Virtually Foolproof

My First Musical Memory

criscrissman — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 07:47:14 +0000

criscrissman — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 06:12:15 +0000

A shoe story …. not that shoe story….

Posted onFebruary 13, 2013|1 Comment

Bring to you live from Chapel Hill, here is Wesley….. and the Shoe story

https://soundcloud.com/joannelaoshi/audio-story-part-1-of-2

not-so-happy shoe.. worn-out… replaced…

reflecting on the Shoe Story process…

Interviewer: Vanessa (genuinely interested in the subject)

Interviewee: Wesley (a 3rd year Media Studies student)

Recording device: iphone5

Tech-tools used:

Making Bold Choices Wisely

criscrissman — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:28:24 +0000

Making Bold Choices Wisely

Posted on November 1, 2012

So you’d think in this day and age when TV, movies, and the Web make the viewing of “mature” material hard not to experience that challenges to books would be a rare occurrence.

Think again.

The latest data on book challenges from the American Library Association does show a downward trend in book challenges but still the average is one a day in the United States (Huffington Post, Sept. 30, 2012). That’s 10,000 since ALA began its data collection and The Office of Intellectual Freedom estimates that only one quarter are reported and recorded (Englebert, Sept. 29, 2012).

We’ve discussed the importance of being open and upfront about the books you choose to share with your students, be that in whole class direct teaching, small group inquiry or books clubs, independent reading projects, or your classroom library for recreational reading. And shared tools like teacher blogs and web sites as windows into your classroom and curriculum (be sure to offer option of subscribing via email or RSS feed) and Google Voice can be helpful if you send messages to parents who may find it easier to respond via voice. Email marketing companies like Contactology also offer free services to educators so spiffy eNewsletters can be sent via email.

Frances Bradburn, who shared of her vast experiences as a librarian, state-wide technology director, and lifelong advocate for young adult literature via some video clips, has graciously set aside some time this week to respond to lingering questions that you may have about making bold choices. Please post your questions below and click “replies via email” so you’ll be prompted when Frances or others have posted responses.

Making Bold Choices Wisely

criscrissman — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:26:38 +0000

So you’d think in this day and age when TV, movies, and the Web make the viewing of “mature” material hard not to experience that challenges to books would be a rare occurrence.

Think again.

Welcome to ECi …

criscrissman — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:49:17 +0000

Welcome to ECi 521! The Fall 2012 edition is here!

The course is now open — in more ways than one. We began exploring how online courses might serve as professional development for all interested educators in the Spring of 2011 and found that the diversity of experiences and perspectives enriched the conversation immensely. This semester we’re pleased to welcome our largest group of Open participants ever.

The inspiration for the open concept came from my experiences with the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) run by George Siemens, Stephen Downes, and Dave Cormier. My experience in the DS (Digital Storytelling) 106 MOOC sealed the deal. btw I just now checked the DS 106 homepage for the link and for the first time saw one of my humble assignments featured. I know this is the luck of the random generator but it still warmed my heart.

One of our first activities, fittingly, is to reflect on a “journey book” — one that may have warmed our hearts or rocked our worlds. VoiceThread works beautifully for this because we also get the opportunity to hear each others’ voices. It’s a bit more personal.

Seems appropriate to share a video that a production team from the Eva Perry Mock Printz Book Club made recently for ALA’s “Why I Need My Library” campaign. The books that the teens share may become journey books for them. And who knows, several years in the future, they may be reflecting on them as they begin a course on teaching literature for young adults.

Enjoy the video and welcome to the journey!

Collaborate, Create, Contribute: ECI 521 Alums Keep on Giving . . .

criscrissman — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:45:01 +0000

“So how’s attendance?”

“We’ve a decent number in each session but that last room, hey, it’s overflowing!”

Now we know that we can’t claim all the credit for ECI 521 alum Katie Moore’s soldout presentation at the North Carolina Reading Conference this week. She came to ECI 521 as a stellar middle grades teacher three years ago. But we can’t help but be proud of her efforts to share what she’s learned about Web 2.0 and inquiry-based learning in her knockout presentation, “Quest 2.0: Using Web 2.0 technologies to develop inquiry-based online learning environments.” Afterall, she did develop her Quest 2.0 evolutionary WebQuest as her ECI 521 Action Learning Project. Plus Krystal Chambers, an ECI 521 alum of Spring 2010, repaid Katie royally for the loan of her class with a great new timeline tool, Dipity.

