Carol Baldwin's Blog: NWRESA

Showing posts with label NWRESA. Show all posts

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Meet my First Guest Blogger: Joyce Hostetter

Many of you know that ever since the Lord brought Joyce Hostetter and I together four years ago at Mid-South Reading and Writing Institute, we've collaborated together in several different ways. We've co-taught at NWRESA and NCAIS; we've co-presented "Is there a Children's Book in You?" three times at NCCAT and are about to teach there once again as well as at NCRA. Of yes, and we publish Talking Story together. By now, you'd think we were joined by the hip and were tired of each other! But instead, we constantly learn from one another; right now she is teaching me how to use OneNote and I am teaching her about wikis.

Sometimes we pose for silly pictures together,

and sometimes we get silly when we meet at Panera Bread for lunch.

But, we're always happy to promote each other's books.

And now we're going to be guest bloggers on each other's blogs! So, without further ado, here is Joyce's first guest blog --which I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

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February is almost over and I've done nothing to acknowledge African-American History Month. I've hardly blogged at all, actually, but still - what kind of excuse is that?

This morning, my friend, Carol Baldwin unwittingly inspired me. She'd driven to Chapel Hill last night to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater live performance, Revelations. On her way home today, she called with all sorts of superlatives about the performance - "incredibly strong, controlled, liquid, amazing use of space". And more!

So naturally I scurried around to the video sites to get a feel for what I'd missed. Please watch this at full screen! It's not the same as a live performance but it will take you way beyond this tiny box of images.

Celebrating Revelations at 50 Film from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

Since FIX ME JESUS is one of my favorite spirituals, I can't help but share it here.

Want to know more? View a timeline of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater History.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Wikis & Writing Across the Curriculum

What could be a more engaging way to reinforce science and social studies facts (and to simultaneously stretch under-used imaginations) then to teach students how to write short stories that incorporate either scientific, historic, or cultural data into fiction? Yesterday at NWRESA, I taught a group of North Carolina teachers how to create and use wikis as a tool to accomplish this goal.

These are the wikis which they collaborated on. As you look through them, realize that these are "works in progress" and that they were each created and assembled in under two hours. As we reviewed them at the end of the day, I was impressed with the way each group of teachers came up with unique historical characters and science-inspired settings. If a random assortment of teachers can generate these story starters, what could your students produce?

As you navigate through these wikis, click on the blue hyperlinks. These are links which the teachers embedded to websites or other pages within their wiki.

http://ashleytrivette.pbworks.com/

http://frazierscience.pbworks.com/

www.wikhump.pbworks.com

http://rountreeclass.pbworks.com/A-Trip-through-the-body

http://mv6eagles.pbworks.com/Social-Studies-Character

http://evasreadingclass.pbworks.com/A-Soldier's-Dream

http://birdlady11.pbworks.com/George-Cousins

http://mrsklutzmusic.pbworks.com/Rockin'-Rollin'-and-Readin'

Part of my pleasure in training teachers is to watch them get excited about new concepts to use in the classroom. These teachers used a feedback form in which they answered, "I came expecting...." and "I got....."

One teacher wrote, "I came expecting something that would not help me in the classroom;" and "I got a thoroughly developed higher order thinking activity that I will use extensively."

Another shared, "I came expecting nothing;" and "I got a useful way to encourage students to write."

A third said, "I came expecting to read stories and write about them in some way;" and I got a great tool that I can use in my self-contained EC room."

I was pleased that several teachers valued the hands-on experience of learning a new technology tool which they could use to develop writing skills across subject areas.

As you look through these wikis I hope you will find ideas for how to start a wiki of your own. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] for information on a writing workshop using wikis in your school or district.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Lessons from NWRESA

At NWRESA in Wilkesboro, NC this week, I taught a talented group of teachers how to create blogs, wikis, & podcasts to use in their classrooms. Here are some of their lessons which they agreed to share with you as long as you know these are all "works in progress":

April Robinson a fourth grade math teacher at Oak Hill Elementary created this clever math wiki.

Stacy Miller, an academic coach in Alexander County is working on a collaborative book of student stories on their wiki.

Christie Ruff, put Bloom's Taxonomy chart on her class blog.

Tracy Chapman, an instructional technology coach in Alexander county is putting together this wiki for her teachers.

Lauren Dean has already been working hard adding to her language arts blog for South Davie Middle.

The teachers enjoyed working together to learn these new technologies--which mirrors the type of learning that goes on in classroom when wikis and blogs are utilized. As Sarah Hunt-Barron wrote in the Fall 2008 issue of the South Carolina English Teacher in her article, "Teaching for the Future: The Art of Collaboration through Wikis": [Wikis]...made my classroom a more democratic environment, where students contributions were all valued and voices could be heard."
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Friday, February 6, 2009

Using Technology for 21st-Century Writing

In conjunction with my workshop at NWRESA next week on Using Technology for 21^st Century Writing, I put together a handout for the teachers listing helpful websites. There is a serious push throughout the country for schools to incorporate technology into classrooms. As Karl Fisch commented on his poplar website for teachers, The Fischbowl, "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write."

To help those of you who daily strive to educate and inspire your students and meet state and national standards, I hope you will find this listing to be helpful.

GENERAL SUPPORT:

http://ebistro.org/index.html - Lesson plans, information & great NC resource!

http://www.unc.edu/~zuiker/blog-primer/ Good definition of blogs, wikis, and podcasts.

BLOG HOSTS:

https://www.blogger.com/start

http://mashable.com/2007/08/06/free-blog-hosts/

http://edublogs.org/ for teachers and students. Looks like a wiki. Can insert audio (wav) & video files. DO THE TUTORIALS!!

