HPSH WXman's 23 things

my second sketchcast

2008-04-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

My Sketchcast thing

2008-04-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

My Podcast Thang

2008-04-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

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Thang 25 Maps

2008-04-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

I explored some different map sites this week. My favorite site was http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/ I liked this site because it was more than maps. There were some pretty cool interactive maps (like the one that showed the spread of the black plague). It was also fun to explore the solar systme and see photos of the surface of mars and read facts about other planets.
The other site I liked was
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
These maps were a bit more traditional and not interactive, but there were some typical map features like land use, topography, and population. But there were also some cool history timelines. I know there are lots of other map sites, but these were two of my favorites.

Sharing the good stuff

2008-04-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

My wife is currently teaching an intro to religion course at Hamline and I have turned her on to 21st century literacy skills and she is using them in her class. Many of their readings are on line articles so they are using reliable resources weekly. They have a final paper due at the end of the term and she set up their paper using the RPC with all of the intermediate steps. She then had the librarian do a session with the students in a computer lab showing them how to access reliable resources through the Hamline library. The librarian said what she had done in setting up their research paper using the RPC was the best she had ever seen for a research paper. My wife is planning to share how she set things up in class with the rest of the religion department faculty.

Thang 21

2008-04-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

I registered a YouTube and looked for videos that might work in my classes. My son then found a program which will down load YouTube videos onto my desktop called vixy converter BETA. So when I find a video I like, I copy the web address, then open up the download program and paste the web address in and it downloads the video into a format I can use on my mac. The same program has download options for other types of platforms. Then the videos are easy to paste into a power point or just show.

Thang ? Delicious

2008-03-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Delicious was yummy. It was easy to use and I was able to quickly download my bookmarks into the file. There have been a few times where I needed an address that was on another computer and didn’t have access to it. So the delicious file will make it easy to find all of my addresses. The google documents lesson was also very helpful. I had written a google document before, but I had never worked on one with other people making changes. It was helpful to see how that worked.

Only one of my thangs after number 16 has a link. Are the other thangs going to have a link or are we on our own to work with them?

Thang 16

2008-03-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

The MnLink tutorials were easy to follow and made everything very clear. Mnlink is great but for some reason my library card bar code doesn't seem to work. But, I was able to search for items anyhow. I searched for Bronowski's "Ascent of Man" The book is great and the videos are awesome. I have used them in class before. It is amazing the number of resources that are avaiable through MnLink. I will definitely have to turn my students on to this resource.

Thang 14

2008-03-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't find the librarian index very easy to use. There are some science resources I do use. One is called Steve Spangler science. It has great demonstrations and experiments that you can see and then do in the classroom. I also have a couple of sites which show molecules in 3 dimensions that students find fun to use. With my beginning science students the sites with interactive periodic tables are really good for helping the students learn about different elements.

Thang 9&10

2008-03-04T19:16:00.000-08:00

I reviewed the plagarism quiz and feel very comfortable with my understanding of the topic. In the avid program they practice a discussion technique called philosophical chairs. A issue is brought to the group and they choose one or the other points of view by standing (or sitting in the philosophical chairs) on opposite sides of the room. Then the discussion begins with one person on one side stating why they chose that position. Then a person with the opposing view point has a chance to speak, but before they can present their position, they must paraphrase what the person with the opposing viewpoint said. It seems like this is a great exercise in helping students develop paraphrasing skills which are necessary to avoid the plagarism issue.
I also tried to embed a video clip in a powerpoint presentation and ran into some problems. I have a number of video clips saved on my desktop which I downloaded from United Streaming. They are in a windows media format. When I go to powerpoint and click on movies and sound to put a clip in my presentation and go to my desktop the windows media files which I downloaded from united streaming are not highlighted and as far as I can tell are not accesible to be put into the powerpoint. Does any one know how to make those video clips accesible?

