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Paul Allison

Teachers Teaching Teachers #226 - Diving deeper into currrent events with students fishing around for relevant topics - 11.10.10

Sun, 2010-12-12 02:11 — Paul Allison

67:07 minutes (15.36 MB)

This episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers was sparked by a post by Suzie Boss on her Edutopia blog:

When the Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year, teachers across the country recognized an opportunity to bring real-world applications of math and science into their classrooms. Similarly, the rescue of 33 Chilean miners has triggered student discussions about everything from heroism to human biology.

In the wake of such dramatic events, some teachers are eager to do more than host current-events-style conversations. They want to use the news as a launching pad for in-depth student learning. But making that happen requires teachers and students to dive into topics for which there are no texts or guidebooks. What’s more, maintaining student interest can be challenging once the headlines start to fade and media attention shifts to tomorrow’s hot topic.

How do you plan for academically rigorous projects that are “ripped from the headlines”? Here are a few suggestions, along with some timely resources.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/real-world-projects-news-events-suzie-boss

On this episode, Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan spend the hour catching up with their friends:

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #225 - Celebrating the launch of the National Writing Project's new site - Digital Is - 11-03-10

Mon, 2010-11-29 11:54 — Paul Allison

46:37 minutes (10.67 MB) Congratulations to all involved in the National Writing Project’s (NWP) new Digital Is site, which launched the first week of November when we recorded this podcast!

Take a look at all the wonderful work that has been collected and curated so far by NWP teachers from all over the United States at http//digitalis.nwp.org/

Once you’ve checked out those great resources and provocations, listen to the creators, collectors, and curators of this exciting new site on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers.

As Christina Cantrill wirtes:

The National Writing Project’s Digital Is website is a teaching-focused knowledge base exploring digital writing, teaching and learning. It invites participation in developing this knowledge base in several ways – visitors can find a range of teaching-focused collections and resources here related to digital writing, teaching and learning as well as become community members and participate in discussions. Also, after participating and getting a sense of the site, one can write to us and apply to be a resource creator. Resource creators can draft and compose multimodal resources here, get and give feedback to other resource creators, and publish.

Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan welcomed five of our friends and colleagues to this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers:

picture-8.jpg Christina Cantrill who works at the National Writing Project as a Senior Program Associate for the NWP Technology Initiative and Digital Is project

.picture-24.jpg Bud Hunt, who made this collection on Digital Is: What’s New, or What’s Good: On Writing Connectively.

picture-9.jpg  Elyse Eidman-Aadahl who directs National Programs and Site Development at the National Writing Project. She also moderates one of our favorite webcasts/podcasts, NWP Radio.

educon22 Bill Fitzgerald who runs the Drupal shop, FunnyMonkey. Bill designed Digital Is, and is currently working on an update of Youth Voices.

Kevin+Hodgson Kevin Hodgson teaches sixth grade in Southampton, Massachusetts at the William E. Norris Elementary School. He is also the technology liaison with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. Check out how many different ways Kevin shows up on Digital Is!

We talked with our friends about the importance of commenting. Over the last several years, those of us who have been building Youth Voices have learned how important it is to teach and nurture commenting, not just posting new posts all the time.

Join the excitement! Digital Is promises to be an important touchstone for communities of learners in the National Writing Project and beyond, and we suspect that the quality of the discussions on the site will soon be as important as the quality of the resources.

With this episode of TTT, we celebrate the launch of Digital Is and to think about the role of commenting in building new communities of learning on this site.

Unfortunately the chat log for this podcast is unavailable.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #224 - Students and Rick West help us build community - 10.27.10

Wed, 2010-11-10 09:41 — Paul Allison

64:05 minutes (14.67 MB) It’s student night again on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. We hope you enjoy this student-sponsored discussion about what they can do themselves to nurture a community of learners online. Susan Ettenheim’s students asked to come on the show:
My students are interested in hosting a conversation about digital photography in Youth Voices and Voices on the Gulf. What do students want in terms of collaboration? What will make it compelling? What do they want to share? This is not so much a matter of someone sharing his or her work as much as the students planning alongside and with us.
Chris Sloan’s digital photographers joined as well. Chris writes: “I like Susan’s wording – students “planning alongside” the teachers. I look forward to a conversation like this, and at least one of my students says she can join us.”

We were also joined by another guest who Chris suggested, Richard E. West:

I just read “A Student’s Guide to Strengthening an Online Community,” by Richard E. West (TechTrends, Sept./Oct. 2010), which seems pertinent to what we’re thinking for this Wednesday.  West starts off saying that students today know how to FaceBook but that doesn’t always help in online learning communities.  Students need guidance in learning how to learn online. One of the things we’re asking students to do is to help us create/maintain a good online learning community (OLC) of photographers.

