Cyber Comp 10

2008-12-09T13:10:00.001-08:00

I am just checking to see if I can still use this blog.

2004-09-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is an historic bridge which crosses the Missouri River from Nebraska to South Dakota and leads right into down town Yankton. It was originally a pontoon single lane bridge, then it became a two lane draw bridge which could be raised and lowered depending upon river traffic. Many years ago a second, lower deck was added with one way traffic on each deck. Now it is badly in need of repair and has far exceeding its projected lifetime. As plans go forward to put in a new bridge further up the river, a restoration group is trying to save the Meridian bridge as a walking bridge. This is just one more bit of history which may disappear and this possibility makes me sad.
Meridian Bridge

2004-09-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Pat,
I'm revising the article we wrote for ACE and fixing the link to this blog. So I thought I'd post a welcome for visitors to read our Blogger exchange here. Please refer back to the article if you'd like to contact either Pat or I about our collaborative experiences using web based communication tools.
Dawn

2004-05-23T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well, Dawn, it looks like this poor blog fell by the wayside. But I think I will now use it for justjournaling as you are doing on yours. I need to get into the habit of journaling as I go along. It will be much easier than trying to recapture my thoughts hours or days later. Here is to a new try at journaling. Hope I am faithful at it.
Pat

2004-02-29T07:25:00.000-08:00

I am trying to view this site but it isn't cooperating.

2004-02-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

I will add that to the form. I have three forms right now and will send themto you as attachments. One is a request for information (maybe you can help me with that title) another is a request for interview for the interviewee, and another is an interview release form. I am working on the rest of my imput for our web site today because FINALLY we have a snow day and i actually have some time.
See you tomorrow 9:00 sharp. I emailed Nancy but never got a reply. Did you?
Pat

2004-01-29T12:16:00.000-08:00

Pat,
I talked with my social studies colleague and he's excited to collaborate on this project. He helped me develop topic ideas per decade, so i'll do something with those on the web. He's also going to help with the process and give a grade for a social studies component.

I thought of one more place to send the letter to. We have an area college, the one i graduated from, in fact. It's been around since the late 1800s. Anyway, since it is also part of our county's history, they may know of people who would be good to interveiw.

Can you add something to the letter about "would the individual be willing to travel to the school to meet with the student during his/her class time?" Since i have 9th graders, they are not going to be able to go in cars anywhere.
Talk to you soon, Pat.
Dawn

2004-01-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hi Pat,
It's January already and I am feeling guilty about neglecting you. I have copied everything from your last post and pasted into Word. I will go visit sites and respond to your questions. Then, we should meet in the Moo and record that session. I will work on this today. I am also going to email you at school to let you know that I posted this message. Dawn

2003-11-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

Dawn,
To start thinking about our project, I did a google search and thought you might find some of the following links interesting.
http://www.stpaul.k12.or.us/foxfire_project1.htm
http://learnweb.harvard.edu/2821/cu4.cfm
http://www.indiana.edu/~cshm/teaching.html
http://www.bland.k12.va.us/bland/rocky/gap.html
http://www.tellmeyourstories.org/ there is a complete curriculum here.
http://www.doingoralhistory.org/
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/
http://www.edheritage.org/
http://www.mwvschooltocareer.com/foxfire.html
http://www.vermontcommunityworks.org/exemplars/exemp9-12/funky/Funkyvideo.html

There are many many more, but I don't want to overwhelm you. Some things to ponder,
1. Do we want to make this a general "Foxfire type" project or do we want to narrow to one time period or one subject - veterans, depression era survivors, etc.

2. Do we want to do it as a web project or would we want to make it a videotaped project which we put on the web?

3. Do we want kids to work in groups or as individuals, and if as groups have them do one area or group of people?

4. Do we want to use the name FoxFire in our project name? I think Wiggenson was eventually jailed for something so maybe we want a more original name.

5. Do we want this to be a solely English project or an English/Social Studies project?

6. How long of a time span do we want this project to take?

I think I will copy this all into the Blog so I can keep track of our questions.

