Digital Writing: The First Six Weeks of School

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a few days of the Ohio Innovative Learning Environments Conference.  Every time I attend this conference, I feel so so lucky to have this opportunity so close to home. It is such an amazing week of brilliant speakers and lots of learning.

During the first day of the conference, I had the opportunity to hear Will Richardson. I've read his work and learned from his blog, articles, videos, etc. for years. I was so excited to finally get the chance to hear him in person. I ended up going to every one of his sessions so I pretty much spent the full day listening to him.  He helped me connect some things about digital writing workshop.   I have been thinking for years about what it means to be a writer today. And I struggle with how to make things work for elementary students. I believe strongly that any digital writing experiences need to be embedded in the things I believe about writing workshop in general.

Will Richardson helped me think through the whole connected piece of digital writing. He said several things that stuck with me about the networking that is so much a part of the digital writing experience. He helped me see that so much of life as a digital writer is in the behaviors and stances we have as writers, the expectation for participation, for changing our thinking, for conversation.  I know this about myself as a writer but I have struggled with making this work for kids.

One of the struggles of elementary age students is the safety and policy issues around social networking and young children. After hearing Will Richardson speak, I revisited the NCTE definition of 21st Century Literacies as well as the framework. He referred to this document in all of his sessions and listening to his thoughts around the document helped me solidify my own thoughts:

I thought about what had been missing in my thinking about digital writing in the classroom and I realized it was these connected behaviors of writers because of the tools available.  I realized that just as in any writing workshop, living your life as a writer is key. Building in routines to support children as they grow as writers and learn behaviors of writers is key. I believe our children are already digital writers in their lives outside of school and I want to authentically give them opportunities to bring that digital writing life to school too.

So, I thought through the routines outside of the possible genre or format studies we will do. I asked myself to think about the ways in which we as a class would build our digital footprint, how we would think about purpose and audience, and which routines I could put into place during the first six weeks of school to make that happen. I came up with a four-part plan that would give kids opportunities for many kinds of writing.  Below is the visual of the four types of writing that will hopefully become routine in our classroom:

And below is my thinking about the role of each of the four components:  

4 Components of Digital Literacy in 4th Grade Classroom

Public Relations--District Website/Teacher Webpage

This site will be the “face” of the classroom.  It will house weekly to biweekly posts with general news. Links to newsletters, information, other sites that we are using as a class will be part of this District Page. This will be the formal piece that I, as the teacher, create on my own, just updating community on what is happening.

Individual Opportunities--Social Networking/Connected Learning in Protected Environment

District ELGG

ELGG will give the 4th graders the opportunity to write in a networked environment that is safe and secure.  We will utilize individual blogs as a way to communicate information. Blog focus will be on personal interests with a focus on writer’s craft and audience. We will also utilize the Social Bookmarking tools, as readers/researchers, and the “wire” as a way to understand the difference between quick messages and actual posts. Use of ELGG will help 4th graders learn what it is to be networked, how to make sure they are creating quality work, and to think about purpose and audience.

Collaborative Communication--Dublin Wikispaces (internal district users)

As a way to create collaboratively, we will use the Dublin Wikispaces to share our story as learners.  This wikispaces wlll be focused on classroom learning and will grow as the year goes on. It will serve as parent/family communication as well as a way to review and reflect on learning.  We will build the site in a shared way during the first few weeks of school and then will move forward to everyone in the classroom adding content about our learning.  Because this is an internal site, we will make the pages “members only” so that we can be honest about learning, include photos and student work.  

Global Audience--Shared Experience/Teacher-Only (Moderated) Account

To help the students understand the importance of a more global audience, a class blog will be created to share our classroom with the world.  I will create a Blogspot blog in my name and set it up to be moderated by me. As the only person able to publish, I will oversee the blog, moderate comments, etc.  As a class, we will be able to learn about what is okay to be “out in the world” by having this as an option for sharing.   I will also create a class account for a Google Reader, Google Doc (For survey creation, etc.), a Twitter account (for news to families), and a Skype account (for expert visits when needed).  As the teacher, I will be the sole moderator of all of these accounts.  These tools will allow us to connect to other classrooms, authors, blogs, etc. in a safe way.

By having this variety of tools, students will not only grow as readers and writers, but they will learn technology skills as well as important online safety behaviors. Audience, purpose, and safety will be part of many discussions as we learn to be readers and writers who connect with others.

**The first 4-6 weeks will be dedicated to learning to use these tools and type of writing required for each of these tools well. Much of the experience early in the year will be modeled and shared so that students understand the purpose and role of each tool.  

I am hopeful that these routines will help me to teach the qualities of good writing with traditional and digital tools.  Below are the slides I created to share with some teachers at a district  conference this week.  It was a good time for me to think through how I can think through the first six weeks of school in a way that builds behaviors that will carry us through the year.  You can see Will Richardson's quotes that stuck with me spread throughout the slides. I would love feedback or thoughts on the plan and I'd love to hear other people's routines for launching a year of digital writing.

Digital Writing: First 6 Weeks from Franki22

Dublin Literacy Conference 2012 Slides

This weekend, I gave a session on Comprehension in a Digital Reading Workshop. Below are the slides from the session.Dublin Literacy Conference 2012

View more presentations from Franki22.

