Literacy Now

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

Testing. Assessment. Data-driven instruction. In the world of education, we are surrounded by mandates. It is unfortunate that in many cases, high-stakes testing drives what teachers are required to do in the classroom with their students. I’ve heard people say, “Testing is the name of the game in schools today.”

p: cwasteson via photopin cc

However, when you stop to think about it, one can’t help but wonder—are we getting the data that we need? Do we really know what our students are learning and where their gaps are?

Today’s students are savvy. They are masters of subterfuge. Because of the educational world in which they’ve been schooled, our learners have become adept at convincing us that they understand concepts and standards. Many of them have even become skilled enough to play “test.” How do we get to the heart of the matter and know what they know?

The Mystery
It is the practice in many schools and districts for teachers to be given common assessments to administer to their learners. As teachers, it is imperative that we really look at what those test are assessing. Is it truly assessing the standards that our students need to master? Are the questions equitable and free from personal interpretation? Do they accurately measure true growth? Chances are they are not.

Although we still administer those tests, we need to be sure that those tests are not the end of our data collection. As teachers, it is imperative that we take the time to look at each of our students. What does each learner need? How does each student learn? In what manner should students be able to demonstrate their learning? We need all of this data in order to provide the instructional support and challenge each student needs.

Overwhelm can quickly set in, whether we teach one class of students many different subjects, or we teach over one hundred different students each day. When you think about all of that information, it can be enough to send up the white flag of surrender. The good news is there are some very simple tools and strategies that can aid you in collecting all of these clues in order to solve the mystery of what each one of our student’s needs to learn.

Collecting Clues
Sometimes the simplest way to discover something about our students is just to ask them. When students understand that there is no judgment in the answers they give to your questions, but that you are just looking for better ways to educate them, you would be surprised at all they will tell you. This can be done in different ways. One way I gain insight into their thinking and perspective is just to give them open-ended prompts. Sometimes I ask my learners to explain what is going well in class and what changes in class would enhance their learning. Other times, I ask them to share their struggles.

Warning: Your students will be brutally honest. I have found that sometimes it is difficult to hear their evaluations. However, one thing that helps me maintain clarity is knowing that it is my job to facilitate their learning.

Sometimes I do these prompts as surveys on Google Drive. I set up a simple form for the students to complete as a starter or exit ticket. It takes very little class time yet yields great returns in pertinent information. All of the information is immediately saved in a spreadsheet for me to read at my convenience.

Instigating Investigation
Once we learn of students’ needs and help them set personal goals, we need to do formative checks along their learning journey. All of us are pressed for time in the classroom. These checks can be quick and simple, providing you with enough information to feed your instruction for the next day.

One of our favorite tools is TodaysMeet. This is a free online tool where you can open a chat room that lasts from hours to days to weeks to a year. No accounts are needed. If you have a guest speaker, conduct a demonstration, show a short video clip, or engage in a simulation, you need to know what your students are actually learning from that activity. Yes, those activities are enjoyable for everyone involved, but if they are taking valuable instructional time, they must also be relevant in moving students towards their learning goals.

Through TodaysMeet, every student has a voice as they discuss or backchannel, sharing their thoughts and ideas. As the teacher, you can follow the conversation in real time or go back later to review where there may be any misconceptions that need to be corrected. Because we have designed a supportive learning environment, students often correct one another’s misconceptions in the chat. It also provides students with a meaningful and authentic way to share and reflect upon their learning.

Another favorite tool of ours is Padlet, formerly called Wallwisher. I know that this tool may not be new to many educators, but it provides us with an opportunity to get quick and simple input from our students. Padlet is a digital wall where users can add posts of short bits of texts or embedded content. This is a fantastic way to have students do a diagnostic assessment of their understanding of a new standard. It can be revisited throughout a unit of study with students adding their new learning or questions they still have to the board.

I love that Padlet can also be embedded into our class wiki, blog, or website, giving the students and me an opportunity to easily access it from school, digital devices, or from home. Thanks to Padlet, I not only get important, easily-accessible data, there are no more Post-it notes falling off the chart, onto the floor, and sticking to the bottom of my shoes!