Pat

2003-11-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Pat,
I do want to do an article with you. I guess we need to brainstorm a structure and purpose first. I would like to know what Nancy has in mind, if anything, first. I plan on being in the moo tonight, so if she's there, we can ask her then. Thanks for liking the EJ article. I am really please with how it turned out. I think it has a lot to say, but lament that the "real' list is dead. I went to the BB once, and have not been back. I will stick with Eric forever. I wish NCTE would not have changed what worked so well. I still don't get it at all. Hey, for next year's convention, you could come to my house and we could drive to Indianapolis together. It's a six hour drive for me. That would be fun. And yes, we could meet halfway sometime, though I don't see being able to do that until summer. It could be fun though. I think that what you are doing in your school with integrating technology is phenomenal. You are certainly doing much more than I am. I am at a sort of disadvantage though, in that there are not many on our staff who are embracing the cyber approach. I could be more of a cheerleader, that is for sure, but lately, I barely have time to manage to meet my own goals. It is exciting to hear about all you are doing though. Well, got to go and get a few other things done before the end of the day. "See you" in the moo tonight where you can all bow down and honor my greatness for a change. That princess doctor person is such a media hog and it's about time someone dethrones her. : ) Love you, Pat. Dawn

2003-11-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

HI Dawn, Friday sounds fine and I can make a note to mayself to remember to blog then, or you can blog on Friday and I can blog on Saturday and maybe we will actually have a conversation.
I was in the MOO and Nancy really wants an article from us so I guess we had better try.
BTW, My English Journal came today, and even though I haven't had a chance to carefully read it yet, what I've read is terrific. I really think we should try to present again next year on our cyber classes. Maybe separate from Nancy, I don't know. She always puts us under the Middle Mosaic and neithe of our classes really fit there. Maybe we should ask her and Gretchen what they think. And as it is at Indianapolis next year, we should be able to do it.
I went to mapquest to figure out how far apart we are. It would be a good day's drive. We should meet half way sometime - Albert Lee maybe. But probably not in the winter.

Our interdisciplinary collaboration is going well. If you check the kids web sites, look for the Lewis and Clark Project online newspaper (which doesn't look much like a newspaper I'm afraid.

We will be doing our African Safari in December I guess. We are working on setting up the webquest now. I think after they do one, our next joint project should be to have the kids construct their own webquest. We will just have to see what subject we can all work on together. I am getting the directions slowly up on http://www.ysd.k12.sd.us/~cybersoph which is also where you go to get to the kids web sites. I have to spend some time visiting yours this year and looking at your kids things. One new thing I have up this year is our A River Runs Through It Project. The project worked well, but the kids on the whole did not like the book. The kids who fish did, the others not so much. I suppose it was 50/50. I think next time I might cheat and show them the movie, have them note quotes, and then have them do the project.
They have watched October sky and written essays, but those aren't up yet, and they are just finishing writing short stories which suprised me. I think the kids have learned something! Next we are doing lit circles with short stories and my multigenre web project on a short story of each groups choice. They are also picking their independent books so they can work on that also.
The neat thing about this cyberclass collaboration is that it means that I have these kids for the whole year. We have semester classes and I may have the same kids for the whole year, but not necessarily in the same classes. This way the kids stay together, and I can combine the two classes and have them do reading and writing both semesters. They are also making powerpoints in biology and geography, writing essays in both, doing brochures and other cool projects in geography, some of which are also on their comp sites but many on their geography and biology pages. We need to work a little more on the websites, but they also have to work on them some in the other classes and the teachers are being good about it.
Our young geography teacher (well young compared to me, but he does have a soph son in the class) is incredible. He hadn't done too much with technology before he started this, but he has abandoned a textbook and makes them find all of their information on the internet. He has really stepped to the side and put the kids in charge of their education. It is cool.
The kids are already logged on and checking out their assignments when the bell rings and still working when the bell rings to end class.