The handout included these reflective questions for teachers about our workshops. They are questions I am using to think about digital texts across workshop routines.

What role do digital texts have in your reading workshop?

Read Aloud

Do I choose to read aloud only texts from traditional books or do I share digital texts, audio books, blogs, etc. during read aloud?

Do we use web resources such as author websites and book trailers to help us dig deeper into the book we are reading?

Do I read aloud from websites and blogs?

Independent Reading/Reading Conferences

Do we use online resources for book previewing and book selection?

Do I limit students' independent reading to traditional books or do they have a variety of options for their reading time?  Do I place equal value on reading on e-readers, reading websites, etc. as I do on reading novels?

Do I help my students use online tools to support their lives as readers? Do I value annotation tools, bookmarking tools, RSS feeds, etc. as part of my readers lives? Do I model these tools in minilessons?

Do I introduce digital pieces and discuss digital reading when conferring with students.

Have I updated my reading interview to include questions about digital reading?

Reading and Writing Minilessons

Do I use digital texts or pieces when teaching minilessons?

Do I rely completely on traditional text or do I use film clips, blog entries, podcasts, etc. when planning minilessons?

Do I share process in my minilessons? Do I tend to share process only as it relates to creating text-based pieces?

Do I share my own writing process?  Composing in several types of media?

Shared Reading

Have I reflected on the resources I rely on for Shared Reading?

Do I include web reading and viewing when thinking about Shared Reading experiences?

How can I include a variety of texts for students to process through together?

Content Reading

Have I found sources for content reading that go beyond textbooks and traditional text?

Do I rely on newspapers for talk around current events or do I tend to focus more on sites like DOGONews and other sites that combine text and video?

How am I supporting the importance of visual information in the content areas?

Poetry Friday: Testing

Revolution for the Tested

by Kate Messner

Write.

But don’t write what they tell you to.
Don’t write formulaic paragraphs
Counting sentences as you go
Three-four-five-Done.
Put your pencil down.

Don’t write to fill in lines.
For a weary scorer earning minimum wage
Handing out points for main ideas
Supported by examples
From the carefully selected text.

Write for yourself.
Write because until you do,
You will never understand
What it is you mean to say
Or who you want to be.
Write because it makes you whole.

And write for the world.
Because your voice is important.
Write because people are hurting
Because animals are dying
Because there is injustice
That will never change if you don’t.
Write because it matters.

And know this.
They’ll tell you it won’t make a difference,
Not to trouble over grownup things,
Just fill in the lines
And leave it at that.
Tell them you know the truth.
That writing is powerful.
Just one voice on the page
Speaks loudly.
And not only can a chorus of those united change the world.
It is the only thing that ever has.

Read.

But don’t read what they tell you to.
Don’t read excerpts, half-poems,
Carefully selected for lexile content,
Or articles written for the sole purpose
Of testing your comprehension.

Don’t read for trinkets,
For pencils or fast food coupons.
Don’t even read for M&M’s.
And don’t read for points.

Read for yourself.
Read because it will show you who you are,
Who you want to be some day,
And who you need to understand.
Read because it will open doors
To college and opportunity, yes,
And better places still…
Doors to barns where pigs and spiders speak,
To lands where anything is possible.
To Hogwarts and Teribithia,
To Narnia and to Hope.

Read for the world.
Read to solve its problems.
Read to separate reality from ranting,
Possibility from false promise.
And leaders from snake oil peddlers.
Read so you can tell the difference.
Because an educated person is so much harder
To enslave.

And know this.
They’ll say they want what’s best for you,
That data doesn’t lie.
Tell them you know the truth.
Ideas can’t be trapped in tiny bubbles.
It’s not about points
On a chart or a test or points anywhere.
And it never will be.

Copyright 2010 ~ Kate Messner
(Poem used with permission of the author. Kate's website is KateMessner.com, and the poem can be found on her blog.)



Nuff said, right? Do what you need to do or are required to do, but don't ever forget what reading and writing workshops are really about.



Jone has the roundup this week at Check it Out. I won't be able to tour the roundup until maybe Sunday, or probably next week, seeing as this is Dublin Literacy Conference weekend. I'll be hanging out with Pete the Cat, Bob Shea, Sharon Draper, James Preller, Donalyn Miller, Ruth Ayres, Bill Kist, Bill Bass and lots of Tweet Peeps, Blog Friends, and Kindred Teaching Spirits.

Dublin Literacy Conference: February 25, 2012

Dublin Literacy Conference 1995

From Left: Karen Szymusiak, Louise Borden, Franki Sibberson, Georgia Heard, Ralph Fletcher

The Dublin Literacy Conference has been a constant in my life as a teacher.  It is one of my favorite times of year.  The conference is run by a committee of teachers.  Mary Lee and I have somehow been involved in the planning of this for a very long time.  (The photo above is one from the 1995 Dublin Literacy Conference--it looks more like the 80s with my hair, but whatever...). The Dublin Literacy Conference is a highlight for many of us.  I love it every year and each year I look at the list of upcoming speakers and think, "WOW! This is the best conference yet." We are so lucky to get amazing speakers each year, great book sales, and lunch. It is always a great day of literacy and learning. The conference is a deal--a one day Saturday conference for only $100 ($75 for Dublin Teachers).