Another of our favorite tools for investigating each student’s depth of understanding is Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere enables users to actively engage in answering questions in different formats and provide real time results. The questions can be a poll, multiple choice, true-false or open-ended.  Responses can be given through cell phone texting or using online devices.

My learners love that they can use their devices to text answers. If your students don’t have devices at school, this can easily be done through classroom computers or Internet capable devices.  This is a great way to gather quick data on each of your students either at the beginning of class, in the middle of a lesson, or as an exit ticket.

We use the free version, which allows up to forty responses per poll. Since I teach multiple classes, I set up a different poll for each class. Creating a poll is very easy, so if you need to do a quick check to assess understanding, it will only take a few seconds.

Case Closed
As teachers, we know that for us to provide the best learning activities for our students, we must investigate for their strengths and weaknesses. Although this task can seem monstrous at times, by employing these few tools and practices, we’ll be on the road to solving the ongoing mystery of what our students know and what they need to know. Case closed.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com. 

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

With the adoption of Common Core, teachers have been inundated with the phrases like “career readiness” and “preparing students for their future.” Although these goals are lofty, they really are not new to the world of education. John Dewey stated, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”  These words still ring true today.

p: Stuck in Customs via photopin cc

What has changed is the world in which our students live. As teachers, it is our obligation to adapt to meet the needs of our digital age learners.

How do we do that when many of us were not educated in a time when technology was an embedded part of our everyday lives like it is for our students? Many teachers express to me feeling overwhelmed and fearful, not just by the sheer quantity of tools we have at our fingertips, but in knowing how to educate our students in a way that is effective and safe.

Where do we begin?

When tackling those trepidations, like with any other teaching practice, I believe it is crucial to begin with setting the foundation upon which all other digital practices will rest. That first step to preparing our students for the digital world is establishing safe practices that become lifelong habits for our students, inside and outside of the classroom walls. The fact is that students are already a part of a global, digital community. Our responsibility is to help them develop these habits within the safety and guidance of our classrooms.

When teachers mention to me the challenges that they face with students making wise and safe choices online, I always inquire about the basic groundwork that was laid before the students every touched a device. No educator would expect their student to build a skyscraper without first giving them the knowledge and skills to use the basic tools. We cannot do that with our digital tools either. They must learn how to safely use them before embarking on their learning journey supported with these digital tools.

Let’s Begin

I spend the first couple of weeks laying this foundation for my students. There are several practices that I would like to share with you, that I hope will enhance the conversations you are having with your students at the beginning of this new school year.

Student survey: On the first day of school my students take an interest survey where I can glean all types of information about them as learners and as overall individuals. One part of the survey asks them about their use of online tools, their devices, their perceptions, and their knowledge of digital safety. This gives me an inside peek into what they already know and gives be a jumping off point when we begin our conversation.

A student interest survey can easily been done on paper or through a digital tool. I use Google Forms (in Google Drive), as it is a very user-friendly way to create a survey that collects the data into a spreadsheet for the user. To begin, one only needs to have a Google account. Your account does not even need to be a Gmail account; you can use an existing email account.

Creating the survey only takes a few minutes to design and a few minutes for the students to complete, yet I get a wealth of knowledge on my students. (I also have a parent survey that the parents take the first week of school where I can gather crucial information from them regarding any of their trepidations and their input on digital practices at home and online expectations at school.)

Conversations: After knowing what my students’ (and their parents) level of knowledge is on digital practices, then we begin the conversation. I start with a strategy called a Brain Drain. This is an activity where students each have a sticky note. They are given three minutes to write down everything that they know on a topic (in this case, safe digital practices). Then after three minutes, the students do a turn and talk with a partner for three minutes sharing their ideas. After those three minutes conclude, the pairs share their ideas with the entire class and stick their ideas on our Brain Drain board.

This sharing time is where many topics about cyberbullying, netiquette, digital safety, and effective practices emerge. Some students have never thought about the ramifications of a Facebook post, Twitter tweet, or blog comment made in anger or frustration. Other students have had discussions about safety before. By pulling together our collective set of knowledge, the students get to explore the choices they have made and evaluate how they could have done better in the past.