Using power point

2008-02-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

My student teacher is planning on using power point instead of the black board or an overhead for his classroom teaching. I have questions about that because power point is very passive. It is prepared and there isn't any way to engage the students interactively and write down notes of that interaction. My wife suggested using something like word as a way to do this, but in chemistry trying to type out chemical reactions in real time is very difficult because of subscripts used in chemical formulas. So, my question is, does anyone have any suggestions of how to use the laptop and LCD projector in an interactive way with students where you can record that interaction?

An incredible thang

2008-02-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

Last night the caucus event was truly an incredible thing. Traffic on Summit and Grand was backed up from Ramsey Jr. High (2blocks west of snelling avenue) to Dale st. Even though they had multiple doors open we waited in lines that were blocks long just to get into the building. My precinct which met in a small classroom in the basement of the building had over 300 people come to vote for the presidential preference and over 100 stayed to show preference for the senate candidates. My precinct went 87% Obama, 12% Clinton, and 1% Edwards. It was an incredible night.

No Thang new

2008-02-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

My students are in the writing phase of their research paper. One of the problems is the lack of access to computers in our school. My IB prep class is doing ok. but, my regular chemistry classes are complaining about not having enough time in class to work on the project. But, with computer access a problem, I can't come up with time in class that would be productive. Certain departments or people in my school sign up for the computer labs a week at a time and that makes it really difficult for someone who just wants a day or two to get in. Does anybody have any ideas about how you have solved this problem in your schools?

another new thang

2008-01-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

This week I used the Inspiration program to do a concept map of motion concepts with my 9th grade class. It just so happens I have a student teacher whose university supervisor wrote a dissertation about the importance of the connecting phrases you use in the inspiration program to connect the concepts. So I used the program on the LCD projector and we created the map as a class and the students generated the connecting phrases to go in the map. It seemed to work pretty well. Here is what we came up with (oops it won't upload the image because it isn't a supported type). Well, you will just have to go and try to use inspiration yourself.

Electronic bibliographies

2008-01-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

rThis week my students were turning in the bibliographies to show that they are working on their research projects. On Monday I did a lesson reviewing where and how to use the electronic bibliography programs. Students really paid attention and in a quick review of what they have turned in it is clear that many, if not most of the students made use of an electronic bibliography program. Some students told me of other electronic bibliography resources they used which were not ones I presented in class. It really feels like the students are getting more comfortable with this process. And, the bibliography, which seemed like a daunting task to many of the students, was made much more manageable. I am really enjoying having the project take place over a long time period.

A wiki thang

2008-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

I really liked the wikis. I am planning on proposing to our administrators that we set up some wikis like we saw at Central. They seem so easy to set up and use, I can hardly wait. I just wish I taught 4 days a week and had 1 day to work on all of the different electronic media to use in class.

Thang 15

2008-01-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

I have worked with my librarian media specialist, but I don't believe it was a true collaboration. I am currently colaborating with my lms in planning on moving our school forward so that more of our staff can be trained and involved in using these resources effectively in their classrooms.
I have done collaborative work in the past with members of the art department using art grants to fund collaborative projects. These were truly collaborative with the two of us planning the project from the beginning and working together with the students.
Time constraints and schedules are always the impediments to collaboration.

Thang 12

2007-12-27T14:43:00.000-08:00

I tried the different search engines and didn't really find anything outstanding in the results. I really liked the two programs that compared google and yahoo side by side and top to bottom. I thought the top to bottom display with with the dots was pretty cool.
I couldn't get the link to qunitara to work. The music one was weird. I clicked on one of the bands displayed and things moved around, but then I couldn't figure out what else had happened. Then I finally found the menu at the side and found the albums for sale. I'm sure there is more going on, but I guess I wasn't interested enough to keep looking.

RPC Follow up

2007-12-20T08:21:00.000-08:00

Research Questions were due on Monday, and of course, some students didn't turn them in on time. One student shared that she got up on Monday morning and was checking her email for a message from a friend. She found this strange email and opened it, and there was her reminder.
She had actually forgotten to write up her research question. So she quickly sat down and typed up her research question and happily turned it in. So, in at least one case, the email reminder worked exactly as it was supposed to. YaHoo!