There are two keynote sessions and 3 other sessions during the day-an A, B, and C session. The A and B sessions offer 20+ choices for participants. Some are given by features speakers and others by classroom teachers, technology specialists, authors, etc.  The C session is an opportunity to hear a Featured Author of your choice.  Everyone leaves the conference with new energy (and usually a few new books).

This year, we have a great slate of Professional Authors:

Donalyn Miller author of The Book Whisperer will present the morning keynote entitled,

One Book, One Child, One Teacher. She will also present a session later in the day called, Bring on the Books!.

Ruth Ayres, author of Day By Day and blog, Two Writing Teachers is presenting 2 sessions for teachers.  Celebrating Writers and Meaningful Minilessons.

Bill Bass author of the upcoming book From Inspiration to Red Carpet: Hosting a Student Film Festival will offer two sessions,  Developing Student Filmmakers and Authentic Learning through a Digital Lens.

Bill Kist author of New Literacies in Action and The Socially Networked Classroom will present sessions on  The Socially Networked Classroom and The World is a Village: Implications for Global Education in a Web 2.0 World

We also have a great group of Children's Authors speaking at this year's conference:

Eric Litwin and James Dean, author/illustrator team of PETE THE CAT will open the conference with a song and present two sessions on Interactive Literacy for teachers.

Our afternoon keynote speaker will be Sharon Draper. Sharon is the author of Out of My Mind, Sassy, Tears of a Tiger and other books for teachers and children. The title of her keynote will be, Literacy, Laughter and Learning. She will also present a a session called Making Books Come Alive for Adolescent Readers.

Bob Shea, author of Dinosaur Vs. Bedtime, New Socks and Big Plans will present sessions entitled,  Super Fun Time with Bob Shea and Super SECRET Fun Time with Bob Shea.

James Preller, author of the Jigsaw Jones series, Bystander, Justin Fisher Declares War and others will present sessions on Meet James Preller and Meet James Preller: The Long Version.

There are also many great Dublin teachers and Central Ohio bloggers presenting at the conference. Some Central Ohio bloggers you may know include:

Mandy Robek from Enjoy and Embrace Learning who will be presenting Helping Emergent Writers Develop.

Tony Keefer from Atychiphobia will present You Can Build Community with Writing.

Bill Prosser and Karen Terlecky from Literate Lives have a session that is becoming an popular tradition at the conference: So Many Books, So Little Time.

Mary Lee Hahn will be presenting on one of her favorite topics, Make Read Aloud a Must, Not a Maybe.

I will be presenting Comprehension in the Digital Reading Workshop.

Deb Frazier (Primary Perspective) and Nicole Kessler (Nicole's Book Nook) will present VoiceThread: Breaking Down the Walls.

Scott Sibberson (Scott Sibberson) will share Free Web Tools and Applications for Literacy Learning

Maria Caplin (Teaching in the 21st Century) will present with colleague,  Mark Saelzler on Digital Literacy in the Everyday Classroom

It looks to be an amazing day of learning and hanging out with colleagues.  There are lots of other great sessions. You can visit the Dublin Literacy Conference website and access a program and registration form.  Hope to see you there!

All Write!!! Consortium Summer Institute-Reflection #1: The Power of Twitter

The thought of reflecting on such an amazing 3 days of learning and friends is overwhelming. So, I decided to do a series of posts on the All Write Summer Institute over the next few days. Who knew that a little idea like this could become such a great experience for so many of us? Mindy Hoffar, of All Write Consortium, runs an amazing event and even though we felt like we were crashing a REALLY good party, Mindy and her group welcomed us and made us feel right at home immediately. I think that happens when you are with like-minded people who are passionate about children and literacy.

Last year, I spoke at the 2010 All Write Summer Institute.  It was an amazing institute and I realized that Indiana was not so far away from Ohio and that I should pay attention to all of the events they sponsored so that I could attend.  This year, I got to attend the 2011 All Write Summer Institute as a participant.  But here is the incredible thing--I attended with a huge group of friends,  many of them were Twitter friends.  A group of us on Twitter decided that this year's conference looked like an amazing line-up of speakers and that we would all meet there to learn together.  The more a few of us talked, the more others joined in.  Our tweeps came from all over. Donalyn Miller (@donalynbooks) came from Texas. Teresa Bunner  (@RdngTeach) flew in from North Carolina.  Mindi Rench (@mindi_r) came from Chicago.  Katherine Sokolowski (@katsok) and Paul Hankins (@PaulWHankins) drove in.  Our Dublin crew included Mary Lee Hahn (@maryleehahn), Katie DiCesare (@Katiedicesare), Tony Keefer (@tonykeefer), Deb Tyo (@ChocolateAir), Meredith Young (@mereou), and two friends who are not yet on Twitter (but who hopefully will be soon.) We also met a new Ohio Twitter friend, Stephanie Shouldis (@WizardOzTeacher). Ruth Ayers (@ruth_ayres) is part of the All Write Consortium and it was so fun to have a chance to see her and to be part of her community.   If you are on Twitter, I would follow every one of these amazing people.  If you are not on Twitter, you are missing out on some great learning from so many smart educators.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be with this group of people in person.  I have learned so much from each of them through Twitter and online but to be sitting at a table, eating lunch together, talking books, family and stuff was amazing.  Such smart, thoughtful people. At one point, I was looking at the rows of my Twitter friends in a keynote and was struck by how incredible this was.  The fact that we somehow all connected on Twitter and then somehow came to learn and hang out together at All Write.  Without social media, I would never have had the opportunity to learn from this group. WOW!!!