I got a discussion board up. this year I used an ez board, but I put front page discussion boards for biology and geography.
Because of our server and some problems, they didn't work too well, and the kids reacted rather as we have to the NCTE BBs. So, I contacted Eric and he set up a cybersoph list serve for them to use. We used it a lot when they were reading A River Runs Through it, but haven't used it much again. They will use it when they do the short stories, but I am going to start posting questions and see if I can get them talking. It is really great. I am paying Eric $50 for setting it up and the school is reimbursing me. I told him the kids would change each year, but I may keep these kids on and just add next years sophs and then they can talk to each other.
A funny thing has happened. The sophs have, on their own, found seniors who will serve and sort of peer editors for them, and are getting the seniors to give them feeback on their papers. Isn't that cool? We don't have cyber mentors yet, but will work toward it.
I use the reviewing/add comment with my kids on their papers, and they use it for their peer conferencing. It works really well. Though I did have a good laugh when one little girl, five weeks into the semester said, "I can't figure what you mean by what you highlighted in this paper. I usually can figure it out but I don't know why you highlighted this." It was a part that I had highlighted to tell her how effective that part was. I showed her how to hold her cursor over the highlighted part and she was amazed. I was amazed that she had been able to do the revisions all that time just by seeing that I had highlighted something.

I agree with you. The keyboard does not obscure who we are. Interesting thing, my cybercomp class is one of the noisiest ones I have. They are all calling each other to show what they have found, or what they have written, or emailing bits of writing to each other or, lord help me, listening to music. Though we have gottensome head phones so that i don't have to listen to 10 different kinds of music while they are writing.

Well, I am off to watch CSI and then hit bed early. I'll see what you put up on Friday, and respond sooner. I also need to read your article. I saw that you mentioned our all time mentor Ted, and then some spurious person who you have mentored. :-)
Catch you later.
Pat

2003-10-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

Hi Pat,
Here I am. Sorry. I would most likely Blog from school, so maybe FRiday is a better day. Let me know what you think. Yes, we can use this blog to discuss ideas for the ACE article. I'm not sure the moo is good, since it doesn't keep a record for us.

BTW, how's your interdisciplinary collaboration going?

I am having a good year so far. This is my third year in CyberEnglish and I have some ideas for change as always, but the basic stuff is serving me well so far. This Wednesday, the kids are going to use the discussion list I made in FrontPage to talk about the book we're reading, the young adult novel Speak. I'll let you know how that goes. I also want to use the computers for more than web publishing. For example, I want to use the editing feature/add comment in Word to do a back and forth thing with the kids. I used that with L.Reid who edited my article for the E.J. and it was a wonderful experience. I had used it before, but really had a great sense of how the editor/writer relationship can develop using that tool. And sort of like email, you can get a sense of the other person by their comments and their ideas.

I am beginning to see how our conversations with each other using email and other kinds of technology does not obscure who we are as people. There were those who feared this very thing, that computers would make us all robots. I think it has given us another rhetorical space as Nancy P. calls it and we, as adaptable humans, have adapted. Our voices, meaning our personalities, come through loud and clear.

It's almost like the keyboard is a more direct conduit to our voices than pen an paper are. I have no proof of this, only an inkling that it's true.

Anyway, I'm off to a journalism board meeting tomorrow, but I will try much harder to blog with you regularly. My life is an asylum this year, and i just have to find creative ways to balance it all.

Best to you,
Dawn

2003-10-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hey Dawn,
If we are going to do an article for AcE online, maybe we should keep this Blog going so we can put a link to it for our article and use it as one of our genres. What do you think? Then link to our two websites. What else?
Pat

2003-08-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

Okay Dawn, my class starts on August 25. I am going to try to remember to post once a week with at least a summary of what we did that week. We are starting with pretesting for the research project and then we are goingto jump right in to our first unit on Lewis and Clark.
Pat

2003-07-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

Great Idea Dawn. Why don't we set Saturday as the day for checking and responding, unless you do your blogging from school and then we could do it on Friday. I am curious to see how my great collaboration works this year.