Thang 8

2007-12-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

Today I did my dribbling lesson on point of view. I used the two sample web sites for genetically engineered foods. The students quickly detected the points of view. We talked about how knowing the point of view could really be helpful if you were looking for information from a certain perspective. It was a helpful lesson to use.

Thang 11 goooogle

2007-12-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

Exploring google was fun and exasperating. I worked really hard to try and create my own customized search engine but could never get it to work. I tried to create one using two data sources I was familiar with, but every time I then went to try it by trying to find something that I knew should have been there, it found nothing. I don't know what I was doing wrong. Google earth was interesting. In Google for educators the contest for students to write code looked like something my son might be interested in. I also had fun with the timeline feature in history. At school we are starting to use google groups for discussions. So I am now part of a google group where our Techonology Advisory Group discusses and I am part of a google group that the entire school can use to discuss a proposed schedule change for next year. It feels like an efficient way to discuss a topic.

Thang 13

2007-12-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

To get my students started on their research project we spent some time looking at the two subscription data bases sirs researcher and proquest. Since they are doing an essay where they need to evaluate pros and cons and chose a position, sirs researcher was right on the money with its section which discusses the pros and cons of an issue. The students checked out this section and I showed them the section where "my analysis" actually takes them through the thinking process they should use in making a decision on a position. We looked more briefly at proquest, but I did want to show them the resource and how you can focus on a time period in the newspapers in proquest. The students really did seem attentive and now I will just have to see if they make good use of the resources.

Thang 6 and Thang 7 Part II

2007-12-04T19:28:00.000-08:00

Today four of my classes started a research project where we are using the RPC. They are investigating an alternative fuel and creating an essay where they will describe their alternative fuel and state a position of whether they believe that fuel is or is not a good alternative fuel. The project is stretched out over the entire tri so the final project is not due until late February. The students all registered today on the RPC and had the page sent to their email address. We are using the due dates from RPC to have those parts of their project due in class. So, anyway, I've jumped into the pool and I'm trying to tread water. Hope I can keep my head up.

Thing 17 One New Thing

2007-11-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

I recently learned about iTunesU at the iTunes store. Personally I don't use iTunes much but I saw a news article about Podcasts of lectures from colleges being available in the iTunes store at iTunesU. To get there simply click on the iTunes logo on your laptop. In the iTunes store there is a menu at the left and at the bottom it says iTunesU (new), click there. Apparently sometime in the last year apple approached a number of universities and asked them if they would give them the podcasts they were doing of classes on campus for free, and apple offered to store and catalog them and make them available to the public for free. There is an amazing array of subjects from universities across the country available for free. A few months after apple started offering the podcasts online one of the lectures had 50,000 downloads. As high school teachers we can certainly make use of some of these lectures as resources for our students. Anyway, have fun exploring "The Mind of Einstein" or an environmental series from Yale or philosophy lectures from UC Berkeley.

Technology Troubles - Weird Fixes

2007-11-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

I wanted to pass along an interesting problem I encountered yesterday that may have started over the weekend. While I was using my laptop over the weekend I noticed that a couple of times it would make a whirring sound like it was trying to start up a disk, but no disk was in it. Then on Monday I was on the Campus system entering some grades in Campus gradebook and I got these weird error reports when I tried to save what I had entered and when I would go back and check, what I had entered had not been saved. I solved that problem by saving after every few entries. At the end of the day I turned the computer off, closed it up, and put it in my bag. A couple of hours later at home I went to take my laptop out of the bag and the laptop was hot, in fact, it was so hot it made my whole bag hot. I went to turn it on and it wouldn't turn on. It was off, but it was hot (like it was in use) and making humming sounds, but it was off and wouldn't turn on. I tried plugging it in to the charger and leaving it plugged in for 15, then 30, then 60 minutes and still nothing. So I did what I always do when I have a technology problem, I asked my son what he thought was wrong.

