Many thanks to Rick Schwier who invited me to participate in the 7 things meme. It spurred me on to writing my first blog post of 2009. Below are the ’7 things you probably don’t know about me’.
When I was seven our house burned to the ground and my family lost everything. We were squatting on Royal land at Mile 923.3 on the Alaska Highway where my father had built a home. The oil tank that heated our home caught fire 11 days after Christmas and slowly grew into a blaze that destroyed everything. None of my family was harmed and the Whitehorse community looked after us very well. I remember being happy that I did not have to go to school because I did not have uniform
I learned about the power of community and belonging when I played the flute in my high school band. I was not very good but I practiced diligently and managed to become first flautist. We worshiped our band teacher and under his leadership solidified into a strong community that extended beyond the band room. I loved high school and it was primarily because of the community that he created.
I started my teaching career in a ‘alternate’ school in Lethbridge where everyone was called by their first name. Even now, 30 years later, I feel uncomfortable when students call me Ms. DesRoches. Today in the more traditional school setting when I give students the option to call me Donna or Ms. DesRoches they prefer Ms. DesRoches.
I learned the difference between charity and development when I spent eight months as a volunteer in Cochabamba, Bolivia working with street children. I learned that it is very hard even for a knowledgeable volunteer to put aside beliefs and passions and let the people tell you what they need and to simply carry it out. I brought my love of books with me and spent a great deal of money buying books for the children and the school that I worked in. I never once consulted with others about what the real needs might be. The children loved the books but I still wonder if the money could have been better used elsewhere.
I am a strong supporter of Save the Children Canada. I began as a branch volunteer planning fund raising and awareness activities, was elected to the board, and eventually became Chair. During my time on the Board I visited our projects in India and Ethiopia. While in Ethiopia I opened a food relief outlet in the highland community of Ajbar. Even though I am no longer on the board or involved in branch activities Save the Children remains my charity of choice.
I have met both Stephen Lewis and Romeo Dalliare. In my role as the Board Chair of Save the Children Canada I presented our annual award to Stephen Lewis and at the same gala sat at the head table with Romeo Dallaire who was the guest speaker. Wow! A night to remember!
I collect dragons. Early in my career at NBCHS I acquired the nickname ‘dragon-lady’ and as a joke a co-worker presented me with a dragon that remains on my desk today. Since then I have acquired many dragons both European and Asian. I love the symbolism each represents – in the European dragon, the fears that we must slay before we can move forward and in the Asian dragon, wisdom, knowledge and immortality. My most recent dragon is a beautiful jade carving that my sister brought back from China.
The Saskatchewan E-Merging Learning Conference is fast approaching with session proposals due on December 1. I submitted two proposals relevant to teacher-librarianship:
Selection 2.0: Using RSS to enhance print, multimedia and web-based resource selection
RSS, a web-based application that allows the training of information to come to us, can be used to carry-out the professional selection responsibilities of teacher-libraries. This workshop will explain RSS, demonstrate a variety of formats for organizing incoming information and provide a number of sources for print, multimedia and web-based resources.
Using Emerging Technologies to Build a Personal Learning Network
Teacher-librarians are specialists with unique learning needs that are not always met through school or division-based professional development. This workshop will provide teacher-librarians with the tools and the knowledge to create networks that will lessen the isolation and provide global connections that will enhance their own learning and benefit the teachers and students with whom they work.
Filed under: Uncategorized — Donna DesRoches @ 9:51 pm
Next year our school division plans to implement a laptop program – nowhere near a 1:1 but we are putting a 15 – 20 set of laptops in each school in the division that wishes to participate in the program. I must admit that I approach this project with some trepidation. Are our teachers ready? Will the laptops be used for authentic, meaningful learning or will they simply be used to do old things in new ways? Have we provided opportunities for professional development that will ensure the technology is used to meet our students’ 21st Century learning needs?
I’ve had too many teachers assign us to “make an iMovie” for this and that. I had to make an iMovie for my World Geography class and Asian Studies class. I was surprised when even my Spanish teacher told me to make an iMovie. It is obvious [our school] is trying too hard…to look cool.
The student goes on to describe a class where he feels the laptop has been used for real learning:
We use our MacBooks to interact with people from all over the world, and learn how to write for [a] true audience. Not just that, we learn how to accomplish stuff through networking and meeting new cool people.
While the MacBooks in the Writing Seminar classroom are shining, the other MacBooks in other classrooms are crying. They say, “what the hell am I doing here?”
Clay’s final comments on his student’s post are well worth keeping in mind as we begin our foray into student laptop computing:
Younsuk’s mention that Macbooks help learning by allowing students to connect and network with the world is something no teacher or administrator is going to understand without doing it. It’s 20th century education with a shiny bell and whistle otherwise. Just a new way to turn in homework. The immigrants in power will think it’s cutting edge, but the students will think otherwise.
