of an aid worker in Africa to the musings of an owner of a professional sports team, blogs have the promise to be an excellent forum for individuals interested in discussing their interests, the news of the day, sports topics, etc. Some people blog as a form of entertainment…it is really a hobby to some. Blogging definitely isn’t for everyone—some people view blogs as very boring and uninteresting (and many are incredibly dull). It is important that any blogger fully understands how to control their blog via software settings prior to creating blog posts.

Controlling the blog experience:
A host of settings for the blog allow the user to customize and control the experience to his/her liking. It is essential that an individual who is interested in blogging become knowledgeable about these settings prior to going live with the blog. For example, will you allow anyone in the world to leave a comment relating to your posts? Or, will you allow just the “members” that you invite to join your blog to leave comments? Some blog services even allow the blogger to control whether or not the blog is set to public (so anyone can read it) or private, which limits readership to the members of the blog. Student and family bloggers really need to become educated about the settings used to manage the content that will be visible/invisible to the world. My recommendation for student and family bloggers is to only use blogging services that allow a blog to be set to private, which means it is only visible to individuals that the blogger chooses. And just because a blog is set to private doesn’t mean it is totally secure. With that said, the student/family blogger should think carefully about the kind of content (pictures and text) that will be shared via the blog.

Choosing a user name for a student/family blogger when registering with the blogging service is critical. Even though it is fun to do so, the user name should not reveal any identifying traits, characteristics, hobbies, special interests, age/sex/location, etc.

Students, prior to blogging make sure you do the following:

1. Talk to your parents and let them know what you would like to do with a blog—make sure they fully understand what you intend to do with your blog and make certain you have their permission to continue on.
2. Read some blogs by others to see the types of things that folks blog about…this will help you develop a framework for what you would like to blog about.
   
3. Determine with your parents the kind of material that your family is comfortable sharing in a blog format. Set rules and expectations for your blog. Read the safety tips at myspace.com for more ideas and follow the links at the bottom of the myspace's safety page for more ideas on blog safety.


4. Become extremely comfortable with the privacy settings and controls of the blogging service prior to posting. Again, I strongly recommend that families and young people restrict their blogs to only being visible by selected individuals that they know in the real world.


5. Do not use your blog as a bashboard, bullying tool, or as a forum to spew foul language. Think of your blog as a resume of sorts—one that will set you apart from your peers in a few years when you apply for the college of your dreams or the job of your dreams. Good writers and good thinkers with character are in high demand in any university, corporation or organization. Make your blog something that you are proud of.


6. Choose a non-descript user name—your user name should not reveal any info about you’re A/S/L. Your blog password should be made up of random numbers, letters and characters and should never, ever be given away to someone else. Password length should be 6-8 characters or so.


7. Do not fill out any profile information (eg-questions relating to age, sex, location, special interests, etc. And although it might seem fun to do so, do not fill out surveys-they typically reveal information that should not be shared in a public forum). Profiles are typically public even if the blog and blog posts are set to private—this means that others can search and read your profile, even if your blog is private.


8. Remember, the Internet is a very public place. Even when totally restricting your blog, there is still a chance that information could get out to people who aren’t members of your blog. Because your blog isn’t totally secure, you should never reveal private information in your blog posts. There are always risks involved with setting up a blog, even if you do everything the “right way.”
9. Be discerning about the kinds of pictures you reveal. Pictures of you or your friends in comprimising situations and positions could come back to haunt you some day.


10. Share your blog with your parents, family members, friends and teachers. Your mom and dad should be regular readers of your blog.


11. Also, some blogging tools have a feature that prevents automated spamming computer systems from leaving comments on your blog. Some blogging services call this feature “word verification,” and I recommend turning this on. Word verification requires that a user completes a word verification step prior to creating a post or comment. This makes your blog less susceptible to unwanted comments from these spam systems.


12. Take an oath that you won’t use your blog as a substitute for an old school journal where you write down your thoughts and feelings. Using a blog as a replacement for a personal journal has the potential to make you feel extremely embarrassed at some point in the future—and doing so could put you in an incredibly dangerous situation as well. Keeping a personal journal is a wonderful idea—just do so with a pen and notebook and place it under your bed where nobody else but you can read it.