He looked at it, tried to turn it on, again nothing. Then he removed the battery pack by turning the little lock on the back and taking it out. With the battery pack out he plugged the laptop into the charger and tried to turn it on. It came on immediately just like it always had. We checked to make sure it seemed to be working properly. Turned it off. Put the battery pack back in, and it has been working just like before off the battery or with the charger in and the battery charges up fine.

So I said to my son, "So what was wrong with it?" and he replied "Oh, sometimes they get this magnetic thing." Now, I have no idea what he meant by that, and I'm not sure he really knows exactly either, but he sure knew how to fix the problem. So I wanted to share this problem and the solution with everyone so if it happens to you, you will know how to fix the problem.

Thank heavens for a 17 year old techy in the house.

Thang 13

2007-11-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a class. I learned so much, but feel like I need about two 8 hour days to sit down and go through different databases the way I did for my one in class tonight. There is so much to learn and so little time to do it in. I am starting to work on a research project for my classes that will take place in late winter/early spring. I want to construct the project to do with my students all that I am learning. Hopefully one of the things I will have learned is how to construct better projects.

Thang 6 and Thang 7

2007-11-10T06:33:00.000-08:00

I've just finished my first good look at the research calculator and the teacher guide. Wow!! As a science teacher I have always complained that we were expected to teach students how to inquire, but that I had never had a course on that myself. Well, here it is. What I would love to do is take the RPC and tweek it to make it more applicable to doing scientific research, where you are actually doing a laboratory experiment as part of your research. That would be awesome. I downloaded some pdf files to look at to see how to begin to use this in my class. I thought the teacher's guide about how to develop good research topics was really helpful. I know I have had some bad topics in the past and the results from the students have been equally bad. The RPC could be a whole class in itself called Research 101. Now I've got to figure out how to jump in.

United Streaming Thang

2007-11-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

I got onto United Streaming and tried one of the video clips in my 9th grade science class. Yes, you definitely need a pair of speakers to go with the lap top, but the low volume did make the students be EXTRA quiet. The video had good information, but it wasn't organized in the way I usually organize things. I liked the quiz at the end of the clip. It was a 20 minute clip and we paused it so students could write down important points and it eventually ended up taking up at least 50 minutes. I didn't think the picture quality was the best. I would like to see about improving that as well.

BDPA & College visits

2007-10-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday eve, 10/17 I attended the BDPA Black Data Processing Association Fall Banquet. My son was being recognized for his participation in their High School Computer Competition this summer. Some interesting information was shared. The number of students going to college and majoring in computer science is actually decreasing, especially among young women. While the demand for persons with computer science and IT skills is increasing. After the conference we went to Winona State University and University of Wisconsin LaCrosse for college tours for my son and we were there specially checking out their computer science programs. Both colleges are totally wired, but at Winona there is a fee included in your cost and you get a lap top as a freshman, and then it is replaced with a new one in your junior year, and for a minimal 50 bucks you get to keep it when you graduate. Every student is expected to use the lap top through out their time in school there. My son is really interested in computer security and information security. We discovered that the government has identified schools that they now call centers for academic excellence in information assurance and security. Seems like a post 9/11 thing. BDPA has been great for my son. If you know of any young African American men or women interested in computers and web page development, let me know and I will get them in contact with the BDPA program.

mars, venus, and alchemy

2007-10-11T19:17:00.001-07:00

I was helping a student look for an African chemist and found this interesting information on alchemy for Egypt. In the manuscript (from the 1600s) which I copied to the left, metals were linked to planets. Mars is linked to iron, and Venus is linked to copper. In the discussion about this topic it also talked about the planets being linked to male and female, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. It then also linked all three by pointing out that men have a much higher concentration of iron in their blood stream than women, thus Men/Mars/Iron and women have a much higher concentration of copper in their blood than do men and hence Women/Venus/copper. Fascinating the stuff you find while helping students with projects.

some "Thing"

2007-10-11T18:48:00.001-07:00

I made a cartoon in comic life, but couldn't upload it to my blog because it wasn't a JPEG or GIF file. So I had to settle for this little electron cloud model. That's ok, my cartoon was actually a bit of a snoozer.