More reflections to come!

I Love Words by Francoize Boucher

I had a chance to talk to our Usborne sales representative last week at the Dublin Literacy Conference. I hadn't kept up with all of the great things in their catalog so I asked for a new copy. I was excited to see I LOVE WORDS by Francoize Boucher. I am always looking for ways to help kids get excited about words and word learning so I was thrilled to take a look at this book.

This book is an activity book. The subtitle on the cover says: An activity book for writing, drawing, and having fun." It reminds me of the doodle books out there. It is larger in shape, filled with fun pages to add to.

There are a variety of things to do in this book. Each page invites the reader to do something different with words. One page is in the shape of a bulletin board and it is titled "A Little Group of Words that Make Your Eyes Water". There are a few samples and then you can fill in the other 12 spaces. There are other pages set up in similar ways (for words that make you laugh and others...) One page invites readers to learn to write in reverse. Another teaches you how to make "word confetti". There are pages for poetry, your thinking, different sayings, words with hidden meanings and more.

If I had a lot of money, I would buy one of these for every child in my class/school. This would do great things for kids. But since I don't have enough money for that, I am going to use this book as a resource. I can see building the pages together as a class. I can see so many of the pages being springboards for class discussions around words and writer's craft. It would be a fun book to work though together, as a class, for the year. I think these little invitations would change the ways kids talked about and thought about words and word learning.

So glad I discovered this book!

Books I Purchased This Week

It has been a big book-buying week for me. First I attended the Dublin Literacy Conference, then we hosted a Selections Book Fair. I was excited about using my new Goodreads App, complete with barcode scanner to add the books to my Goodreads stack as I found books I wanted.  It turned out to serve as a great shopping list today. My to-be-read stack is growing and I'll never catch up but I love my new books. Here is what I bought.

From the Dublin Literacy Conference
I was thrilled when I learned about 365 Things to Draw and Paint. I had fallen in love with 365 Things to Make and Do and so had many of the kids in the library.  This book looks just as fun with lots of things to try.

A professional book that I have been meaning to pick up and finally did is Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements by Jeff Wilhelm and Michael Smith. I have learned so much from secondary educators about literary elements and am anxious to read this new one.

From Selections Book Fair

13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison looks like a fun fantasy read. It looks engaging--love books about fairies and this one got great reviews.  I am not sure how I missed this one when it came out but am glad I found it.

The Genius Files:  Mission Unstoppable is the first in a new series by by Dan Gutman looks like a fun adventure. I like to read the first books in new series that look like they might become popular so this is one I hope to read soon. It looks like a fun read.

I picked up Sophie the Chatterbox by Lara Berger. This was part of a series of three books at the fair. These look like great early chapter books. They are short and several of our more transitional readers picked them up and looked interested. I think it is definitely a series worth checking out.

Escape: The Story of the Great Houdini and Sir Charlie Chaplin: The Funniest Man in the World are two chapter book biographies written by Sid Fleischman. The Charlie Chaplin biography is the newer one and I thought it might be a fun one to read since we are doing so much with film-making in the library.  But these look like great biographies--the kind of bios that our older kids can't get enough of.  Great photos throughout as well as an accessible font for kids.  I am very excited to have discovered these biographies for middle grade readers. Another biography I picked up was Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot" by Michael Tunnell. I think kids are fascinated by stories like this one and this is another that looks pretty accessible to middle grade readers.  I see so many kids going to the same people year after year after year--not because they are so interested in them when it comes time to read biographies (which is another post) but because they don't really know about that many people. I think a good biography can open up kids' minds to all the ways people have contributed in the world.  Kids are fascinated by great stories of people. My issue has been that the quality of the writing doesn't always match the person's story.  I look for quality writing about amazing people.

Micro Mania by Jordan Brown draws readers in as it tells about lots of little things that are all around us. The book takes a "close look" at things like bacteria and bedbugs.  There is lots of text in this book and I am a little nervous about reading all of it.  There is good info on Bacteria in the Bathroom and "the 5 Second Rule" among other things.  The book is divided into chapter so it is definitely one that can be read cover to cover for readers who are interested.  Packed with a little too much info for me, I think....

I remember seeing  Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story by S. D. Nelson mentioned on a few lists and was happy to see that the book was written by a Native American. I am looking for more reviews on the book. I am trying to add much better literature to this section of our library and thought this one was worth checking out.  It was on a few notables lists if I remember correctly.