BLOG EXAMPLES:

http://carolbaldwinblog.blogspot.com – Mine. Focus on literacy.

http://www.thefischbowl.blogspot.com/ - Commentary on tech in education

http://ccms5.edublogs.org/- A simple 5^th grade blog.

WIKI HOSTS:

http://pbwiki.com (check out their support video http://pbwiki.com/content/supportcenter )

http://wikispaces.com

WIKI EXAMPLES:

http://redfontandrevision.pbwiki.com/ - Mine. Focuses on revision.

http://colearning.wikispaces.com/Administrators - Good example of a wiki use among teachers.

http://greenscribes8.pbwiki.com/ - 8^th graders studying the Holocaust

MOODLE:

www.moodle.org – like a wiki, but you can post more. Con: Lengthy download to your computer. I didn't find it as user friendly as pb.wiki

NING:

www.ning.com – must be over 13. Think: Facebook + wiki

http://ncte2008.ning.com / - NCTE's ning

http://www.classroom20.com / - Technology in the classroom

PODCASTS:

http://www.nch.com.au/acm/formats.html definition of audio files

http://www.podcasting-tools.com/blog.htm

http://www.podbean.com/ Supports: 3g2, .3gp, .mp3, .m4a, .ogg, .m4v, mp4, .flv, .mov, .avi, .mpg, .pdf, .doc, .ppt, .xls files

http://media-convert.com/ MY FAVORITE! (Being that it is the simplest).

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ This allows you to edit your podcast. Audacity can also be used for voice recordings at your computer.

http://www.goldwave.com/ Same as audacity.

PODCASTS PLUS BLOGS AND WIKIS:

http://opensourcemarketer.com/blog/blogging/how-to-add-podcasts-to-blog-posts/ - Specific details about adding podcasts to blogs that have used Wordpress.

Important note: Free WordPress.com blogs come with 3000 megabytes (3GB) of space for storing uploaded files and images.

The Space Upgrade gives you an additional 5, 15, or 25 Gigabytes of storage space, and allows you to upload music and video files in addition to images. You cannot upload music and video files without the space upgrade.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Using Life Experiences to Pump Up Your Writing

Here is my technical support as well as my young adult novel consultant, Anna Sattler.

Friday, August 29, 2008

“I’ll show you my artifacts if you show me yours!”

That was one of the last things I said to fellow NC author, Joyce Hostetter, on Wednesday afternoon after a day of planning our upcoming workshop at NCCAT. Joyce got into the theme of an archeological dig as she brainstormed off my reproducible "Mining Your Lives" from Teaching the Story. Thinking about how adult authors can "dig" into their own experiences to springboard into their writing, led us to an entire week's theme of digging, exploring, and finally, at the end, sharing "artifacts" (their written creations from the week) with one another. Is There a Children's Book in You? will be a week complete with time to "Voice Your Character," "Dig Into Problems," "Discover a Setting," and "Explore a Mood."

We had spent the morning at the Gaston County Library collaborating on our upcoming workshop for NWRESA, Using Life Experiences to Pump Up Your Writing. Joyce bounced off of my "Exercise Muscle Words" worksheet, played with the wrestling metaphor, and decided that each segment of the day would be labeled "Rounds." We're expecting the day to be a "knock out" for NC teachers who live in the northwest portion of our state.

This is the joy and fun of collaboration. As we laughed and bounced ideas off of one another, we thought of things that we might not have considered working on our own. For example, I would not have thought of posing with a statue outside the library. Joyce, as you can see in this picture, is a natural "let's think outside this box" person. Score a point for adults, as well as students, benefiting from the unexpected surprises of collaboration.

Remember the story about the blind men with the elephant? In this Asian tale, each man describes the same animal in a totally different fashion depending on his perspective. Check out Joyce's blog about our day together and discover how two authors can write about the same event in a totally different fashion. Hmmm…sounds like a good lesson plan for any grade teacher!

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Technology Toys & Tools

Last month when I was a presenter at NWRESA, I used this AVerVersion Document camera for the first time. After completing their "assignments" teachers used the camera to project their writing unto a screen so that everyone could comment on it. WOW! I found it to be a great tool for allowing everyone to give feedback to the writer who could then revise her work accordingly. I was impressed as I realized the classroom possibilities; little did I know about the range of technology toys and tools that can enhance writing instruction.

Spin forward two weeks. Today I talked with Steve Johnson, a technology facilitator who I met at NCCAT. He is writing the technology mini-lessons for the second edition of Teaching the Story. We are also writing a proposal for the National Gifted conference in Tampa next November entitled, "Beyond the Keyboard: Incorporating Technology into your Writing Curriculum." I am so excited about the possibilities that will open up as students use not only document cameras, but wiki's, MP3 players, Powerpoints, and a host of other technology that Steve is dreaming up to teach fiction writing. Stay tuned for updates!

For all of you who have already bought a copy of my book, I'll make sure that you receive these technology lessons also. Just e-mail me with and I'll pass your name along to Maupin House.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Put Pizzazz into your Students’ Writing: Using Fiction Techniques to Write Grab-You-by-the-Collar Expository Essays

Lured by my title, twenty-seven elementary and middle school teachers joined me yesterday at NWRESA in Wilkesboro, NC. With the common goal of improving students' test scores (the specter which haunts many language arts teachers), we looked at how students can improve their essays by adding voice, using "show don't tell writing", and utilizing effective syntax. Along the way we detoured into "the land of critical thinking" as we analyzed low-scoring narrative and expository essays (from Jane Kiester's book, Blowing Away the State Writing Assessment Test) and re-wrote them in a student's voice. Collaboration ruled the day as teachers enjoyed the interaction with their peers, were further validated in their teaching skills, and learned a few more tricks of the writing trade to bring back to their classrooms.

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