Pat

2003-07-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hey Pat, Let's definitely do this again next year and set a designated day for checking and responding to messages. What do you think? Proud to be with you in spirit. Dawn

2003-05-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hi Dawn,
Well, it has been a long time since I have communicated with you. I got really busy with setting up our units for our cybersophs next year, getting registered for two weeks of Advanced Technology in teaching and learning workshop, responding to the invitation to serve on the committee to set cut scores for proficiency levels on our South Dakota STEP test, and a million other things. We have one more week to go in cybercomp 10. Kids are finishing research papers. About half the class is finished and doing some other things for fun while we wait foor the rest to finish. Their deadline in next Tuesday, so Ihope they all make it. I have learned a lot this semester and have a whole file of changes I am going to make for next year. Some things worked great, others not so great. I had plenty of resources for my kids, but a few of them just did not go to them and read them. There are still two whose first move is to ask me how to do something, even though I have put step by step directions online. But these are the same kids that in a traditional class do not look at the handouts or listen when you give directions, or copy notes from the board and then ask you for more help two days past the due date. I have discovered that the cyber class works really well with my Special Ed kids. They do need a bit more help, but they also take to the computer things like mad.
Of course now I have a bunch of research webs and other things to grade. We are ending our semester with a film and a reflective cyber journal. The film gives me time to grade things for my seniors for whom I have to turn in grades by 8:00 Thursday Morning, even though our year doesn't end until Friday.
Any chance at all that you will get to SF? Even to help with the workshop. Wouldn't that be the same as presenting for your school to help pay for it. I really wanted a chance to talk to you F2F. Maybe we can meet in the MOO sometime. Which reminds me, Where have you been in the MOO lately?
I will write more later. Have a good rest of the year and let me know how the rest of your year goes.
Pat

2003-04-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Good morning Pat,
Something you said in your email to me was important so I'm pasting it here and commenting on it: "This years class is busy working on research papers and I have really enjoyed the way these kids have taken charge of their work and learning this semester." This is exactly what I am starting to see as well. I think last year's group was better at using my web page to check calendars, review assignment details, view rubrics, gain access to resources, etc. than this year's group is, but I am starting to see more and more kids becoming independent. This idea that they should take charge of their learning seems really important, especially for my ninth graders.

Now I don't know how your middle school is or how most are, but in our district, ms teachers seem not to expect much student responsibility. It's not just me, but my colleagues also, have seen how our freshmen come in completely unprepared to succeed in high school. They don't bring (yes, some do) basic materials on a daily basis. They don't get work done on time. They don't use class time to work. I've seen several who are in my study hall just sit and stare for the entire period. It's very frustrating. These kids know when they come to me that what I expect is for them to be personally responsible, not that they ask the kid next to them for a pen instead of me, but that they take seriously their need to come prepared, to listen, to follow directions, to work hard, and to learn. It don't know if the cyber approach can be said to be responsible for pushing kids towards this kind of responsibility, but it might be. I am happy to hear you say that you think it does that for you. Perhaps because in a cyber approach, the way Ted did it and you and I are doing it, the focus of "giver of information" moves from the teacher primarily to the website, as extension of teacher, of course, but the website also connects students with Internet resources. Plus, if students can only get details from me during our class period (or other times during the day IF they stop in), they are forced to rely on me. I don't think what I am trying to say is coming through here. Maybe you can help.

What I am also trying to say is that because students can get all kinds of information about the class from the website any time of day, they can rely on themselves more and not have to make that personal connection with me. It's like asking the teacher to spell a word for you versus looking it up in the dictionary. Now I'm not suggesting that we lose all personal contact with students, but if those aggravating little details that "lazy" kids forget on a daily basis stop being what we talk about, maybe our interaction with our students can rise above that. For example, as I made my way around the room this week, my kids and I talked about the "hows" and "whys" of their genre choices. They ask me, "can I" or "what if" questions that show me they are really thinking about the multigenre project. Of my 73 students, only five did not have all genre pages done by this last deadline. I find that amazing. And, for the most part, they are accomplishing their work without major help on my part. They are learning to rely on themselves for what they need. They see that I expect them to make decisions about their writing, not only the topic, but from then on, every little thing connected with it. And for the most part, their decisions have been really good. I do think this makes them feel good about themselves and adds to their sense of responsibility. Of course the multigenre approach facilitates some of this but adding the computers helps a lot, at least I think so.