I was excited about The McElderry Book of Greek Myths by Eric Kimmel. I feel like a lot of our mythology is either outdated or newly published to meet the needs of fans of the Lightning Thief series.  I was thrilled to see this newer version of stories with great illustrations. Kids couldn't get enough of this book--even those who are not Lightning Thief fans. This is the perfect size book for readers of mythology.  Stories with illustrations in a larger picture book format.

Slither and Crawl by Jim Arnosky looks like a great collection of one page pieces about reptiles. Each two-page spread focuses on one subtopic such as "Turtles" or "Where Do Reptiles Go In Winter". The organization of the book, the accompanying illustrations and the amount of text on each page make it one that I think will be interesting and accessible to kids.

February Mosaic

Snow and ice, with a break for jazz and Chinese food at PF Chang.

More snow, with a delightful warm spell, spring-ish skies, a trip to Skillet, and a full moon.

Jacket weather in Austin for the Notables, followed by ice the day  after I returned.

Dublin Literacy Conference Friday author dinner. If you want to know more about the significance of the restroom signage, ask Patrick Allen.

Dublin Literacy Conference Round Up

The 2011 Dublin Literacy Conference was one of the best ever! I haven't had time to write my learning from the day yet but lots of others have. If you want to read more about the Dublin Literacy Conference, here are some posts I've found and learned from:

Word from the Corner
Enjoy and Embrace Learning
Mary Lee (here:-)
Talkworthy
Literate Lives
Franki's Slides
Digital Writing, Digital Teaching from Troy Hicks
Reflect and Refine by Cathy Mere
Tony Keefer at Atychiphobia
Scott Sibberson
All-en-A-Day's Work

Whew.

It feels like I've reached a summit of sorts!

Flickr creative commons photo by Dru!

But if I'm at the summit, that means the next bit is all downhill, right?  Wrong!

Maybe I'm just on a narrow ledge where I can hold on for a minute and breathe and gather my strength for the next part of the climb.

Flickr creative commons photo by John and Belinda

Franki's really good about going public with her personal learning, reading, exercise and balance challenges, so I'm going to put my to-do list out there in the world in the hopes that going public will help me get it all accomplished!

These first few are a result of the Dublin Literacy Conference:

Inspired by Patrick Allen

•re-read CHOICE WORDS by Peter Johnston

•take his double-dog dare to record all of my reading conferences for a week, then listen to them and really work on getting better at conferring 

Inspired by Kelly Gallagher

•celebrate that the "pool" my readers "swim" in is full to the brim with books 

•keep a tight hold on my students' independent reading time -- don't compromise it; don't let it go

•don't underteach books

Inspired by Brian Pinkney

•give my students more small music, rhythm and movement breaks

Inspired by Saturday night dinner conversations

•keep playing Words With Friends -- I'm better than some and not as good as others, but it's all good

•don't wait so long to get help when I'm stuck on a level of Angry Birds

Other goals include...

Get back in the exercise routine.

√ Went to water aerobics today.

Get back to blog reading and writing.

√ I give myself permission to ease into this a little at a time.

√ I started by reading 10 blogs on this week's Poetry Friday Roundup. 

Maintain Twitter stamina.

√ There's great stuff there. Did you see this blog post "Angry Birds: A Lesson in Assessment FOR Learning" and this one about Angry Birds and Instruction?

Grade that blasted stack of papers TODAY since the end of the trimester is tomorrow.

√ I'll get started on those as soon as I hit the publish button. 

Pay attention to the change of seasons. 

√ "And since to look at things in bloom/Fifty springs are little room/About the woodlands I will go/To see the cherry hung with snow." (A.E. Houseman)

√ Drove home from the health club with the top open. 54 degrees. Sun. Hard to believe we had a snow day on Friday.

√ Across-the-street neighbors' snowdrops are blooming.

Dublin Literacy Conference Slides

Below are my slides from my session at the Dublin Literacy Conference.

How Can Tools of Technology Impact the Reading Workshop?

Dublin literacy conference 2011

View more presentations from Franki22.

Making Stuff

Like many of us, I am worried that students are no longer creating enough in schools. I think life is all about making stuff and it is one of the joys in life. And it is one of the most powerful ways to learn.

This year, we are hosting author Amy Krouse Rosenthal at the Dublin Literacy Conference. She is also our visiting author at Riverside Elementary.  We are so looking forward to her visit next week. The kids have fallen in love with her books and with her life's work.  We have spent lots of time with her books but we've also spent time with her videos.  Amy's work is the basis for our schoolwide Art Show and kids are making great things.

One of Amy's videos that inspired us was her video "17 Things I Made". All of the classes in our school have watched this video and have been invited to think about the things they make.



We invited our students and families to contribute to a school-wide wall called "THINGS WE MAKE" to celebrate all that we make.  One of the things I remember clearly from reading Shelley Harwayne's brilliant book, GOING PUBLIC years ago, was the way she used the walls of the Manhattan New School to start important conversations and to build relationships.  We decided that this video gave us the perfect opportunity to use the space in a similar way and to celebrate all the things we make.  We know that our students and families make wonderful things and that they are all so creative. So, our amazing art teacher created a wall in our school entrance and asked students to share the things they made.  Over the last few weeks, the wall has been filling up with "Things We Make". It is fun to see the things that everyone makes --from waffles to paper airplanes to music. But I think the true power is in the conversations that are beginning because of the wall. Our students are interested in what others make--in their talents and passions.  As the wall grows, the conversations grow.