My role in these conversations is one of moderator. I probe for clarification or justification of the statements that they make in order to guide students into thinking beyond the “what” they are saying into the “why” and “how.” This makes the conversation personal for the students. Does this take time? Absolutely! However, these conversations pay large dividends in the future because this topic rarely has to be revisited because the foundation has been firmly grounded.

Role play: Before architects build a building, they have plenty of time to practice and refine their skills with the guidance and support of mentors. We need to do the same for our students. Now that they have an understanding of basic practices that will enhance and support their learning, they need time to practice. I introduce examples of previous blogs, tweets, or projects that other students have created. As small groups they analyze these examples and then write a paper version of a blog post or tweet in response to the choices that the student made. By giving them opportunity to objectively look at posts, whether the writer made wise choices or not, instills in students the importance of looking at it from an audience’s point of view. Could their words be misinterpreted?  Would someone be offended by what was said or feel intimidated? Does that post support the learning of the author and the audience? Would that post improve someone else’s life in a positive way?

Giving students the ability to synthesize what we have discussed, then analyze and evaluate other’s work helps them to see the power of their choices.

Expectations: After the conversations and the role-playing, students work together to form our class expectations for online behavior. Just like the conversations, it is important that students have the opportunity to make their practices their own. Our role is one of facilitator to ensure that the students think about every aspect of online behavior, from safety practices to learning expectations. Because this is the students’ list, they have ownership of it. They designed it. Therefore, they hold everyone in our online community to those standards. If a student makes a poor choice, their peers take the time to kindly remind them to make some corrections.

Before I began allowing students to set these expectations, I spent much of my time “policing” and redirecting their choices.  However, since I have been given students the power to set their own expectations, I do not have to do any “policing” or enforcing. The students do that, leaving me the important task of focusing on their individual learning.

So although tackling preparing our students for their lives is not a new concept, the reality is that their lives are different than the ones that many of us have had. But by beginning with a strong foundation in digital practices with our guidance and support, our students will be building skyscrapers before we know it.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

Last week marked the maiden voyage of the #IRAchat. Teachers from all areas of education and from diverse geographic locations joined in to discuss digital writing and publishing in the classroom. It was a fun-filled, fast-paced hour of learning connecting and sharing.

As we concluded, I had several thoughts I took away from this experience that I would like to share with you.

Writing is writing whether a student is using a technology tool or paper and pencil.

The writing process does not change just because the tool does. Some students may enjoy writing in a journal with colored pencils, using a combination of words, poetry, and images, while others thrive on creating an interactive book on iBooks Author.

Maybe @seymouresimon tweeted it best: “#IRAchat Some things [are] so obvious, it’s embarrassing saying them. Perhaps we say them anyway: Printed vs. eBooks=who cares? Reading= Yippee.” I think the same applies to writing, no matter the medium. We want our students to become reflective, intentional writers who find a way to share their voices with their global audience across different writing genres. Whether they do that digitally or with more traditional methods does not matter. It’s the depth of the learning that does.

Students need to have choice when deciding how to publish…but we need to remember that technology is just a tool.

There are so many options, and new ones are being created every day. It’s easy to lose sight of what is important: our students’ learning. I think there is a real danger for us as educators to fixate on all the cool tools and then make the tool fit the learning needs of our students. It should be the other way around. We learn our students, and then we look for a tool that fits their needs as writers.

I often hear teachers speak about technology as a mode of motivation to “trick” kids into writing. If we approach writing and publishing in that manner, we are setting our kids up for failure. The problem with thinking that technology tools will motivate our students to write is faulty. I call it the “Christmas Morning Syndrome.” Everything is bright, shiny and new when it first arrives, but after time passes, that new “Christmas toy” is broken, lost, or sitting in some closet gathering dust, leaving the recipient no better off than when it arrived. By focusing on how a tool can meet a specific learning need, we are putting the focus on the student and his/her growth as a writer regardless of the tool that is selected.