Here’s Katie’s session description: “Learn to use Web 2.0 technologies to create interactive learning environments. Challenge your students to be true researchers using New Literacies and 21st century skills! We’ll focus on wikis and unique problems that allow knowledge-sharing online, such as VoiceThread, GoogleDocs, and Dipity. Bring your laptop if possible.”

Sorry there’s no archive of Katie’s session, but Katie did present her Quest 2.0 concept at a session in the Laurie Halse Anderson Virtual Author Study series. Katie used Laurie’s Fever 1793 to develop her first Quest 2.0.

And here’s the link to Katie’s first Quest 2.0: Dr. Benjamin Rush — Philadelphia’s Savior or Vampire Doctor? A WebQuest Designed for Use with Fever 1793 and An American Plague.

This is Krystal’s multimedia report on her innovative Action Learning Project using Dipity as a tool for student researchers to develop a timeline on the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 — “History and Context in the English Classroom.”

[If trouble with embedded video, direct link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wou_UqfDLOY ]

Thank you, Katie and Krystal, for creative work that keeps on giving!

Thank You, Mrs. Benson!

criscrissman — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:02:42 +0000

“Thank you, Mrs. Benson.”

That’s how I ended my brief tribute to my senior English teacher, Barbara Benson, and her bold choice “to teach” Richard Wright’s Black Boy (Journey Book VoiceThread, ECI 521: Learning Through Literature with Young Adults).

I have to marvel all the more about Mrs. Benson’s bold choice because she was fresh out of then High Point College and we were her first senior English class. She was a mere four years older than us but in many ways a lifetime ahead.

I do believe that she “opened a mind” – mine – and is directly responsible for how I teach this course and my encouragement for my students to make the bold choices and make them wisely.

Standards-wise, I see Mrs. Benson’s influence in my efforts to develop a framework for learning through literature with young adults. She probably gave me my first lesson in social justice as we read and discussed Richard Wright’s plight as a black man in the segregated South.

I’ve endeavored to place social justice and critical literacy at the heart of the “Learning Through Literature with Young Adults” Framework by beginning with a review of crucial literacy, literature, and learning theories so that we can all envision how literature can serve to “open minds.” And because of my lifelong interest in creativity, I was thrilled to see the social justice/critical literacy and creativity link through Dan Pink’s inclusion of empathy as an element of creativity.

I think beginning with the theoretical basis for how to create the conditions for students to become more conscious of social justice and critical literacy has led naturally to connections made throughout our collaborative critical inquiries, particularly in our inquiry into multicultural literature.

I hope to bring more of a global literature perspective to the course, and that’s one reason I was so excited to read Melina Marchetta’s Finnikin of the Rock. With Finnikin, Melina has written an epic fantasy that reads as if the characters are contemporary refugees that we see on TV or YouTube as they struggle to survive starvation, disease, and massacre. When Froi holds up the refugee baby, I see an icon representing thousands of babies in numerous countries around the world. Such a bold choice for Melina, an award-winning author of contemporary problem novels, to choose to tell this story as an epic fantasy. She succeeds beautifully.

I mentioned my interest in creativity and I do believe that to create is a drive not far behind food, thirst, and sex. I’ve really enjoyed Dan Pink’s latest book, Drive, and his theory that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are necessary to encourage creativity. I’m working to build in more opportunities for these in the activities I design. I’ve been so impressed by ECI 521 students’ bookcasts and their Action Learning Project multimedia reports, both by the meaning (one of Pink’s creative elements) and the storytelling (another of Pink’s creative elements).

In terms of my own literacy development, the luckiest break I’ve had was meeting Teresa Brantley, the then Newberry Club facilitator, through Frances Bradburn. It just occurred to me that Frances is ECI 521’s fairy godmother. Teresa’s Newberry Club began partnering with our class each year and morphed into a Printz Club when Frances chaired the first Printz Committee. And Valerie Nicholson became the Printz Club facilitator – a mom, trained medical professional, and book talker-extraordinaire. She really knows how to keep a group of fun-loving teen readers engaged and well aware of their power as literary critics.