We asked Rick West to join the students on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. We hope you will join us every Wednesday at 6:00 PM Pacific / 9:00 PM Eastern. AND if you have any Skype-ready student photographers who might want to join us, please let us know!

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #223 - Changing the world through food: Can you do this? 10.20.10

Sun, 2010-10-31 03:56 — Paul Allison

60:37 minutes (13.88 MB) Chris Sloan invited the director of Fresh, ana Sofia joanes to this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Paul Allison had fun asking her questions his students had for her after seeing the film earlier in the week. In addition, this podcast features Haley, a student of Susan Ettenheim's who had visited Our School at Blair Grocery this summer.

logobig.png

FRESH is more than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. Our aim is to help grow FRESH food, ideas, and become active participants in an exciting, vibrant, and fast-growing movement.

When I write we, I don’t mean our small team (officially two of us, with lots of amazing helps from our interns and volunteers) but I mean YOU. All of you. FRESH is a grassroots efforts for a grassroots movement. It’s been tremendously exciting to see the movie catch on and spread like wild fire, being used all over the country as a platform to raise awareness and connecting people to the solutions available in their community.

Within a month of our launch, we’ve received over 20,000 visitors and hundreds of screenings have already been organized. We want to reach 1 million folks. Not just because that would totally feel nice to our ego (mine especially!), but because, we believe that FRESH can truly help get us to a tipping point, when sustainable food will no longer be just a niche market.

Please help us reach 1 million people (to start with that is.) Organize a home screening or a community screening. Get in touch with us, let us know what we can do more and better. We’re open!

http://www.freshthemovie.com

Also joining us were three educators from Our School at Blair Grocery:

  • Nat Turner, Founder and Head of School
  • Kyle Meador, Director of Education Programs
  • Qasim Davis, Teacher and Dean of Students

They had just won a grant from Fresh because of their wonderful garden.

FRESH 1% GRANT - WE WON!!!

At Our School at Blair Grocery, FRESH is one of our favorite documentaries. Every time we watch it, it inspires us in our work for food security and food justice for our community. Now, because of the amazing response from our supporters who voted for us to win the FRESH 1% Grant, we’ll also receive financial support from FRESH — 1% of their annual revenue for 2010.

We hope you enjoy this conversation, and that you leave thinking, "Yes I can!"

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #219 -Gaming to learn about the business of the environment - 9.22.10

Mon, 2010-10-25 08:13 — Paul Allison

64:33 minutes (14.78 MB)

More gaming, more environment on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers.

We invited Andy Rosenbloom (plus a teacher from New Jersey who has used Spill! in his classroom last Spring) and Tim Baker back onto the show to continue our conversations about gaming and the environment that started this summer with A Real Team Challenge: Spill! TTT 211 - 07.28.10.  This summer Andy Rosenbloom, Program Director for the Virtual Team Challenge: Spill! invited us to join Spill!:

Even though you’re busy this summer with countless poolside BBQs, it’s never too early to plan ahead for Fall semester curriculum. The Virtual Team Challenge is an entirely FREE online, multiplayer business simulation that takes place in the animated 3D world of New City. The team objective in the simulation is to help the mayor stage the most efficient oil spill recovery effort. Top-performing teams are eligible for prizes for themselves, their teachers, and local charities! Virtual Team Challenge will run this Fall from October 12 – November 24. See our article in The New York Times to read about one NJ teacher’s success with the program. Virtual Team Challenge comes complete with lesson plans and in-class exercises which form a curriculum that highlights general business acumen, business ethics, negotiation skills, decision-making processes and accounting while placing a special emphasis on important life/career skills such as teamwork, communication, professionalism and research methods.

We were also joined by Tim Baker, a graduate student who Susan Ettenheim met this summer at a Scratch workshop at MIT. (Listen to: Lots of overlapping pieces: Laura Fay and Tim Baker on using Scratch in middle school - TTT #215 - 08.25.10) Tim Baker came to MIT from Orono, Maine with his project Sim Stream. University of Maine Undergraduate researchers are developing a grades 6-8 virtual, educational system that poses environmental issues for students to explore in their own ecological system, drawing from diverse areas of study. By learning to use scientific observations, analyze data, and draw inferences in formulating decisions and policies, students develop an appreciation and understanding for natural resources, human-non-human inter-dependencies and the need for civic responsibility.

We invite you to join this ongoing conversation by listening to this podcast.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

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