As mentioned previously, the students in our classrooms are diverse. No two are alike. Today’s students can be masters and commanders of their learning 24/7 with the devices in the palm of their hands. By having students focus on the writing first, then guiding them in selecting a tool that will amplify their voice to their audience, we are giving them that control in their learning journey—regardless of how they publish.

Amazing things are happening in classrooms all around the world.

Sometimes, I think we get caught up in all the negative publicity surrounding education and we begin to believe the press. As teachers, so often we are behind our classroom doors, fighting the good fight with our students. With our guidance, students are growing tremendously, not only as writers, but also as individuals.

And we are not alone. I know there are success stories out there; all of you graciously shared them during the chat. It was inspirational. As teachers, it is important that we open up those classroom doors and share our success stories. Every educator is in a different place in his or her professional learning journey. We have more stories than the media could handle. Because we live in a digital world, it is now easier than ever to write and share our students’ stories through tools like Twitter, blogs, online communities, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

You never know how much your story, no matter how small you feel it may be, will impact someone else. Give them encouragement. Be a model of a life-long writing to your students by sharing your voice with the educational community. Be the voice that inspires others to try new things with their students. (See Living Out Loud.)

We all have writing goals for our students, but we need to remember that the students should drive where their course takes them.

When the last question was asked in the chat last night, I was overwhelmed with ideas for answers. There are so many goals that I want for my students to reach during the next school year, while there are other practices or projects (Global Read Aloud, blogging, ePortfolios) that I would like to tweak in a different way. As I (quickly) pondered this question, the first response was that I wanted for my students to publish books and fill our classroom library and our digital library with their published books. This idea came from a keynote speech from Jane McGonigal who shared that 82% of Americans think that someday they will write a book. My thoughts quickly shifted as I realized that although that may be a draw for many of my students, it will not appeal to some of them.

Our goals are great. We all need them. However, I was reminded as I watched the answers coming through the chat, that although we do need a plan, our plans need to be flexible to meet the needs of our students. We will have students who are (initially) resistant to reading and writing. But, once we get to know them, their interests, their strengths, and their challenges, we will be able to guide them towards writing and publishing options that appeal to them. Where writing a book may cause complete shutdown for one student, writing a script and publishing a movie may send his/her motivation and enthusiasm through the roof.

This realization, and all of your wonderful comments, reminded me that the place we really need to begin is with our students. Once we know our students, then we can find the strategies and tools that will help us to propel them into the wonderful world of writing, giving them a voice in this crazy world of ours.

These were some of the insights that I gained from #IRAchat. I would love to hear your “take-aways.” If you weren’t able to join in the live chat, be sure to check out the Storify recap, and then add your thoughts in a comment here.

Best wishes on guiding your students into amazing writing and publishing activities in this next school year.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

Recently, I’ve been engaged in several professional conversations about the role of a teacher in today’s world. As the debate rages on, I couldn’t help but wonder: If we, as educators, are resistant to change, are we really looking towards meeting the needs of our digital age learners? Are we strictly content disseminators? Do our students need us for that anymore?

Where do we fit into the picture?

As teachers it is our job to help every child grow and move along the learning continuum, but are we doing that if everything that we teach them could have been answered or found easily with a simple Google search? Is that really educating students? Is it about giving them simple facts they all could have found using the devices they have in the palms of their hands?

Of course not! Our jobs are to teach these students how to find the relevance in their education and apply it to other aspects of their lives. Today’s students are looking for meaningful ways to use what they are learning in our classrooms to create something new to share with one another or to apply it to solve a real, authentic problem.

Today’s students expect more than many of us received in our education. However, with these changes comes a new set of challenges. We now have an overwhelming amount of content to absorb and process before learners begin synthesizing, evaluating, and critically thinking about publishing something new for their audience. The vast quantity can easily become unmanageable and chaotic for our students, causing them to lose focus on their objective. How can we help our students curate and organize their content in a meaningful way?

Here are three ways that my students and I have found to curate information that assists students in gathering their content before they begin walking down the publishing path.

