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/