Spring into Training

Sunset at T-Ball by Stuck in Customs
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Tim Walker, historian, writer and teacher shares ways to improve your work capabilities through specific "deliberate practice". His use of the Professional Baseball Spring Training analogy is effective and fun to read. This would be a good article for teachers to use with students. It's a good place to start when thinking of professional development or streamlining work to make it more fun.

clipped from www.hooversbiz.com Those baseball players, young and old, go through practice regimes of increasing intensity over the weeks, preparing themselves to play full-bore by Opening Day. The best of them hone their games, winter and summer, through deliberate practice. in the business world could emulate ballplayers in their systematic pursuit of improvement. Here’s what I’ve come up with: Break your WORK down into components.

Get to the Point....PLEASE!

Inside the Monument - London by nick.garrod
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Today's post is an editorial statement that professional blogs should be written in a professional manner!

Have you ever had a teacher who took half the class time for their lesson introduction, aka anticipatory set? Well, it seems that can also happen online. Today, I read an author's post that rambled across the topic throughout half the blog, and the introduction still didn't INTRODUCE the main focus of the article.

I am wondering if I should have higher expectations for a university official with a doctorate than a high school student?

What could the author do to more effectively get to the point? I think the wandering blogger should eliminate the top part of the post, it wouldn't have been missed. Minimally, the author could let the post rest and look at it again later. Maximally, a university official could enlist an editor.

This experience taught me a good lesson today. Every story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, and the author should not make you wander in the desert before they get to the point. It takes time to read or even scan recommended articles, and TIME is a fixed parameter, even in the virtual world.

March Math Madness

Each year, Pi Day becomes more of an exciting learning opportunity for students, teachers and a growing number of the general public. The day can be a culminating experience or a jumping off spot for learning all the cool math surrounding Pi that is appropriate to your grade level. Next to the 100 Day (Zero to Hero) celebration, I think Pi Day is one of the most celebrated math days in schools.

If you participate in Pi Day, please share your links or descriptions of your celebrations...including pictures.

If you haven't started using Pi Day as a jumping off point for great learning and an opportunity for greater technology integration, you can start by reading Pi R Not Square, Pi R Round!. You will find a variety of ideas that can be implemented right away, as well as ways to make your celebration coordinate with others in your Professional Learning Network.

Dandelions and Spring Cleaning

meadow by gato-gato-gato
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As Spring comes closer in the Northern Hemisphere, it seems to me that a little preparation is in order. Spring on the prairie is quite lovely, and it is breathtaking to see the rolling hills fill with the various hues of greens, yellows, blues and purples of spring.

While I was Spring Cleaning (early), I came across a wonderful book that I would like to share with my Professional Learning Network.

If you want to share the feel, the look and the mood of the prairie, read Dandelions, one of my favorites. Written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Greg Shed, Dandelions tells the story of a family who traveled from Illinois to Nebraska Territory to homestead the "grass sea" we call the prairie.

I will warn you that it is a powerful story, so you might want to have a tissue at hand.

Anticipate and Skype Your Reaction

Impatience by mdezemery
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Integrating technology organically turns the unobtrusive, the familiar into something new and unique.

These are Skype techniques that belong to the Anticipation Reaction learning strategy family.

• If students are away from class, but able to virtually participate, they can watch, text and be viewed through Skype.

• Total class involvement: ask or display a question, statement or problem in class, then students answer through Skype. Begin the discussion after all have answered.
  

• If a student wants to ask a question, they can ask in private, through Skype, without other students knowing, if they are shy or think it would be embarassing.

After all anticipatory answers are received by the teacher and discussed in class, students can skype their reactions(answers)to the lesson. Changing some answers and leaving others as they were originally skyped will encourage student learning in a non-threatening environment using this user-friendly, ubiquitous online web application.

Opportunity to Comment: Activating Links

Power Law of Participation by Ross Mayfield
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Commenting on a blog post helps the reader/commentator and the blog author. The author of the blog always benefits from the feedback of their colleagues and other readers, while the commentator benefits by sharing their ideas and related links. Even though anyone can write an adequate blog, there are many tips that will boost the efficacy of a blog. You can make the process faster and the writing better. The same could be said for the commentator.

When you take the time to comment and add to the conversation, I think you should include related links, including those that are directed to similar postings of your own. I am not alone in this opinion. There are many blog postings that explain why it's important to add appropriate and active links when commenting. This is a typical point about commentators linking through there comments:

Many bloggers (myself included) believe that good comments should be rewarded with a link back to the commenter's site (if they so choose to include one). However, the way you go about commenting and including a link will clearly demonstrate whether you are there to contribute or merely to take.

David Wallace, of SearchRank.


When commenting and adding to the educational professional development conversation, I hope you will use the .html that will give you an active link here on this blog that refers to the blog or website you are quoting. Here's how to insert the url and name of the link you want to activate:




Why do I hope you will do this? I want to continue the conversation. If your link in your comment is not active, most people will not take the time to copy and paste your link. We all benefit from your investment of time to learn this little bit of code used in Blogger, because your links will be active. Readers will have an opportunity to learn more and continue the professional development conversation. That helps all of us improve our educational practice which directly improves the educational experience of students as well.

The caveat is that many other blogging platforms use a different snippet of code, but you can learn these also. The more you practice adding active links, the more effective you will become in adding value to each conversation. Isn't that one of the reasons why we collaborate in our Professional Learning Network?

I'm Here!

Finally back on Utterli, and wanted to say something funny. Hee! Yup! That's it! That is probably as funny as it gets.

Mobile post sent by n2teaching using Utterli.  Replies.

When I began my serious pursuit of professional development in technology education, I was lucky enough to be guided by a remarkable colleague, Jennifer Jones. She was one of the first people to friend me on Twitter, and she was not just looking for more followers or trying to check out the competition. Jennifer truly believes in the power of collaboration and learning through technology education. She is a remarkable technology educator, and she has a wonderful family who share in her passion for learning and having fun.

Twitter was the first microblogging site I joined, so in the fall of 2007 when Jennifer said she was checking out a microblogging site with video and audio capabilities, I decided that I needed to check it out. That is when I joined UTTERZ. Also, I joined Susan Tsairi another wonderful online colleague, and we began to use Utterz. Also, I put the really cool UTTERLI widget at the bottom of this blog.

This was also about the time that my teen began to see that I now had a significant online presence. I never really knew how that was perceived by my child, but I gathered the word "nerd" and "geek" were synonymously replacing my name whenever the teen and friends would discuss my move to online professional development. Well, no one can say I am not a thorough student.

I was very excited about the possibilities of using UTTERZ, but even dedicated students such as myself can succumb to family relational pressure. I stopped sharing my online professional development experience with the teen when I was asked if I would be using Twitter and Utterz, and it was sadi in such a way that I had to laugh at the interesting, yet nonsensical names of the various educational networks I joined.

Fortunately, UTTERZ changed their name to UTTERLI, and I greatly appreciate it. To utter on paper is so much different than to utter in conversation, and it began to wear on my traditionalist, farm country sensibilities. THANK YOU!

I love UTTERLI, and the people who make it all happen. They have added conferencing capabilities, cross-posting, desktop applications and many other cool services. Try it! This microblogging/podcasting services is UTTERLI fantastic.