I never had the chance to read YA lit as a teenager. Didn’t know it existed. I don’t think I would be teaching this course now if I’d not met Teresa and the amazing teens from the Eva Perry Printz Club. They’ve kept me green and growing and up-to-date on the latest and greatest. It’s the best job in the world that requires that I read YA lit.

I do think that YA lit is at the cutting edge of literature. As well it should be. Young adults are just beginning to ask the tough questions about issues that challenge society and humanity. Literature can be a cognitive tool for thinking critically and creatively as well as empathetically.

Now about the virtual self. You’ve met 2B Writer in the introductory video. She’s my avatar in Second Life – the one with the hot pink streaked hair. She’s my virtually immersive self and she is fearless in Second Life. There’s something about speaking to a live audience and not seeing the whites of their eyes that makes you selfless and intent on “the moment.”

My online virtual identity is someone I’m working to evolve. Basically, that self is one borne of text and not image and voice. I’ve always loved to write but there’s a pressure when writing is your own means of communication that can make you stress over every word. In a very real way, you are re-inventing yourself when you create your online identity and I’ve not felt it nearly as much in online forums as I have in learning to blog. A blog is a very personal endeavor, and I hope to make mine a home away from home.

You may have sensed that I enjoy integrating a great deal of technology in this class. I do this not to challenge you or myself but make sure we have the opportunity we need to learn new literacies and new competencies that we’ll need to model for our students.

I’ve hinted at my goals for the class. I hope that taking this course open will lead to a more global focus on young adult literature. My dream would be to have participants from around the world meeting in virtual book clubs. I also want to use the open Web tools to encourage all of us to expand our personal learning space/environment so that we develop those new literacies/competencies that we need. Finally, I want to share what you all teach me this spring about virtual book clubs and bookcasts with others so that online courses for middle and high school students can become more compelling. There are 70,000 students in North Carolina alone taking online courses, and we need to make certain that these students learn about social justice/critical literacy and creativity through literature.

Whew! I got pretty inspired there by my goals. I’d not really written those out before. It always surprises me when I complete a piece and learn something new or realize something through the focus and reflection that was just below the surface. I think I learned through this writing that my efforts to make the course open really fit into the unspoken overall goal of creating a space where educators interested in young adult literature from around the globe could meet and talk about books and learning through literature with young adults. And that we can then share this type of connected learning with our students.

Lasagna Rolls: Thinking Outside the Lines

criscrissman — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 06:39:12 +0000

Never thought that I would bake lasagna in a round pan. But, why not?

Tradition would dictate that we layer the noodles and cheese filling and sauce in a rectangular pan and then slice it up when the alchemy has achieved perfection. But that delicious cheesy filling can slip right out and onto someone else’s serving.

Why not maximize the potential for every serving to be perfectly formed and intact?

That’s what thinking outside the lines or box is all about — daring to imagine an alternative possibility.

In this case, to think roll-up rather than layer. Assemble the lasagna rolls by spreading the cheesy filling on each cooked noodle and roll up like a jelly roll. Then cover with sauce and more cheese (can’t have too much cheese) and you’ll have individual servings.

Form meets function and tastes delicious!

I can’t determine the creative cook who first dared to break tradition; there are many lasagna roll recipes on the Web. But, I can recommend Amanda’s “Something Savory” version with spinach and sundried tomatoes. Perfect for gluten-free, vegetarian-types minus the meat and using DeBoles Rice Lasagna Noodles. Cook the no-bake noodles first so you can roll them up, but you would have figured that out.

Hands Off My Blog: Affirming the Right to Blog

criscrissman — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 03:13:42 +0000

“He’s (Mark Twain) surprisingly relevant right now . . . when you look at how much he wrote and the breadth of the subjects he wrote about, you know that if he were alive today, he would totally be a blogger” — Rebecca Fitting, Greenlight Bookstore (cited in Mark Twain Autobiography Is Flying Off the Shelves

A blogger for three months and 14 posts now, I’m ready to argue for the right to blog. It does not begin when you’re 21 or when you finish graduate school. It is an inalienable right, or at least, I’m sure the founding fathers would have included it by name if they’d known about it. Jefferson would have been a great blogger, I think. Franklin, more a tweep with his short, clever, pithy sayings.

