Teaching to reach every single student

After being immersed in being trained to teach reading in the content area, both through a week long program at Columbia University’s Teachers College and a grad school course, I have been throwing myself wastefully into reading, and reading novels in particular.

I am in the middle (first fifth, actually) a book that is terrific and addresses literacy and learning with new technologies. It is called Rainbows End and the author is Vernor Vinge. It takes place in the year 2025. The two main characters (so far) are an adolescent and a septuagenarian newly treated (mostly successfully) for Alzheimer’s. Both are students in a middle school in San Diego and both are using their own approaches to the incredibly networked technologies making up life in the near future.

What strikes me so far (beyond the compelling plot and characters) is how Vinge describes the complete use of technology in the classroom.

Here is a link to an NPR story about Vinge and the merging of people with technology.

Blogged with Flock

This recent article in the NY Times about a the managing editor of The Daily Talk, a newspaper in Liberia really knocked me out.

The editor, Alfred Sirleaf, circulates the news by chalkboard, moving it from place to place. He says:

“Those who don’t have opportunity to buy newspaper, go on the Internet, who can’t afford to buy generator to buy TV,” he said, describing just about everyone in this battered city, “I do all the dirty work for them, and I just give them exactly what they want.” Link.

This struck me as a non-virtual blog.

Here is his vision:

As the nation slowly comes back from the brink of annihilation, he
said, he wants to make sure every Liberian can keep up with the news
and play a part in the country’s young democratic government.

I am so inspired reading about his commitment to literacy and to bringing what he considers important to his people, his constituents, in an incredibly powerful and direct way.

Blogged with Flock

Maybe it’s too soon for a declaration, but here goes: I have finally worked out how I will be (starting at least) to use blogs and wikis in my classroom for the Fall.

I teach 7th and 8th grade science, which in my district is the New York State Regents curriculum culminating in the state-mandated assessment at the end of 8th grade. Last year, with both my 7th and 8th grade classes, I had an ongoing assignment that the students were to read a science article froma variety of print and web sources and then to submit a response. The response consisted of a summary and then a reflection. My goal was to have them develop literacy within the content area.

I was happy with how this went, as were my administrators and fellow teachers. This seems like a perfect blogging situation. I can post an article or selection of articles and then the students can post their responses as before, as well as comment on other students’ work. My intention is that all of this becomes more of a class discussion than a private conversation with me.

I also joked last year that I wanted to write my own textbook that would be age appropriate and useful. My plan now is to be have the 8th grade students collaborate with me on this project using a wiki space.

I presented all of this to my assistant principal today and she was completely behind all of it.

Excelsior!

Blogged with Flock