It is so important that teachers understand that student use of laptops is about connecting, communicating, collaborating and creating. And yes, I do believe that in our school division we are moving in such a direction.
We are definitely more ready than we would have been a year ago for this student laptop initiative. I work with an excellent team of teachers who go way beyond providing ‘sit and get’ professional development for their teachers – hands-on, one-to-one, just-in-time, mentoring, and meaningful staff collaboration and other forms of ‘differentiated instruction’ will help our teachers ensure that we just don’t look cool but are providing meaningful learning opportunities for their students.
In a WizIQ seminar a conversation about blog comments recently took place with several teachers in my school division and Kelly Christopherson. Teachers said comments that indicated an understanding of their key ideas, provided a quality critique, or shared a similar learning or action extended their own understanding and learning.
Many students within our school division are now blogging as part of their daily classroom activities. As teachers have become more comfortable with the online writing format they want to extend the audience and the conversations for their students first by encouraging them to comment on classmates’ writing and then by finding other classrooms that their students can connect, write and share their learning.
While they recognize the value that commenting brings to the blogging process many teachers struggle to explain and teach students how to make meaningful comments on others’ writing.
An ahah moment occurred one day when I was working in a teacher’s classroom and saw a number of posters on Reading Comprehension Strategies on her wall. I then had a conversation with the Language and Literacy Consultant who also became quite excited at how reading and commenting on the blog posts of their peers could enhance student utilization of the reading comprehension strategies. She suggested that teachers could help primary and early bloggers use the reading comprehension strategies by choosing one strategy and having the whole class use that strategy to comment on their classmates’ posts.
Having students use the reading comprehension strategies to comment helps them to avoid words like nice, good and interesting in their comments.
Students, especially primary and students new to blogging can use sentence frames to…
Make Connections – e.g. after reading a blog about a puppy students use a sentence starter “this reminds me of when my puppy did….”
Question – asking questions that use starters such as, “I didn’t understand this…” “I wonder what…”
Other reading comprehension strategies can be used to respond to student blog posts:
Visualization – if an entry supports visualization – have the student draw a picture and then describe it.
Infer – (for older students) – look for inferences that the writer makes – e.g. if the blogger writes with passion – comment on the evidence that allows them to make the inference or “I see that you have lots of knowledge about this topic” and again provide the evidence.
Synthesize – paraphrase – transfer the statement from the blog into their world – “what you said makes me think about this idea in my world – how this applies to me”.
Blogging is a great communication tool but it is the use of effective commenting skills that will extend and engage global conversations for our students.
I came across this great memeidea today that I decided would be the first that I would do and ask others to respond. You follow three simple rules and using your favourite image editing program create a CD cover.
I had an opportunity to hear one of the presentations he made to parents and two things struck me in his comments. The first was that because the technology is not going to go away, we – parents and teachers – need to immerse ourselves in the technology so that we understand it and provide the guidance that kids need to use it wisely and ethically. If we don’t they will learn from each other – not always a bad thing – but parents and teachers can provide the foundation in social ethics that is often missing when students teach each other.
The second thing that struck me in Alec’s talk was the need to not only ensure that our students/children are critical consumers of information but that they are also critical producers.
I started to think of what this entails and generated a brainstormed list of what I thought students need to know to be critical producers:
Knowing audience – where to post information (e.g. YouTube, GoogleVideo, FaceBook)
Reading and understanding the ‘terms of service’ agreements posted post on social networking sites
Providing attribution for other’s work/ideas used in the creation of a product
Licensing one’s own work and providing terms for its use
Knowing what personal information is necessary to create an online presence but also recognizing that certain information should not be shared
Using appropriately the privacy settings on social networking sites where one’s work is posted and shared
Respecting the rights and wishes of others to not have pictures or video of themselves posted online.
Using photos and video of others with their permission
Portraying other people in positive ways and not in ways that are hurtful or harmful.
What have I missed?
I also believe that these skills must be taught as students create and post their products online. This is not a separate information/technology literacy skill but an integral component of student production and should be built into the lessons and instructional strategies that we use
Yes, it’s done! On Saturday I presented my Master’s project to colleagues, classmates and faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. A classmate took these photos and when I look at them it seems that I am having fun! And, yes it was quite enjoyable. I realized as I spoke how important the topic of information literacy is to me and how I hope to share my enthusiasm with the teachers with whom I work.
My prof, Rick Schwier, ustreamed the presentations and it was interesting to receive feedback from friends and colleagues around North America.
My project, Teaching for Information Literacy, is a collection of resources to help teachers understand the concept of information literacy and to begin the process of implementing an information literacy program in their school.