But what if old Ben wanted to create his blog from his economical quotes. Would his blog be graded down because it wasn’t obviously of deep, reflective, critical thinking?

Doug Peterson recently blogged about a enterprising teacher, Kim Cofino’s effort to create a blogging scope and sequence. Inspired by Will Richardson’s description of what blogging is, this teacher is working with her colleagues to ensure that students become successful bloggers. In the same vein, Nicole Lakusta has offered a continuum for what is blogging and what is not. As I reported in my last post on formal/informal learning, both Doug and Stephen Downes had some doubts about how blogging was being defined, pigeon-holed, and standardized.

As Ben and Moby inform us in BrainPop’s engaging video about blogging designed to introduce blogging to children, the shortest definition is that blogging is “a website written in journalistic style” and that’s there is pretty much a blog for practically anything you can think of. And probably on topics beyond the imagination when you realize it’s been estimated that there are 112,000,000 blogs (Wikipedia).

On the evolving Blogging Scope and Sequence that Kim kindly shared, I was struck by this quote: “Blogging is more than writing. Blogging is reading, reflecting, questioning, researching, synthesizing, linking, conversing, teaching, sharing and expressing ideas. Blogging is about writing, but blogging begins with reading” (from K12 Learning 2.0 Wiki)

What???????

I think writing just got demoted if it’s not about “reading, reflecting, questioning, researching, synthesizing, linking, conversing, teaching, sharing and expressing ideas.” My professor in my reading methods course used to say, “We don’t read reading; we read about something.” Well, we don’t write writing. We write about what we experience or think about or dream of, or, yes, what we read about that sets us off to thinking and dreaming.

As you’ve probably sensed by now, I feel quite strongly about writing and its role in our learning. I see writing as a way to be more present in the world, more successful at navigating it, and more fulfilled in being a reflexive, thoughtful person who can have a positive impact.

My dissertation was titled, “Writing Life.” Honest. That’s it. Perhaps one of the shortest titles in history. I interviewed “lifelong writers” — individuals who found that writing was more than a tool but an essential part of their existence. These individuals varied from professional writers (novelists, journalists, researchers, screenwriters) to published poets and a diarist for over 40 years. If I were to pursue the same study now, I would broaden my definition of writing and include those who “write” or compose in other media. And I would, of course, interview a blogger.

Most blogging is journalistic, of the nonfiction genre. Donald Graves in Investigate Nonfiction writes of the symbiotic nature of reading and writing and suggests a scope and sequence for learning to write nonfiction. The beginning writer first writes what she’s thinking to herself in a diary/journal-like style. Then the writer’s audience expands with letter writing to write to one other person. Eventually, the audience grows as the writer is ready to write an essay and share information and/or express an opinion. So the writer first learns to reflect and to then to expand her thinking to include an audience.

It’s interesting that one teacher tentatively suggested on Cofino’s collaborative scope and sequence that perhaps blogging really is writing:

“This might be just semantics but I wonder if this shouldn’t be a ‘Writing” scope and sequence and not a blogging one? Bloggers don’t make blogs (like artists create artwork), bloggers are writers… so maybe blogging should be part of a writing scope and sequence that includes what kids also do outside of this digital space?
(Sorry, just thinking out loud:-)”
- datruss

While another responded that blogging is a genre to itself:

“Good point but I do believe that bloggin is a genre and few know anything about so a thins a S&S is needed at this time.” JU

I would agree with datruss and JU that blogging is a new genre of writing and that if we teach our students to write competently and confidently for a diversity of purposes and audiences that we will have prepared them well to blog. Lest we forget that the Web is a highly visual medium, we should also realize how integral design and the visual presentation of the blog is to the message and success of the blog. Blogs are evolving and many blogging tools are more visual now as Tumblr and Glogster or even vlogging (see John and Hank Green of the Vlog Brothers fame). So along with writing, design is vital for preparing students to be successful communicators on the Web.

The National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE) has recognized this evolution in progress and suggests that

“Teachers need to understand at least the following in order to be excellent at teaching composition as involving multiple media:

A range of new genres that have emerged with the increase in electronic communication. Because these genres are continually evolving, this knowledge must be continually updated . . . ” (NCTE’s Beliefs About the Teaching of Writing)

Cofino and others have also created blog rubrics and I responded to these in a comment on Doug’s blog:

“I’ve checked out the blog rubrics and scope and sequence and these are thoughtfully designed. I just wonder if 40 years from now that kids who are learn to blog through this model are still blogging? I interviewed a lawyer/non-profit admin [for my dissertation] who began a journal in 6th grade as a simple class assignment (no rubric – just do it) and has continued for the rest of his life. He made it a lifelong part of his being because he found value in the doing.”

