Chris Sloan

Exciting conversations are budding on Youth Voices and on Voices on the Gulf. 

Martha, a senior at the East-West School of International Studies in Queens (Paul Allison's school) begins this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers by putting out a call for other students to join us on TTT. She wants to talk about how students express themselves creatively outside of school. We hope more students will be able to join us on the next TTT, Wednesday, October 13, 9:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 Pacific.

Margaret Simon, whose elementary school students have been shining on Voices on the Gulf joins us on this podcast as well. Margaret has invited a few of her students to join us on TTT this coming Wednesday as well.

Gail Desler, Chris Sloan, David Pulling have updates to share with us as well. We talk about research, I-Search and more!

Enjoy this podcast. Join us on Wednesday, and invite a student to join us as well.

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

More about Scratch! More about gaming. More about social networking. Youth Voices. Voices on the Gulf. And we invited a couple of students too!

This was our fall semester kick off.

On this episode, you'll hear:

• Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan
• Stacey Ferguson, 5th grade teacher in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi
• Rafi Santos, graduate student at Indiana University
  
• Michael, a senior at Chris Sloan's school, Judge Memorial High School
  
• Laura Fay, 8th grade reading and Scratch teacher at Fisher Middle School in Ewing, New Jersey
• Tim Kong, a teacher who uses Scratch with his 10-year olds in New Zealand
• Kylie Peppler, an Assistant Professor in the Learning Sciences Program at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Kylie Peppler is an Assistant Professor in the Learning Sciences Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. As an artist by training, Peppler engages in research that focuses on the intersection of the the arts, media, and new technologies. A Dissertation-Year Fellowship from the Spencer Foundation as well as a UC Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship supported her early work in these areas. Peppler has published numerous journal articles that will or have appeared in E-Learning, Learning, Media and Technology, Teachers College Record, and The Cambridge Journal of Education on the arts, new media, and learning. She also has a recent book titled, The Computer Clubhouse: Constructionism and Creativity in Youth Communities (Teachers College Press, 2009). Peppler is currently a co-PI on two National Science Foundation funded studies on creativity in youth communities as well as a PI on a grant to study the development of systems thinking dispositions through the design of digital arts projects funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Laura Beth Fay and Tim Baker join Susan Ettenheim and Chris Sloan to talk about Scratch and its uses in junior high.  Susan met Laura and Tim at the 2010 Scratch@MIT conference.  Tim’s interests in environmental education align with our ongoing Voices on the Gulf project; like Susan and Chris, Laura works with her local writing project – in Susan’s words “lots of overlapping pieces.”

Laura Fay is an 8th grade reading teacher at Fisher Middle School in Ewing, New Jersey; her students use Scratch to compose multimedia as part of her journalism curriculum.  Tim is a graduate student in interaction design at the University of Maine, and he’s helped create an environmental simulator for middle school students aid their understandings of ecosystems called Sim Stream.

Meet Laura, just the way Susan did at the MIT conference: http://kimpearson.net/?p=804 Laura is active with NWP@Rider - NWP@Rider is dedicated to supporting and developing literacy in the Mercer County, New Jersey area. Laura also works with literacy and Scratch and interactive journalism. 

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.

About Scratch: Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art – and share your creations on the web. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

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

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Steve Muth and Ben Papell founders and on-going co-conspirators at VoiceThread join Susan Ettenheim and Chris Sloan to talk about what’s new at VoiceThread AND how they can imagine VoiceThread supporting our efforts with http://voicesonthegulf.org.

In addition, Bill Ferriter, a sixth grade science teacher in North Carolina, joins us. Bill has just published a great book, Teaching the iGeneration. There are a lot great ideas in this new book, but there’s one that is perfect for a VoiceThread discussion: Collaborative vs. Competitive dialogue. In an email, Bill writes:

Collaborative and competitive dialogue is something I talk about in Teaching the iGeneration and something that VoiceThread facilitates nicely.  We could talk about how our world emphasizes competitive dialogue—-kids are surrounded by marketing messages and celebrities and politicians screaming for attention and unwilling to listen to other viewpoints——but collaborative dialogue is essential for solving the kinds of global, cross-border challenges our world is facing. 