Our "Things We Make" Celebration

I have always believed in the power of making stuff.  I think our wall is one step in letting our students know how much we, as a school community, value the things they make and the creative ways in which they think. But I think for it to be truly powerful, we need to make it more than that. It needs to be a part of the way our students learn every day.

 I was fortunate enough to listen to  Laura Deisley from the Lovett School speak at Educon on "Why Making Stuff Matters". She presented a Encienda, a 20 slide, 5 minute presentation on the topic.  She has graciously shared it on her blog with more of her thinking on the topic.  Below is the Laura Deisley's slideshare from Educon.

EduCon 2.3: Why Making Stuff Matters

View more presentations from lauradeisley.

I would also suggest that you read Laura's post on Masterful Learning to get a vision of what is possible when students are in an environment of questioning, problem solving and creating.

It seems like so many people are talking about the power of making  stuff these days. I am hoping that the conversations continue and that we continue to share the things our students make and the impact it has on their learning lives.

Dublin Literacy Conference 2011

We LOVE the Dublin Literacy Conference. The conference is an annual one sponsored by Dublin City Schools (Ohio, not Ireland:-) and run by a committee of teachers. 2011 is our 22nd year and we host between 600 and 800 teachers each year. We have both been on the planning committee for as long as we can remember and the planning is almost as fun as the day itself. Most of our teachers come from around the Central Ohio area but we have been getting people from all over.  It is a great one-day event and we love it. It is a great day of learning and literacy.  If you are free and live close enough to drive, you should think about joining us!  (We have written lots about this conference over the last 5 years. You can read more in these posts.)

This year, the Dublin Literacy Conference will be held on Saturday, February 25.  It looks to be another great year and we are both so excited about our speakers. We typically host 4 featured professional authors and 4 featured children's authors. This year, the following speakers are part of our conference.  If you want to see more details, the printable program with registration information is on our district website. 

Professional Authors
Kelly Gallagher, author of READICIDE, DEEPER READING, TEACHING ADOLESCENT WRITERS and others.  Kelly will be our morning keynote. If you'd like to know more about his work, you can read a recent interview we did with him here.

Patrick Allen, author of CONFERRING: THE KEYSTONE OF THE READING WORKSHOP and PUT THINKING TO THE TEST will be another of our featured speakers.  Patrick also has an amazing blog about his teaching and learning life.

Troy Hicks' work focuses on the Digital Writing Workshop. His books (THE DIGITAL WRITING WORKSHOP and BECAUSE DIGITAL WRITING MATTERS) , blog posts, presentations and tweets have helped so many of us move forward in our thinking about this issue.

Christian Long is another speaker who has great insights into 21st Century Learning. His company Be Playful Designs focuses on school design and innovative environments.. He is a school planner, technology expert, and advocate for innovative communities and educators.

Children's Authors
Brian Pinkney is our afternoon keynote speaker.  His work includes so many powerful titles.  His newest book, written by Andrea Davis Pinkney is SIT-IN: HOW FOUR FRIENDS STOOD UP BY SITTING DOWN.

Loren Long is an Ohio author and illustrator that we love. We first met him when he visited Columbus on the TRUCKTOWN tour with Jon Scieszka.  We have since fallen in love with OTIS, DRUMMER BOY and most recently, President Obama's picture book OF THEE I SING.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal's work has been an inspiration to so many of us, especially her BECKONING THE LOVELY project. (If you have not watched the video, you must do it right now!). Her newest book is THE WONDER BOOK. Others include LITTLE HOOT, DUCK RABBIT, COOKIES: BITE SIZE LIFE LESSONS and BEDTIME FOR MOMMY.

Wendy Mass is another children's author that will be part of our conference. Her newest book CANDYMAKERS is quite fun and popular with middle grade/middle school children. As are all of her books. Those of you that read this blog may remember when I wanted to start a Wendy Mass fan club after reading JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE. 

On top of our amazing list of featured speakers, we run about 20+ concurrent sessions two times during the conference.  These sessions are put on by Dublin teachers as well as others who submit proposals. If you are blog readers, you will recognize lots of people from our local bloggers' group on the program.

Local Bloggers 
Cathy Mere (REFLECT AND REFINE) and Katie DiCesare (CREATIVE LITERACY) will be talking about "Picture Book Possibilities: Using Literature to Collaborate with Learners.

Mary Lee Hahn  will share ideas for "Promoting Reading Engagement In and Out of School"

Scott Sibberson (SCOTT SIBBERSON) will present on "Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers".

Mandy Robek (ENJOY AND EMBRACE LEARNING) session is titled, "Something Old, Something New"

Julie Johnson (RAISING READERS AND WRITERS) and colleagues will present "Count on Communication: Weaving Writing and Conversation into Your Math Class".