And I also noted Sarah Perez’s research that found that young people today are actually blogging less. I couldn’t help hypothesizing that “blogging’s move into the classroom as another contrived reading/writing activity could be partly to blame.” I worry that as we’re making blogging too school-like that we’re failing to create the conditions for students to experience the gratification that comes from thinking and sharing one’s thoughts in an electronic medium. And I worry that a blogging scope and sequence will decrease rather than increase lifelong bloggers.

So let us as teachers create the conditions for our young bloggers to explore blogging as a way to learn and share what they are learning. And let them do this exploration always with the freedom to experiment and discover what role blogging can play in their lives. Let blogs become sandboxes for thinking and creating. As teachers we can serve as models of active bloggers and support our students by being “critical friends” who challenge and encourage us (much as Doug credits Stephen in his OLDaily).

I would hope that many of us teachers would balk if Dean Shareski’s recommendation for “How to Make a Better Teacher” were mandated and we were required to blog in Dean’s own image as a “reflective practitioner.”

Perhaps as we become more aware of blogging’s role in our own learning and the diversity of roles it serves for others, we’ll understand that we need not reinvent writing every time the technology changes but can teach students the essence of communicating their thoughts and how to learn to “write” (compose with text and imagery) in new spaces for new purposes for new audiences. As “ourman” writes in this thoughtful comment to a blog exploring blogging as a genre: “And at the end of the day the people who don’t follow the rules and find new ways to use blogs – they may well be the blog stars of tomorrow. Who is going to tell them that what they do is not really blogging.”

If a Tree Falls . . . Hope Is Not a Strategy for Success

criscrissman — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:56:47 +0000

In a world of high tech and intelligent tools, sometimes it’s refreshing to see men depend simply on strong backs, power tools, and a little luck. And sometimes it’s not.

I watched unbelievably as the whole neighborhood turned out to see a tree-cutting drama that threatened to take out either my beautiful oak, a neighborhood’s home, and/or numerous cars and trucks. In a cramped neighborhood with houses barely 30 to 50 feet apart like tiny mushrooms at the foot of giant 80- to 100-foot trees, two weekend warriors tied a rope to one of the tallest trees (less than a foot from a house), attached the rope from the tree to a relatively small Catepillar loader/skidsteer, cut through the tree, and hoped for the best.

I have lived with that beautiful oak for 24 years. Hugged it to save it from the original construction; paid big bucks for a new water line rather than cut its roots when they fractured the old; and now watched helplessly as two hopeful humans tried to use it to deflect the fall of the offending tree. Each time the Caterpillar reared on its hind wheels under the stress of the tree’s resistance, I felt my tree groan and I imagined with all of my being that the rope would snap. And it did. Four times the rope snapped.

The hopeful humans repositioned the Caterpillar in hopes the offending tree would slide along the two long branches of the oak that was stubbornly supporting it. After a couple of snaps of the rope, the tree did slide — only to be caught by a tall, thin, toothpick of a tree that refused to give it up. That’s what you see in this pix — the offending tree in the middle with its branches wrapped tenuously around the giant toothpick.

One of the now not-so- hopeful humans was heard to say “there’s no hope” as he appraised the situation. But hope springs eternal, so a plan was hatched to drop the giant toothpick so the offending tree would fall. At this point, these guys had a “let’s just get it down” mentality and they proceeded as if the laws of physics never existed.

You’ll see in the video of the fiasco, that the giant toothpick did come down and freed the offending tree so it slammed to the cul-de-sac, too.

My beautiful oak still stands though there are two sizeable branches that are now known as “widowmakers” that dangle over my neighbor’s driveway. I don’t know what else to do but hope those don’t fall earthward.

It was mega-director James Cameron who cautioned that “hope is not a strategy for success.” I don’t know how he would have directed this scene, but I can’t help thinking that he would have planned it as thoroughly as a land and sea invasion. He would have left nothing to chance.