Thing 5 - my web page

2007-10-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

I think I got my web page linked to my blog. My web page is pretty crude right now, keeping it up to date will obviously be an ongoing process.

Thing 3

2007-10-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

I set up my account on bloglines. One of the problems I am having is that my school email blocks a lot of things, so setting up a google account on my school email was problematic. So for some things I have switched to my home email account. Anyway I have my feeds on bloglines and they seem to come up readily when I hit feeds. So I am up and reading enmass, I also finally got my blogline account registered using my home address and can now respond to blogs I have read. Its ok reading this stuff, but I would rather talk to people in person.

hyperlinked in power point

2007-10-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, I was doing a power point and found these cool little flash shows on the internet that fit right in with my topic. I couldn't figure out how to import them, but I was able to create a hyperlink so I can go to the website during my powerpoint. It is a little slow getting to the website, but it is pretty cool once it gets there. I was proud of myself for using the "help" section and actually getting my hyperlink to work. Yahoo!!!!

Doing Thing 4 in the Rondo N'hood

2007-09-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

Stopped by the Rondo Community Outreach Library to do Thing 4. The north east corner is a wonderful spot with easy chairs a fireplace, some table and electrical outlets so you can plug in your laptop and cruise the internet from the library. On the door on the way in the sign says "Free English Classes for Adults". This library has a whole computer lab and there are usually people waiting on the side walk for it to open. At the computers there were young people helping some elders negotiate the internet. This is a wonderful place where people from all over the world come to learn. The man at the table behind me is using headphones to listen to information on a Khmer web site.
While I was on line here I went to the More for 4 and began to catalog my home library on line. I want to show this feature to my wife, I think it will be a great way for here to catalog her library.
Signing out from the Rondo N'hood.

Week 2, but no new "thing"

2007-09-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Used my equipment last week in class. Nothing spectacular but did some notes using Keynote and powerpoint. I teach in two different classrooms and moving equipment from room to room sucks. Both are also science rooms with large teacher demonstration benches at the front of the classroom. If I place the LCD projector at the far edge of the bench I get an image on the screen that is rather small. But, on the other side of the lab bench are desks and in the other room tables and students packed into the small classroom space, so it didn't seems possible to put the LCD and computer on a cart out in the midst of the students (tried it and it just wouldn't work). So there is the hang it from the ceiling option, but then I can only use it in one room. Also I am not sure my dongle is long enough to go from the ceiling down to the computer. Guess I would need a dongle extender (will I find one of those in my spamjam?) Any ideas? How have you set up your equipment in your space??

Here is an avitar Thing 2

2007-09-16T18:45:00.001-07:00

I kept trying and trying to get this stupid avitar thing to work. Finally out of frustration I asked my son to look at it, as I took him through the steps I finally got to the step where I was stuck. The upload image tab wouldn't lite up and work. Then he says, oh, you need to check the accept the terms box which was to the right of the tab, and bam it worked. What I had struggled for well over and hour with and couldn't get to work he figured out in about two minutes. I'm definitely an immigrant.

Tecnology Standards, Thing 1

2007-09-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

Reading the 9-12 research standard reminded me of the old science "inquiry" grad standard. We used to have students learn to do research. Luckily we didn't give up on that when the grad standards went away, and we still teach the research process. The new standard is infused with technology which moves it into the 21st Century. I'm excited because this project will help me move my student's research into the 21st Century.

Saturday

2007-09-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

A lot of information and now I'm trying to get things set up. It is going well, but it certainly takes up a lot of time. I think I am most concerned about the time needed to utilize the technology and information effectively.
John

Our First day

2007-09-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Got home and turned on my lap top here and got right in. In fact it was so easy I didn't realize it and I actually created a second blog site. OOps. Now I'm not sure which one to use.