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IN 1951 WE STARTED TO BELIEVE
Originally a 5-minute CBS radio program hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow, “This I Believe” evolved into a more lengthy cultural essay broadcast where individuals from all walks of life stressed their individual beliefs and motivation in life and they would read them on the air. The show was recently revived in 2005 by Jay Allison on National Public Radio. Click here to listen to his original 1951 introduction to “This I Believe.”

DO YOUR STUDENTS BELIEVE?
As a teacher, you can imagine how powerful it can be to introduce a concept like this to your students in an effort to enrich their writing skills and to get them thinking about their fundamental beliefs and perhaps where they got those beliefs and values. Getting students to explore their beliefs is a huge task in itself, and we already know how hard it is to encourage students to think creatively about their writing. Unfortunately, some of the unintended consequences of our state’s standardized writing tests is that students have learned to write to the formula but have lost the ability to write creatively and from the heart. “This I Believe” essays not only encourage that, they demand it.

ANOTHER AWESOME RESOURCE FOR YOUR P.L.N.
For teachers interested in using “This I Believe” in the classroom, they have a great website whose tagline is, A Public Dialogue About Belief – One Essay At a Time. I like that! You’ll find some awesome lesson plans and sharing resources available there. I particularly like the link where you can click to learn how others are using This I Believe in the curriculum. You can search the database by state, level, discipline, etc. I do wish they included contact information for the teachers though. I would like to have the ability to contact the teacher to follow up with questions about his or her implementation of the lesson if I needed clarification on something.

TAG! YOU’RE IT!
This all came to be today because Linda has tagged me to continue on with our expressions of belief. She was tagged by Diane, who was tagged by Lisa, who was tagged by others but I believe it all started with Barry Bachenheimer. So, although I tend not to pay much attention to these tag games or memes, I thought I’d play along on this one and take a break from blogging about blogging.

This I Believe; by Lee K.

• I believe it is ok not to grade everything and it is ok to create a safe environment for students to explore and try and even change their answers and learn! Although assessment has run amok in our system and we do more assessing than we do teaching, I believe teachers *sometimes* do things that make matters worse. I believe teachers can avoid becoming the “Obsessive Assessor.” Try to look at practice and homework as just that, practice… try to keep the big picture in mind. Does everything really need to get a grade? Remember when you got your driver’s license? When you went for your test, if you passed, you passed, right? What if the evaluator said, “Well, you passed today, but… 2 weeks ago, you hit a cone during practice and 3 weeks ago you didn’t show up for practice! So, you’ll have to take the test again.”
• I believe it is the communication to students and their parents that makes life less stressful. I believe that ALL emails and phone calls deserve a response. Hostility from parents and coworkers can be reduces enormously if communication is not only established early on but is ongoing.
• I believe technology is not a content area. There are separate standards for technology and I know it’s a step farther than we’ve been in years and we are thrilled to take any recognition possible. BUT, ultimately, just as there are no standards for using textbooks and writing instruments, there need not be standards for technology. There should be seamless integration in the classroom. I do believe we will get there. Soon.
• I believe that teachers must keep in mind that when they put aside real learning in lieu of standardized testing prep (1 week, ok!, but 3 months in advance?), they lose credibility with their students and their parents. This stuff makes us all look bad! I believe all learning is prep for standardized testing. (Said to her students by a teacher in a classroom in January, “We will not be doing anything else besides FCAT practice until FCAT is over.” ~ testing in March)
• I believe that the fish rots from the head down. In order to understand what our students need, we need to start with our students. Not with the talking heads at the top and their political agendas.
• I believe that students must be taught to use, not abuse. If you want someone to lose weight, you don’t put a lock on the refrigerator door. However, that is akin to what we do with our Internet policies. ’nuff said there.
• I believe that teachers should remember that their classrooms come with doors. Although teachers may be forced to listen to a variety of pedagogical speeches from principals and others, ultimately they can close the door and still smile at their students and make their day!

The idea of a meme is that you tag other bloggers to respond on their blogs and link back here.

Officially tagged here:
I will do this, the rule-follower that I am. But, there are a few others I’d like to hear from as well. Some of these people are non-bloggers (Sue!) and some have blogs, but maybe I didn’t tag them here. So, if you are reading this, I hope you will comment with your beliefs.