Wikispaces. Wikispaces, now called Wikispaces Classroom, was the very first collaborative tool that my students and I began using. I loved it instantly because multiple users from different locations could add, edit, and revise each page. If you have ever used a word processing document, using Wikispaces is intuitive. With Wikispaces, in addition to adding text, you can upload all kinds of files: audio, video, URL links, images, Word Documents, PowerPoint, and spreadsheets. Also, you have the ability to embed projects from other sites such as Voki, Voice Thread, Padlet, ToonTastic, Glogster, Google maps…the list can go on and on. Whatever content you or your students locate online can be connected and housed within Wikispaces.

One of the exciting parts of Wikispaces is that they are always listening and changing to meet the needs to today’s teachers and students. Wikispaces has added an easily manageable private social network to their pages where you and your students can communicate about the content being added to the wiki. It stretches the classroom time beyond school hours and gives students the opportunity to work collaboratively, leaving one another notes or comments upon their work. As the teacher, you have the ability to monitor complete history of student discussion, writing, and file uploads, giving you the ability to formatively assess their learning.

Through Wikispaces, students receive the support that they need to curate relevant, meaningful content for their publishing and adds the authentic audience and social aspect that today’s learner craves.

LiveBinders. I know that I have written about LiveBinders previously, but this is a tool that easily helps students (especially older students) manage the digital content that they encounter while building background knowledge. Because students are familiar with the organization of binders with tabs, this is a format that will be familiar to them. LiveBinders easily formats and organizes web pages, PDFs, videos and images all in one place. Instead of students running around all over the Internet, everything is housed right there in the binder ready for them to analyze and synthesize into their writing and publishing. LiveBinders also offers a collaborative aspect as binders can be shared and built upon by more than one user, which is great for students working together in group projects. In addition to being an online tool, LiveBinders is offered as a free app giving you and your students more flexibility in curating content.

EdCanvas. EdCanvas is the relatively new kid on the block when it comes to content curation, but it offers a lot of options that make one sit up and take notice. Once signed up, a user builds canvases of Google, Flickr, Educreations, DropBox, YouTube, Google Drive, URL bookmarks, and much, much more. You can even upload slideshows, PDFs, media, and audio files. All of these are all done within the dashboard of EdCanvas. Once an item is located within the dashboard, you can drag and drop it into the canvas. As a teacher, you can monitor the amount of time students spent on different resources within the canvas and see student’s comments or requests for help.

As an additional note, a couple of weeks ago, I was using EdCanvas with my students and was having some technical difficulty. I tweeted about this glitch and within a couple of minutes, EdCanvas began helping me troubleshoot and solve the problem. They are hands down the best tech support that I have ever had. They are very dedicated to providing teachers and students with a quality tool while continuing to update and adapt to meet the needs of today’s digital learner.

There are a multitude of uses for these curation tools across content areas and grade levels. I love that these tools are flexible for the students or the teacher to use, from school, home, or around the world. I have used each of these tools to curate content that I wanted to give every student access. But, we also have used all of these tools to curate a collection of each student’s work on one topic, such as their Innovation Day projects that they published on Wikispaces at the Twitter request of a class in Canada. With these three tools, students, parents, and our global peers have easy access to our writing and publishing.

So as the debate continues about the role of teachers, one thing that does not change is our privilege of working with students and guiding each one towards reaching their highest potential. Today’s world is ever changing; thankfully, we live in a time where, with technology, we can rise to challenge and provide our students with the best learning opportunities possible.

Join @JulieDRamsay & @IRAToday for a Twitter chat on "Writing in the Digital Classroom."  The chat will take place on July 18th at 8pm EST. Use #IRAchat to join the conversation!

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

p: infoxchange_australia via photopin cc

As we approach the end to another academic school year, many people (not in the educational field) keep asking me if I'm counting down the days or looking forward to having a couple of months off. I'm sure other educators hear similar questions and I have to say that those questions frustrate me a bit. I feel like they imply that I can't wait to get out of the classroom and away from my students, putting us in the stereotypical school situation...which we are not.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy being with my students. We have fun in our classroom together where we all learn together every single day. It's bittersweet for all of us when they pass on to the next grade because our tight-knit learning community is breaking up as they move forward to the next step in their learning journey. I'm proud of them and I know that they are more than ready for the next grade, but I also know that I will miss them.