I am going to stop rambling now. I do want to know what you think.

By the way, congratulations on your integration project. I hope it goes well. I wonder what will become of your program when the school says, "Hey this is great. We want all the kids in this grade level to experience this kind of learning." I hope you have the leadership and the funding to make it stay once you've worked so hard. In my experience, when you try to make it fit for everyone (and that's a logical next step), it kills it because it's too big and there are too many variables that ruin the process. I wish you the best though. Your school sounds more committed than most.

2003-04-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hi Dawn,
Sorry I am so late. I have been checking the web blog but did not come in here so the last one I saw was my 3/9 entry.
Today the geography/world history and the biology teachers and I got the whole day to workon our curriculum for next fall. The principal hired substitutes to cover for us. We got the first quarter unit planned and started on the second quarter unit. It is really great planning together because both of them are so enthusiastic. The young man who teached social studies isn't quite as computer literature and the biology teacher and I (and we are taking an advanced technology workshop the first two weeks of June together), but he is really enthusiastic. We have to do one integrated unit a quarter for our action research project and for our grant. We already have our wireless laptops but the kids won't get theirs until fall.
We won't have some of the problems you had because of the grant. We each have the same 25 kids. No new kids can be added to the class because of the grant and also because of the dedication of our principal and superintendant to this class. They will have geography third period, composition 4th period and biology 5th period. Share a common lunch, and the three of us will have 7th hour planning periods.
The unit we set up today was based on our river (the Missouri) and The bicentenial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Their final product is going to be an online newspaper written in the style of 200 years ago. They will be doing journaling, mapping, studying ecological issues, habitat change, creative writing written on a What if scenario _what if L and C had never made the trip, etc. Several writings, a powerpoint, journals, etc. will all be part of the newpaper. We will include field trips to the river and the Visitor's center who has an extensive L and C display.
Since 6 trait writing across the curriculum has been one of our NCA goals, all of our teachers are used to evaluating writing using the 6 trait rubric. They have been doing it for four years and are all sold on it. I am getting really excited about our cross-curricular course. Our second unit is going to be an African safari which will result in a multigenre/multimedia presentation on geography (social studies) culture (my section) and diseases (biology - viruses, etc.) of Africa.
Our 25 students will each have a wireless laptop 24/7 so sharing a lab won't be a problem. The school is dedicated to getting this class up and running and, if the research pans out, keeping it going in subsequent years. That helps a lot I think.
Pat

2003-03-25T16:22:00.000-08:00

Hi Pat,
Sorry it's been awhile. I've had computer problems. My home computer needed a makeover, and we're not quite there yet, but I'm back online. The web pal thing is going okay, I think. To tell you the truth, I'm not really monitoring it. I'm sort of letting it happen. I will know better when I get reports from Angelo's people about how it went. But I don't think they are very into technology or writing. It's a required class: Teaching of Writing--kind of a writing across the curriculum class that's required for preservice teachers. Some of my students are enjoying the correspondence; some are not. I guess that's normal.

Now about my science/U.S. history connection: I think CyberEnglish killed it actually. In order for all the ninth graders to share the laptop lab, we had to stagger the classes so that we don't have the block of time in the morning anymore. Also, there are other problems. There are transfer students in those classes or in mine that the others don't have. There are repeating sophomores sometimes, too. And, this semester, a whole section of kids went to a different teacher so my teammate could teach another section of psych. The one great thing we did do was an integrated semester exam, but we can't do that this year. I can send you information on that though, if you want. It was a web project.

We found it difficult to integrate no matter what the integration gurus say. I have "pushed" science and social studies, even health topics with my students for their multigenre web project. Some took the bait. So that's integration I guess.

I see my role as a teacher of skills more than content, which fits in well if you're going to integrate. Still, it's a raw deal for the English teacher to always be the one who has to evaluate for writing traits. I imagine if the teachers you're working with had some common planning time and you laid out your curriculums, you'd find some content commonalities. You can start there.