• IMCguy
• Sarah’s Musings
• Tech Thoughts by Jen
• Frank’s Faces of Web 2.0
• EdTechTrainer
  

This I Believe, Inc., National Public Radio and Atlantic Public Media

A little while back, I blogged about some cool just-in-time learning initiatives going on in my district. Headed by (”the other”) Lee and Kim, they’ve taken our little TV station in our big school district and created a quite popular 30 min. tech tv show called The PalmBreeze Cafe.

YouTube Becomes MeTube
My post here, acknowledges the national recognition they (finally) received and this post reflects on when I appeared on the show to do a segment on a Web 2.0 application called Airset. Well, the segment has aired and it has been posted on the PalmBreezeCAFE YouTube Channel. I have it here for you to see. (Both are at the end of this post, just hang on a second.) I have to first preface it by saying that this all is REALLY out of my comfort zone. So, in the name of professional and personal growth, I thought I’d give you a little glimpse into the neurotic Me. So, those of you who were hooked in by the title of this post and thought it was going to be something else… sorry. But while you are here, read on and don’t forget to comment.

Will The Real Me Please Stand Up?
For the most part, I’m pretty transparent. As a matter of fact, I tend to reveal more about myself than I probably should. Keeping my mouth shut has never been one of my strongest assets. But what most people don’t seem to get until they REALLY know me is that I can be terribly insecure. And yet, I’ve been told that I appear to be SO confident. Funny how that works. Those of you who know me in real life, know how insecure I really am, er… used to be. I’ve worked hard to gain confidence and I think, and many people around me believe, that I’ve come a long way. But, that sneaky little bugger creeps back into my psyche every now and then.

I’m Gonna Be Sick!
Even 5 years ago, just thinking about speaking publicly would cause me to run for the Pepto Bismol! So, one of my personal goals over the last few years has been to get over it! I’ve engaged some speaking strategies and presentation preparations strategies that I think have really worked for me (subject for another post, perhaps). At this point, I would not say I’m completely cured of the nerves, but I am much more comfortable and now I even seek out these speaking opportunities myself. As a matter of fact, I was just accepted to give a presentation at the Innovative Learning Conference in October.

Shameless Self Promotion
So, when I try to promote myself on Twitter that I’m appearing on our Palm Breeze CAFE and ask my peeps to join me and watch, and when I post these videos here for you to watch, what I’m really doing is pushing myself one step further in my goals to put myself out there. I am waiting to see that the world is not going to end because I’m not totally relaxed in this video and because my hair needs brushing or because I wanted to talk and had much to say BUT for some reason I didn’t say a word. I also see that I need to stop bobbing my head up and down, up and down! What is that anyway? Ok, enough….I’ll obsess more about this later.

Can you say V U L N E R A B L E ?
It occurred to me today that in my professional life, every 3 years, I’ve either changed schools, grade levels or moved to an administrative position. Now it’s been 3 years and I’ve found myself focusing on putting myself “out there” with blogging, attending and being much more visible at conferences, being a part of focus groups, state and national organizations and presenting. You know those dreams where you are presenting in front of a huge audience and you’re naked? Well, the frequency of those dreams has increased for me quite a bit.

Enough About Me… What About You?
What do you do to push yourself out of your comfort zone? Or perhaps you don’t, and you are happy staying there. What are your thoughts on this?

Ok, Back To Me…
Thanks for being a part of my personal growth! ~Lee

Airset Part 1

Airset Part 2

Comments on the Comments
I’ve been in education for nearly 25 years and I’ve always been one who’s up for the next challenge. Taking on the world of blogging has been an exciting new world for me. As a relatively new blogger, I’m finding that the writing and etiquette of blogging is quite different than most that we deal with away from the keyboard.

When I first set out to write the previous post, I really just wanted to know what makes people tick when it comes to commenting. I mean, I could tell people were passing through here, yet not too many were leaving comments. What is it about a post that stimulates readers to comment? The resulting comments were so enlightening that I thought I would take the time to write a follow-up post to summarize. I think for all of us who write blogs and for all of us who read blogs, we can learn a thing or two here.

The more I get into the social networking scene, the more I find myself virtually-hanging with bloggers. They are not all education bloggers, some are social media bloggers, news bloggers, gadget bloggers, and then some. But just the same, we are bloggers.