Maria Caplan (TEACHING IN THE 21st CENTURY) will be presenting with her school's Technology Specialist on "Integrating iPods and Technology into Your Classroom".

Bill Prosser and Karen Terlecky (LITERATE LIVES) "The Best and the Brightest Books of 2010".

Tony Keefer (ATYCHIPHOBIA) "Crafting Digital Picture Books".

and I will be talking about  "How Can Technology Tools Impact the Reading Workshop".

Add these to the amazing Dublin teachers who are sharing their learning, how can it not be an amazing day of learning. I wish I could hear everybody!

On top of the great speakers, they'll be lots of great books for sale, time for lunch and chatting with colleagues, a Technology Playground and student work on display.    What a great way to spend a Saturday. It is one of our favorite days of the year! We hope you can join us.

LING AND TING: NOT EXACTLY THE SAME! By Grace Lin

I have been working to find new early chapter books for the transitional readers. As I have always noticed about transitional readers, they jump into complex chapter books too quickly and often get used to reading with minimal understanding. So building a collection of great books that are perfect for these readers is important.  We also have primary teachers who are always looking for great "chapter book" read alouds for their young students. Longer, more complex chapter books are often too long and difficult for students to hold onto over the time they take to read. Also, when we read aloud too many books that are well beyond students' independent reading levels, these become the books valued in the classroom and students are often hesitant to choose more appropriate books.

A new book that I just discovered (thanks to #titletalk hosted by @PaulWHankins and @donalybooks once a month on Twitter), is LING AND TING: NOT EXACTLY THE SAME by Grace Lin. I am a HUGE Grace Lin fan. I love her work--all of it.  and she spoke at our Dublin Literacy Conference a few years ago. So I was thrilled to see this early chapter book by Grace.

Ling and Ting are twins, but they are not exactly the same. This book is a collection of stories or "chapters" about these twins.  The chapters each stand alone, which I like. Each tells a different story.  But they also work together and connect in very clever ways.  This is perfect for young children who are new to chapter books.

Grace Lin understand the humor of students who are transitional readers so well. Each story in this book has a little punch of humor at the end--humor that 7 and 8 year olds will love!

I fell in love with Ling and Ting and hope that Grace Lin has already written several more books about these sisters. Not only are the text and chapter design supportive but the characters and storylines make for a great read for kids. This is the perfect kind of book for transitional readers and I hope to see many, many more.

Planning for My Professional Learning 2010-11

I am so energized by all that I have been learning lately.  There are so many exciting opportunities for our students. I know that, for me, my own learning is key to the work I do with kids. Even though so much of my learning comes from reading blogs and finding resources on Twitter, I like to go to a few conferences every year.  I have always found it important to keep up with the thinking and learning through these kinds of events.  They all help keep me focused on the right work. There are so many opportunities for learning and I want to take advantage of those that I think will support my goals this year. There are so many great opportunities, it is always hard to decide on the most worthwhile and doable events. Luckily, most of these events take place on weekends. I have always thought it was well worth it to spend a few weekends dedicated to my own learning. I can also take a personal day or two each day to attend conferences if I need to.

I am taking another course via distance learning (University of Alberta's amazing program) toward a degree in Teacher-Librarianship.  My fall course focuses on Web 2.0 and it is right where my thinking is right now. Talking and thinking and learning with others on this topic will be great fun and I am hoping to figure out what all of this means for the elementary library.

On October 2, The Literacy Connection is sponsoring a daylong workshop with Christian Long on Designing a 21st Century Learning Environment.  This will be perfect timing for this thinking.  As you know if you read this blog, it was Christian Long who introduced me to The Third Teacher and I have had the opportunity to hear him talk at the Ohio Summit and at Dublin City Schools' Opening Day Convocation. He is grounded in his beliefs about kids and I am anxious to learn from him for a full day at this event.  Plus, I love the Literacy Connection events because I love having time to learn from and with this group of people.

Jennifer Branch of the University of Alberta told us about the 2010 SLJ Leadership Summit-The Future of Reading in Chicago this fall.  The speakers look amazing. There are a few of us from my district who will attend and I'll also get to meet the people I am taking classes with--face to face! I have already learned so much from my online course that it will be nice to get to meet "in real life". This summit looks to be packed with information and new learning, specific to school libraries.

Of course, my highlight of the fall is always NCTE's Annual Convention in November in Orlando.  It is always the place where I reconnect with others and learn from amazing educators each year.  I went to my first NCTE convention about 20 years ago and have been hooked ever since.  As a literacy educator, this is the place where the best thinking comes together and grows each year.  This year, I am looking forward to Thursday's sessions with Bud Hunt, Troy Hicks and Sara Kajder. I am also thrilled to be able to be part of the Elementary Section Get-Together in which Philippa Stratton will be honored. On Sunday, I'll be presenting with Mary Lee, Donalyn Miller, and Aimee Buckner.

I have been wanting to attend Educon at SLA for a few years . This year, I am planning to attending Educon 2.3 in January. I so appreciate that the bulk of this conference is over the weekend.  I have learned so much from the work of Chris Lehmann and all of the others who have been part of Educon that I am looking forward to hearing their latest thinking and in participating in this event. (If you have not heard Chris Lehman's TED talk or his graduation speech, they both give you a sense of what SLA is about.