Blogging Tips for Teachers-
Many of the above tips are applicable to teacher bloggers as well. Plan your blog carefully and consider the privacy settings thoroughly prior to proceeding. Below you will find some additional tips:

1. If creating an online community via a blog with your students, you should inform the parents of your intentions. Let parents know the reason for blogging with your students—explain the educational value. You might even have the parents sign a short permission slip for their student.


2. Consider using a blogging tool with your students that sets the blog to private. And then only grant access to reading, creating, and commenting on posts to the students in your class.


3. Depending on the blogging service, students will need to create an account prior to beginning. See the above recommendations for having students create user names and passwords. Students should not add any information to their profile-a user name and password typically are the only two things required to get going on this.

What might a teacher use a blog for?
The possibilities are absolutely endless and are only limited by the scope of one’s imagination…

A few ideas for your blog:

1. Reflections on the world of teaching…


2. Share ideas with other teachers about best practices….what worked well for you in that lesson? Or what totally tanked? Share some clever classroom management techniques that you’ve acquired through the years…have others leave comments and share their own suggestions.


3. Use your blog as an extension or replacement for your current static website. You could use it to give homework assignments out and make general announcements.


4. As a means to conduct peer review and editing sessions with students-have students post their writing samples as a blog entry and then encourage others to post comments.


5. Continue your class discussions outside of the four walls of your classroom…what about the quiet, yet thoughtful kid who doesn’t feel comfortable talking in front of the class. Or don’t you hate it when you are in the middle of a great discussion and the bell rings? Blogs have the potential to address these situations in very meaningful ways.
6. Book clubs/discussion with other colleagues, friends and/or students.

Technology in the Middle School--what is your vision??

Given the fact that we're going to experience a fairly significant remodel in the next few years, I began thinking about what technology will look like here in the Middle School after the remodel takes place. How many labs will we have?? Will we continue to have a mobile laptop lab? Will Apple computers be used more and more in the Middle School? What will we be doing with fine arts and technology in 3-5 years? What will faculty websites in the Middle School look like? Will they come to be more interactive, or will they more or less remain the same? What about student owned computers...in a survey from last year, over 90 students indicated they own a laptop computer of recent vintage...is it possible for us in a meaningful and coherent manner to leverage these student owned computers here on campus?

What about student portfolios-it might be interesting to have each student in the Middle School maintain his/her own digital portfolio in the form of a blog. That might be kinda cool. We currently have all of our faculty members maintaining a web space-might we do the same with students??

Is there any new hardware or software that we might envision using here in the next few years??

Please respond in any manner that you'd like...whether you want to write narrative or bullet points, I really would appreciate hearing your thoughts on the future of educational technology here at USM.

September Division Meeting

Thanks to Chuck for sharing how he utilizes United Streaming and Microsoft's ClassServer in his classroom and curriculum. Chuck showed us a live demo of both of these interesting tools United Streaming is an educational video on demand service where you can download excellent materials for sharing with your students. ClassServer is a tool used to create assignments for students to complete and submit electronically.

Several teachers are now using ClassServer with their students...thanks again for Chuck for sharing these tools with us.

At the October division meeting Miriam will be giving an overview of Garage Band, which is a cool software application that runs only on a Mac.

Perhaps in a future division meeting we'll do a demo on blogging...what is is, how it works, how it might be used, etc.

iSafe w/8th grade

We're having a discussion in advising today about positive uses of blogging and social networking. Tomorrow in advising we'll be discussing online harrassment/bullying and a free speech. Check back in the next day or two for my latest Podcast (not sure what the topic will be).

~mjmonty

Friday Footnotes-Podcast #3

This is my first attempt to create an "audio" version of the Friday Footnotes.

http://middle.usmk12.org/Faculty/montagne/podcasts/third.mp3

My Second Podcast

http://middle.usmk12.org/Faculty/montagne/podcasts/second_try.mp3

My First Podcast

http://middle.usmk12.org/Faculty/montagne/podcasts/mytry.mp3