So, I’ve been reading a lot of blogs as you can see from my blog roll – down there to the bottom left. I also like to not only read the big-name bloggers, but I also feel strongly about promoting those who are just getting started and are trying to get into the conversations themselves (like me).

What Makes Posts Get Comments?
What I find most interesting though, as I read blogs, is that the posts that generate the most comments are not usually the posts you would expect! Sometimes, the most thoughtful and insightful posts, sometimes generate a comment or two or maybe even none! Then again, silly posts or random posts can generate lots of comments. There’s sometimes no way to tell.

What’s Your Take?
I’d like to try to take a pulse on this.

If you are a blogger, I invite you to comment here and:

* Link to the post on your blog that generated the most comments
* Explain why you think that post got the most comments
* And if you have time, also link to the post whose comments left you most disappointed and indicate why.

My last post praised my coworkers for the awesome work they do on our Palm Breeze CAFE professional development show. I also mentioned how I had the opportunity to sit in and present a special segment. As part of its format, the show plays on a local cable TV station on one day and it also runs on a special, interactive web-based show on another day. My day has come! Participants log in to the Adobe Connect session, using the link provided, as GUEST (using a real name and location is a really good thing) and can interact with the host (for the “Airset” segment, I’ll be the host). I have not done this before, so if you choose to join us, and I hope you will, I know you’ll be forgiving of my inexperience in this forum. This is definitely one of the items that have been out of my comfort zone and I’ve listed under “Avoid At All Cost!” I’ve wanted to do this, though, so I’ve pushed myself (with a lot of help from Lee Keller and Kim Cavanaugh ~ the regular hosts of the awesome show). I’m glad I’ve done it and mistakes and all, I’ll do it again! Here’s the info:

NEXT SHOW !
AirSet – A FREE Collaborative Tool : While free is always one of our favorite prices, you still have to have something of quality. Sometimes you want something that is unlike anything else out there ans has really cool features. Well, AirSet fits the bill as a powerfull collaborative tool that lets you work with multiple groups on projects or just communicate within a group. Our special guest is Lee Kolbert, a leader in educational technology and someone that finds the neatest things online.

At 3:00pm EST on 4/23, just click the AIRSET link below. See you there!

Kim Cavanaugh (co-worker of mine) recently blogged about the Palm Breeze Cafe project and how it has been (finally) recognized in a major educational journal. T.H.E. Journal has run an article that discusses the live component of their live, online and interactive staff development endeavor.

Lights, Camera, Professional Development discusses how we take shoot videos on software applications and educational technology news and then use that video via our Acrobat Connect Professional server to conduct live professional development with our teachers every Wednesday afternoon.

Our production sequence is fairly simple, but the power of these online tools allow us to extend the reach of our work far beyond broadcasting only on television. Once these shows are recorded we (and by “we”, I mean my partner Lee Keller and the crew at our school district’s TV production facility) convert the video to Flash Video so we can use it in our live meetings as well as post it onto YouTube for even wider viewing. As of this morning there are 91 (91!) videos posted at the Palm Breeze Cafe channel on YouTube for your viewing pleasure, covering software ranging from Adobe Flash to Google Earth to more educationally oriented products such as BrainPOP and netTrekker di.

I urge you to check out their YouTube channel and save it as a favorite. It’s pretty impressive.

I recently had the opportunity to sit in as a guest on their show and was very impressed on how professionally it was all run. I was terribly nervous and Kim and Lee and the crew were all so supportive and warm that once we got started, they really couldn’t shut me up. That particular show has me discussing how to use Airset to make group management more streamlined. Once that show airs, I will blog with the links. I’ve agreed to come back and do another segment or two on some hot topics, some cool Web 2.0 tools and maybe even do a regular segment on easy Web 2.0 tools that most teachers, in our district, may not be aware of. Any ideas?

Congratulations to Kim and Lee for not only the well-deserved recognition, but for also pushing the envelope and once again “doing good stuff for kids.”

Below is one of the shows from Palm Breeze CAFE. This particular show is the one where Kim and Lee showcase our technology conference as the date was approaching.

I’ve used Flickr for a few years now. I love how I can send my pics directly from my cellphone via MMS. I also use it as my backup for my photos. My parents, who live in Ocala, FL (4 hrs from here) visit my Flickr site and can see the pics of their grandkids and whatever else I decide to post.