In February, we will host the 22nd Dublin Literacy Conference. This year, professional speakers include Kelly Gallagher, Patrick Allen, Troy Hicks, and Christian Long. Children's authors include Brian Pinkney, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Wendy Mass and Loren Long.  (Site for that will be coming soon.)

In April, I will have the opportunity to hear Debbie Miller in Columbus. Debbie will be the speaker at The Literacy Connection's yearlong study. We will begin the year in October and we will study Debbie's newest book,  Teaching With Intention. In April, Debbie will do demonstration teaching as well as a workshop for participants. This yearlong study is always a highlight.  Last year, Samantha Bennett was amazing and I am so looking forward to learning from Debbie Miller this year.

And, I would LOVE to attend November Learning/BLC 11 again next summer. BLC10 was the best learning I've had in a long time and I find myself reflecting on the speakers there often.  Alan November and his group put on such an amazing event.

So, my year is packed with great learning opportunities already. I am sure some new events will pop up as the year goes on, but I find that a monthly dose of great thinking and learning is perfect for me.  It helps focus my thinking a bit when working with students.

November Learning--Building Learning Communities 2010

I attended one of the best conferences ever last week. My husband, Scott and I attended November Learning's BLC conference in Boston. WOW! It was an amazing experience. Every minute was worth it.

Alan November and his staff ran an unbelievable conference for educators across the world. This conference was one that I had heard about for a while and one that seemed worth going to. I had heard so many good things. When I first heard of Alan November and had the chance to hear him when he spoke in Ohio, my friend, Bill Bass said he was a "Presenter Ninja"! After hearing him speak and hearing more about BLC, I knew I had to go. Not only is Alan November a Presenter Ninja, but he is also a Conference Planning Ninja. He runs a conference that is life-changing for many who attend. It was not my usual--I typically attend literacy conferences and have been immersed in the literacy world for a while. One of the things I love about what Web 2.0 tools are allowing us to do is to connect groups of people that might not normally connect. So this was a new kind of learning for me and I am so glad I stretched myself a bit.

The conference was really not a tech conference, but more about learning and education. One of the things that was important to me was that every speaker had the same beliefs and philosophies about education and the same optimism about what is possible. Technology was definitely a part of everything, but the way tech is being used by the experts here is based in good learning theory. The belief in children and learning was ubiquitous.

Every minute was amazing. Every single session that I attended was worthwhile and gave me so much to think about.

All of the keynote speakers that we heard were amazing. The morning keynotes were given by Mitch Resnick, Michael Wesch, and Rahaf Harfoush. I can't even begin to share all of the thinking these people inspired. Adora Svitak was an afternoon keynote that I heard. I will post more about Adora later this week.

The conference also gave me an opportunity to hear, in person, some people who I have been learning about through blogs and twitter for a while. It was such a great experience to hear presentations given by so many people who have shared their work so willingly online. I will share more as I make sense of all I learned, but if you are looking for new people to follow or learn from, the people I heard have so much to offer through their blogs, twitter accounts, etc.

Since I took the semi-new job as a librarian, Joyce Valenza's work has been so important to my own thinking. Even though she is a high school librarian, her vision for her role has been very inspiring to me. I was able to hear two of Joyce's sessions at BLC and they were amazing. She shared about 10,000 new things--tools, sites, ideas that I need to explore further. If I could just be like Joyce Valenza in my own role...She definitely gave me so much to work toward.

I have been an Angela Maiers fan for a while. We share similar beliefs about elementary literacy instruction. She was actually one of the people who encouraged me to attend the conference and it was great to meet her in person. I was able to attend her session on writing (which I will write more about later this week). She has so many great resources on her site and it was powerful to hear her thinking in person.

I was also able to hear Lee Kolbert. So many of us in Dublin follow her on Twitter and read her blog regularly. It was great to hear the honest work that she is doing with kids. She is doing such amazing things with her students and was honest about the challenges that come with web 2.0 and elementary kids. Loved meeting her too!

I was also able to hear Marco Torres and Jeff Utecht. Marco gave me so many ideas about film and documentaries and Jeff Utech spoke about blended classrooms.

I also found new people to learn from:
Kathy Cassidy, an amazing 1st grade teacher.
Sue Miller and Valerie Becker from http://www.westtisbury-ma.gov/ who shared the work done in Sue's 5th grade classroom. (4 students presented with them in this session.)

Zoe Sprankle (Bob Sprankle's daughter) was a part of Angela Maiers' session. I will be sharing more about what I learned from her later in the week.

Shelley Paul shared her work with teachers and her course on teaching Web 2.0 tools. I had not heard her before but it was clear that her work is so powerful for teachers.

I captured pages and pages of my thinking on Evernote and can't wait to dig in and make sense of it all. I also took lots of pictures, as did other BLC10 participants.

I will be sharing more about the conference throughout the week. I have not had a learning experience like this one in years. I am anxious to make sense of it all and to continue my learning. The dates for 2011 are already set for late July and I am already looking forward to it. This conference is rather addicting. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who wants an amazing learning experience.