Alicia Blair, a colleague and science teacher at an alternative school in Mississippi, and Gail Desler, who works with teachers in Northern California, join us as well. Alicia and Gail have been helping us to keep it real all summer.

Enjoy!

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

As you will hear on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, we are very excited about the new website, http://voicesonthegulf.org ! On this podcast we are joined by:

• Andrea Zellner, Stumbling Toward Proficiency
• Chris Sloan, Sloan Space
• Matt Montagne, The Digital Downlow
• Diana Laufenberg, Living the Dream
• Buffy Hamilton, The Unquiet Library
• Lisa Nielsen, The Innovative Educator

We are putting together a team to help us to develop this site — and fast. We've set up the following Community Managers:

David Pulling (Louisiana) - Site Manager
Paul Allison (New York) - Site Manager

Catherine Tibbs (Mississippi) - Art and Humanities
Ellen Steigman (Louisiana) - Art and Humanities
Susan Ettenheim (New York) - Art and Humanities

Paige Baggett (Alabama) - Community and Culture
Suzie Boss (Oregon) - Community and Culture

Jeff Mason (Florida) - Health and Wellness
Andrea Zellner (Michigan) - Health and Wellness

Natasha Whitton (Louisiana) - Money and Careers
Chris Sloan (Utah) - Money and Careers

Alicia Blair (Mississippi) - Nature and the Environment
Matt Montagne (California) - Nature and the Environment

Kyle Meador (Louisiana) - Social Issues and Human Rights
Diana Laufenberg (Pennsylvania) - Social Issues and Human Rights

Stacey Ferguson (Mississippi) - Our Space (K-6)
Margaret Simon (Louisiana) - Our Space (K-6)
Gail Desler (California) -  Our Space (K-6)
Kevin Hodgson (Massachusetts) - Our Space (K-6)

Along with this growing group of National Writing Project teachers, teachers from along the Gulf Coast, teachers in Edutopia’s pblcmp, AND/OR teachers involved with the EdTechTalk/WorldBridges community, we have been organizing (and working with Bill Fitzgerald at FunnyMonkey) to build this site that will do the following:

1. Provide a place where we can collect, amplify, and engage the poems, stories, and essays that students along the Gulf Coast bring to their teachers this month, as schools open.
2. Layer these stories, poems, and essays with online sources, including news releases and poetry (such as the poems on Poets for Living Waters).
3. We don’t know yet! Many of us have been working for some time on building a site like Voices on the Gulf, and we have some idea what directions this will take, AND we want to allow the discussions on the site to help us know how to develop.

The most important item, above is #1 - we are working as fast and hard as possible to get the site out to teachers, and for it to be easy to use. If you would like to add a poem, thought, or anything, please sign up, then once you’ve been made into a member, you’ll see the Add Discussion button. Please go in and write a brief reflection, add  photo, a video, or almost anything — just to see how easy it is to do. AGAIN, THANKS!

Students have been coming back the past couple of weeks in many Gulf Coast schools. A lot of our connections with teachers on the Gulf have happened this summer on a live webcast that we do every Wednesday evening. You may have already been on the show. We would love it if you would come back. We’ve been able to make a lot of invaluable connections. You can see what we mean here: http://edtechtalk.com/teachersteachingteachers

We would love to invite you to join us on Teachers Teaching Teachers every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. Pacific / 8:00 p.m. Central / 9:00 p.m. Eastern. If you use Skype, please email Paul Allison or Susan Ettenheim and let us know your Skype name (again)— just helps us to know who to look for! We hope that you will be able to join us soon on a Wednesday evening.

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