Although my cellphone takes pretty good video (when I hold my hand still and the lighting is ok) I rarely use that function of my cellphone, mainly because of the effort it takes to connect via Bluetooth to my Mac and transfer the file (I’m so lazy, I know). Besides, the format is in 3gp and in order to share the file, I then have to convert it and send it to my parents, who then have to figure out how to open the file and then I’m doing tech support. Let’s just say that it’s easier to drive 4 hours to where they live and re-enact the moment for them.

Now, Flickr has added support for video. They are not trying to compete with YouTube and I commend them for that. 90 seconds is all that’s permitted and you have to be a Pro-member to use this feature. For me, this is not going to be my site for posting podcasts or hosting edited videos with titles, transitions, effects, etc. It’s just going to be a “captured the moment” and “here it is” sharing bucket.

So when Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) sent out a tweet that Flickr added video support, I ran into my dining room with my cellphone and shot this video (good thing I was dressed!), uploaded it to Flickr via MMS and here it is. Hear Stevie Wonder singing… Isn’t she lovely….

Is Flickr Video something you see yourself using? Do you use another photo/video sharing site? If so, which one and how do you use it?

There’s an Open PD going on at Mobile Technology in TAFE where the facilitators have requested educators in the blogging community to participate. Open PD session is from 3-4 pm US Eastern Time Zone on Wednesday April 9. They welcome anyone to participate by either commenting or using Ustream and Skype (here is the link so you can join the session) to encourage global participation. Here’s what they are asking:

“I like to stress that the most important aspect of blogging, and where the true learning happens, is in the conversations. So I’m hoping you will write a comment on this post or write your post (which links to this post) so I can show them how blogging conversations work.

So can you please tell us about:

• Where you blog and how long you have been blogging for?
• Why you blog? How does it benefit you or your work?
• How blogging has helped your students and how long have you been blogging with students (if applicable)
• Why you feel blogging is important
• What are the 3 most important tips you would share with a new blogger?”

My comments included the thoughts below:

I’ve been blogging since 2005 and my blog, although always related to educational technology, has taken on different tones over the years. Sometimes I even post items of a more personal nature (not terribly personal, just family related perhaps). I blog for a few reasons. First, because I love to write. Writing allows me to sort through the thoughts that run wildly through my head. I also blog because I read other people’s blogs and it gives me a chance to respond, beyond commenting, and provide my own vision to the conversation. Sometimes, depending on the application the bloggers use, you can or can not provide links in your comments. When I blog, I can enhance my portion of the discussion with images and links, further clarifying my points and providing my readers and opportunity to explore further. This takes me to my readers. I don’t get many comments, which at first caused me to think that nobody was “listening.” I learned that there are many people who “lurk” but don’t comment for many reasons. My experience has taught me that it is ok to lurk and often I also am a lurker.

What I love about the blogging is exactly what you are experiencing right now. It’s a learning experience where I learn from others and others (hopefully learn from me). There’s a conversation that can continue and loop around.

I encourage you to take a ride over there and post your comments:
Share Your Blogging Experience Here

I like to keep up on the news, but the way I do it varies. Most of the time, it’s from the blare of the TV in the other room or the radio. I know that’s like cheating. It’s like the Cliff’s Notes of news. But when I have more time, I will read some news sites on the Internet, listen to podcasts and read the newspaper, that is the paper-newspaper. You know, the one that leaves ink on your fingers. My favorite though, is to read the Sunday, New York Times (the paper version).
Well, this won’t exactly leave ink on your fingers but, the New York Times now offers another way to read the news. They now offer Geo-coded news. Via Google Earth, you can read your news based on geography. When you launch Google Earth, make you sure you have Geographic Web turned on. I would recommend also turning off all of the other folders and layers. Then just click on one of the NY Times placemarks. And, according to the Google LatLong Blog, the layer is updated every 15 minutes. I think this is pretty cool and worthy of a look.

On another note, I find it interesting to learn how others get their news. Since it is so easy to avoid the ink, I often wonder how many people still turn the pages. I asked this question on the Ask 500 People website and the responses came in. It was fun to receive the responses, though not sure quite how scientific the “survey” actually is. If you click through this link, you can see the responses by country (click the results tab at the bottom) and if people left comments you can see those as well.

I’d like to hear from you. How do you get your news?