The web page is a wonderful integrating tool. Students can use technology to show what they know across the curriculum.

But to answer your question, no, we don't plan lessons together. Part of that is my fault. I'm too busy to meet with my people. Plus, they're not really into it, and I kind of feel like they want me to do all the imagining and planning. They're great guys, just not that into working hard. : )

BTW, I submitted an article for EJ in which I mentioned you and our cyber connections here. I imagine if they want to publish it, they will contact you to get permission to include your name. I wrote about modeling our approaches on Ted, you on me, etc. Also, I mentioned that we have this blog to communicate and keep record. Hope that's okay with you.

Hope all is well.
Spring break starts in only three days!!!!!! DH and I and some friends are headed to Florida.
Dawn

2003-03-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hi Dawn,
Well, how did the cyber pal thing go or that is how is it going. I have a question. We are setting up our classes for the grant for next fall. There will be my cybercomp 10 and a section of Forms of Fiction so that I have the equivalent of a sophomore English class, one section of a year long soph biology class and a section of geography/world history 2 which will also run two semesters. All of these classes will have the same kids, and we three teachers are trying to coordinate some activities. I know you have some connection with a science class and a social studies class. Do you plan together for some units or are each of you completely separate?
Pat

2003-02-20T06:37:00.000-08:00

Hi Pat,
I am lagging behind. Too many irons in the fire (I can't even come up with my own metaphor). Congratulations, Woo, hoo!!!, on the grant for the laptop lab. I know you'll love it. Expect some glitches to start, but if your tech people support you, it will go well. I have saved the url to your cyber comp page in my favorites, but I also want to put a link to your site on mine. I will try to do that today.

Today is sort of a landmark day for me and my class. My students will be responding to the first email from their web pal, a teacher education student from St. Xavier University in Chicago. Meg H. got me connected with her professor from there and he and I worked this little web pal thing out. I hope it will be fun for my students, educational for his (maybe even educational for some of mine!!!!), and something that we can continue in the future. The sharing will last only six weeks, but it is better than not having the experience at all. Plus, if it went on all year, I imagine that some of my students would take it for granted.

Any word about San Franciso??? Where has the doctor princess been lately anyway????

Talk to you soon, Pat.
dawn

2003-02-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Dawn,
What's up. I visited your site and your students' web pages. Most of my kids are doing great at this cyberclass, but I have about three who are failing miserably. But then they would be failing a traditional class because they are wasting class time and just not doing the work. I guess there is no way to stop that. Anyway, just wanted to touch base with you. Oh, yeah, I got the grant for the laptop lab I applied for last September. Didn't find out until last Friday. Take care and ge back on a blog darn you.
Pat

2003-02-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Dawn,
Hey, things are looking up. I think I was only asked one question today. Today was cyberjournal day (every Friday) and they were all hard at work when I came into the class. Then they are working on descriptive essays and personal narratives for their fairy tale site.

i am going to make them listen to me a few minutes next week and we will talk about audience and try to visualize our audience. Did you ever get any cyber mentors for your kids? i am thinking of approaching some people at the local college.

I am still at school because I have to work a basketball game tonight. If you want to see what the kids have done so far you can catch them on http://ps044.k12.sd.us/subweb/cybercomp_10 and then click on students' work.
Pat

2003-02-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Dawn,
Well, we all have our websites up, most have at least two cyber journal entries and have done their October Sky essays, which are not all that good because I wasn't here to prepare them, and it was the first thing they wrote. We are now started on a lot of other things. Today we go to wtch the school's contest one act play and tomorrow we are back at work. They will be discussing their partner books on our discussion board. They will also be working on their fairy tale autobiographies. One neat thing is the way the students are logged on and working before the bell even rings.

it is still early days for my kids and they have a lot of questions,most technical. I am still helping them a lot this week, but by next week I am going to tell them to check out the help page or their partners before they ask me. One thing they do is email their rough drafts with their peers comments to me for my review and then they email their final drafts to me. i can use the Word reviewing function. Some are starting to put them directly into their web pages, though, which means I have to go into their website to read their things and then email them my comments. How do you handle teacher review/edit, or don't you do that step?