One of the most important things for me to convey was the concept of moving beyond topical research to using an inquiry approach to engage students in the process of uncovering knowledge to create their own understandings. I did this by creating a video, Re/Search Re/Mixed, (with a great deal of assistance from my office mate, the Arts Education Consultant, Sherron Burns).
I also created a series of tutorials to help teachers use the resources available from the Ministry of Education and how to make the resources more accessible to staff and students by linking to individual databases and articles, using the rss feature available in Gale Infotrac and inserting a ProQuest widget on a blog or wiki page.
The portal also encompasses technology, especially new and emerging technologies as an essential component of information literacy. For example, social bookmarking is a tool that can be used at many stages of the research process to categorize, organize, annotate and share resources. Online mind-mapping and brainstorming tools allow students to continue their work outside of school as well as the ability to collaborate and share.
One of the most interesting questions that came from the audience after my presentation was, “can you give a specific example of how information literacy has changed”? My response was to share how little I now use a search engine since the growth of my personal learning network – my twitter friends, my del.icio.us network and the blogs that I read via my bloglines account. Information can now come to me – and I need the skills to be able to create the PLN that will bring me the information I need and the ability to filter the information.
I, along with Jim Ellis and Byrna Luyben-Cronk, did a presentation on the Living Sky Professional Laptop program. Although our audience was small our presentation was well received especially by our Assistant Director.
Jim represented the Inquiry and In-school Instructional Technology Support Committee. Byrna is also a member of the In-school Instructional Technology Support Committee and she represented the Arts Education Committee. Unfortunately we were unable to have representation for the Early Literacy Committee. However, we were provided with a number of invaluable quotes from the committee members one of which I have included below. The others became a part of of our slide presentation.
We are efficient with the laptops during the meetings. In past committee work, we had you typing while we were running for print materials and flipping pages. Now we can all be international travellers through the internet accessing the information at our fingertips. Also, it has given me a tool to help colleagues when they say that they have a need. I was able to share web sites for activities from our committee with a teacher. I think it has made me more aware of and comfortable with technology-using photos and programs. I am gaining the confidence to help others play with these programs
Living Sky School Division was also represented at the Congress by students from McLurg High School who provided e-journalism services to its participants. These students worked diligently to provide a daily newsletter, video reporting and a blog to inform participants about congress events. They were a highly organized team coordinated by their Information Processing and English teachers. These teachers have a strong believe in authentic learning and this was an ideal opportunity for students to experience the tension and the thrill of meeting press deadlines, interviewing prominent individuals and speaking to the public. They handled this e-journalism experience as true professionals! Kudos to the students of McLurg High School!
Filed under: Uncategorized — Donna DesRoches @ 2:27 am
Somehow I came across the great clipart site, WP Clipart, which I have found incredibly useful. As it states on the front page,
WPClipart is a collection of high-quality public domain images specifically tailored for use in word processors and optimized for printing on home/small office inkjet printers. There are thousands of color graphic clips as well as illustrations, photographs and black and white line art.
Except for a few “fair use” items — namely company logos (like the company name on a credit card) or recognizable products (like a particular model cell phone) — all the rest of the images are Public Domain.
There are many, many images in nicely categorized directories which are easily searched from a search box on each page.
Blogging and Reading Comprehension Strategies
Tags: blogging, comments, reading strategies
In a WizIQ seminar a conversation about blog comments recently took place with several teachers in my school division and Kelly Christopherson. Teachers said comments that indicated an understanding of their key ideas, provided a quality critique, or shared a similar learning or action extended their own understanding and learning.
Many students within our school division are now blogging as part of their daily classroom activities. As teachers have become more comfortable with the online writing format they want to extend the audience and the conversations for their students first by encouraging them to comment on classmates’ writing and then by finding other classrooms that their students can connect, write and share their learning.
While they recognize the value that commenting brings to the blogging process many teachers struggle to explain and teach students how to make meaningful comments on others’ writing.
Having students use the reading comprehension strategies to comment helps them to avoid words like nice, good and interesting in their comments.
Students, especially primary and students new to blogging can use sentence frames to…
Make Connections – e.g. after reading a blog about a puppy students use a sentence starter “this reminds me of when my puppy did….”
Question – asking questions that use starters such as, “I didn’t understand this…” “I wonder what…”
Other reading comprehension strategies can be used to respond to student blog posts:
Visualization – if an entry supports visualization – have the student draw a picture and then describe it.
Infer – (for older students) – look for inferences that the writer makes – e.g. if the blogger writes with passion – comment on the evidence that allows them to make the inference or “I see that you have lots of knowledge about this topic” and again provide the evidence.
Synthesize – paraphrase – transfer the statement from the blog into their world – “what you said makes me think about this idea in my world – how this applies to me”.
Blogging is a great communication tool but it is the use of effective commenting skills that will extend and engage global conversations for our students.