Teaching is a constant journey that causes us to reflect throughout the year on what went well and what we want to change for the next group of learners headed our way. With that in mind, I am always searching for new resources, tools and insight on what will reach my individual learners best wherever they are in their learning journey. My summer fills up fast with conferences, un-conferences, and workshops.

I know that funding is tight (or nonexistent) in many of our systems. That leaves us with the responsibility to either pay out of pocket to attend conferences and professional learning events or go without. But are those our only options? In today’s digital world, is it possible to continue our professional growth without shelling out our hard earned dollars?

The answer is a resounding “YES!” I thought I would share a few ideas on how you can harness the power of today’s technology resources to help you get the professional learning for which you are searching all for the low, low price of…FREE!

Let’s Discuss!

No matter what your interest or certification, there is now a host of learning communities in which you can engage in conversations. In addition to blogs written in formats such as IRA’s Engage, just about any professional organization has an online community where you can register a user name and begin posting ideas, questions, strategies, or tools.

These discussion boards, such as this one from Thinkfinity, become asynchronous conversations where practicing classroom teachers can all share their experience to benefit everyone within the learning community. What I love about these message boards is that I am getting relevant information from teachers who have actually used these tools, strategies, and lessons plans with actual students.

Tweet Away!

Another way to connect and grow professionally is through Twitter. I know that many people have written Twitter off as a waste of time. After all, who wants to know what celebrity is having trouble deciding which latte to get this morning?

However, Twitter is as useful as you make it. If you want to professionally grow in a certain area, look for other educators who are experts in that area. Twitter is all about the connections and relationships you build with other tweeters. Don’t expect to sign on and post a question and immediately get an answer. Other educators need to ”know you.” Send a tweet introducing yourself and join in the conversations. If you are unsure of where to begin, take a look at this list of educators.

Also, many people are not aware that there are real-time tweet chats on just about every subject that would interest an educator. These are informal learning times where a topic has been selected and educators chime in with their resources, lessons, ideas, and strategies within that particular hour. Here is a list of educational Twitter chats to get you started. Tweet chats are fast paced. You wouldn’t believe how fast an hour long chat will fly by or how many practical ideas and resources you will gain.

Also, most conferences now have Twitter hashtags, like #IRA2013, where you can follow all of the ideas, insights, and resources shared by the presenters and attendees.

Getting a Little More Formal

Do you enjoy learning in a more formal manner? Just like with blogs and discussion boards, most organizations offer webinars of live or recorded sessions. One of my favorites is Classroom 2.0 Live. They have at least one live webinar a week complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing, and sometimes even video. These webinars are led by today’s leading educators and you can learn from them, ask questions, and get a multitude of ideas all from the comfort of your home or local coffee house.

The great thing is they archive all of their other webinars and you can gain access to for free. Want to learn about LiveBinders, educational apps, or blogging? They have a webinar for that. Want to learn from your favorite authors? They have webinars for that, as well. One great perk is that after you view one of their webinars, recorded or real-time, you get a link to print out a certificate for professional development hours.

Taking the Time You Need

During the summer, I do thoroughly enjoy having some time where I don't have to set my alarm clock and I can meet friends for lunch. Also, I do (like many of you) cram a lot of professional learning into those two months off because I'll have more flexibility to read and participate in professional learning throughout the summer months.

My husband once laughed and told someone that real teachers don't get time off. They work just as hard, if not harder, during the summer as they do during the school year. The only difference is that we aren't in classroom with our students. We're out there learning to become the best teacher we can be for our next group of students.

So this summer, as I strive to learn as much as possible from all of you, I hope that we can connect and learn together. Because learning together (like in many of our classrooms) is what is going to impact our students most. Providing them with as many opportunities to create, collaborate and work together in authentic learning activities while supporting their work with relevant tools is really what it's all about.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.