Buzzin’ about Books …and other things

  I am hoping I can ask you to share a little information with me so I may share it at a conference. Please send a comment to me about either one of the books you read over the summer, or one that sounded interesting to you based on a classmate’s presentation with a voicethread.  It would be a wonderful thing to share with other teachers how you feel about using technology in connection with your different classes. 

  What are some ways you like to use technology in the classroom? What kind of projects do you like to create in response to learning?

  I would love to get some feedback from you and have you offer your advice and expertise to the incoming sixth graders. Who would know better about providing tips and advice than those people who just went through it? So, I am offering you the opportunity to be mentors to the Class of 2012. I am going to ask you to blog about no more than 5 things you learned about middle school, sixth grade, time management, homework, extracurricular activites, organization, sharing a locker, travelling for classes, and having so many teachers? how did YOU manage to survive the transition to middle school?

   I intend to use portions , if not ALL, of this blog to share with parents and students of the Class of 2012. Make sure your comments are appropriate, thoughtfully written and correctly spelled. Sign only with your initials. All postings come to me first for approval.

   Help the class of 2012 rise to the challenge , fun, and adventure that is Middle School.

 This particular blog site has a feature that I think is relatively important when you have students blogging. Before their comments get printed, they are sent to the blog owner for approval.

   I am going to share some book titles that have been circulating around some of the people in my PLN ( personal learning network) in case you might be interested in reading some of them. I will also ask that you try to  add a comment at the end of the section so that you can get an idea about how that portion works as well.

All of these books are linked to their page on Barnes & Noble:

The World is Flat                A Whole New Mind        Here Comes Everybody

Tribes                               The Global Achievement Gap      Disrupting Class

Born Digital                           Wikinomics                   Five Minds for the Future

                                            Out of Our Minds

Any books you have to recommend?

  History will be made on January 20,2009 as a person of color takes office as the President of the United States. When Mr. Obama began his run for this office two years ago, our country was in a different situation than it is right now. We have experienced a financial crisis that is only just begin to be felt in a very real way by everyday people. An age-old conflict between Israel and Palestine has again reared its ugly head. There are countries in conflict on every continent, Everyone hopes for a better future, and much of those hopes rest on Mr. Obama’s shoulders. Many could argue that no one could possible meet the expectations that many have for the new president. Pressure will be great and issues many.

     If you could send a 1 or 2  paragraph letter to the president, what would you say? What are your hopes? What are your concerns? What are your wishes for either the president and his family or the future?

 I demonstrated to the students the power of writing for an audeince when I shared some information about readers of our wiki. We were lucky enough to have our blog used as an example for an international presentation in Singapore. As a result, a variety of peole around the work have seen The Apiary on wikispaces The impact of seeing that map and the dots that appeared on it, really gave the students a great visual for the power of the Internet. I am hoping that the students will comment below on their reactions to  their experience of having readers outside their immediate classmates.

  I would love to hear your reaction to using a wiki as a tool for collaborating and discussing about various aspects of The Secret Life of Bees. As you already know, literature circles are a common way to allow for sharing opinions and perspectives about books that you are reading in class. We decided to “mix it up’ a bit and use a wiki instead of paper. Besides the advantage of being  ’green’ and saving paper, what other benefits did you find to using this tool? Were there disadvantages? Could you consider ways this could have been improved? Ways that you could use this type of tool in other classes?

    I am also curious to know if having access to not only your wiki, but also that of the other class was helpful in understanding aspects of the book. Basically, with every student contributing on at least half of the chapters, did the various insights help to clarify or deepen your own understanding ? Did the idea of being published on the web have an effect on what and how you wrote?

  Please send me your comments, using the comment button below. I would appreciate it if you could sign with your initials only followed by your section. (i.e. N.J. A8c)