I haven't talked to my kids too much about audience yet. I just want them to get on first. That is going to come with their next major paper. (can we still call them papers?)

One great thing about FrontPage is that when they open it, it opens right online, so whenever they save a page or their work it automatically goes onto their website and we don't have to worry about ftp . i know a lot of people don't like FP but it works well for my kids.

I hope you will excuse all the lower case letters. There is something wrong with this old keyboard at school (which is where I am, while my fiction kids are all on computers working on their quotes project over Montana 1948) and I have trouble capitalizing.

Threatened, intimidated, or jealous are great words. I see that too, so I just shut up, close my door, and do what i want. One of the things that adds to their feeling threatened is that i have the full support of the District special services director who writes technology grants and is applying for a grant to get a wireless laptop lab for this class, the Superintendant, and our Principal who was a computers and math teacher. They are afraid that pressure will be brought to bear on them to do the same thing, or at least use the computers more because of NCLB and the fact that our state tests are taken online.

Well, I see some hands waving, so I had better click out for today.Pat

2003-01-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

Wow, Pat.
I am sorry about your father-in-law. About your class, you and your kids have accomplished quite a bit in a short time. I have no doubt that you will find this cyber approach to be very successful. We'll have to talk about audience and students responsibility sometime. I do agree that when there is something to put on the web site right away, the need to learn to use FrontPage is greater and more meaningful. And I think we both see these student sites as functional, and not as much an exercise in aesthetics. Let me know how the peer edit goes. I'm not sure which activity from Ted's site you're using. I took some things from there but modified quite a bit to create my own.

Let me know when I can go look at those sites also.

Now about my collegues reaction. I was stunned by how cold they were when I first showed them my site and tried to explain the approach. Either they didn't get it at all, and I know this is still the case for one person in my department, or they were threatened or intimidated or JEALOUS?????!!! It took quite awhile for them to sort of see what I was doing. Overall, there are very few teachers in our school who are even interested in a web approach. Lots have web pages, but they don't use them as a tool for teaching. Also, we are having trouble with maintaining a smooth transition for our students with their web pages due to a change in our tech administrator.

But, all in good time I guess. Sometimes I feel that I'm the only advocate for students web pages and that's frustrating.

Have a relaxing weekend.
dawn

2003-01-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

Dawn,
Well my semester got off to a rocky start. It started on thursday, 1/16. On that day my cyber kids went on a tour of their class web site and checked everything else. On Friday, we watched the powerpoint on using FrontPage and they started putting up their web sites. Then My father-in-law died and we had to go to north Carolina so i missed the next Monday, tuesday and Wednesday. I had them watch October Sky while I was gone since they had just started this cyber class and had no idea what they were doing yet. When i got back last thursday and friday, they worked on writing their october Sky essays, and also on the practice peer review exercise that is on Ted's site. They also chose partners and books for their partner book project. Now this week I feel like we are really getting started, but we have been doing a variety of things, working on websites, OS essays, finishing practice peer reviews, peer reviewing their OS essays and revising them. They also did one cyberjournal, but they did it in Word and will put it up on their website this week. I am devoting today and tomorrow to everyone getting their websites started. They should have their homepage, their web folio cover page, a page for their October Sky essay and a page for their Cyber Journal up by thursday and on Friday should be able to cyber journal online and finish up the october sky essays and start their first short story project.
How long do you devote at the beginning to teaching them FrontPage and getting the start of their websites up? Once they understand how to add new pages and actually do a couple, i know it will be very easy for them, but I think it will take about four days to teach 20 kids Frontpage and get those initial pages up. It seemed to go faster last semester, but then we actually had done some writing first and the kids put up their webpages after they had something to put on it.

As to reactions from colleagues? Mixed. My department chair is very supportive and loves my site. A couple have said amazing site and that they are going to borrow some of the assignments from it, but they aren't going cyber, A few are tight lipped and say "we aren't going to have to do this are we?" And some are completely indifferent. However, One of our biology teacher's wants to work with me next year and get her class on line and so with the principal's help, we are going to set up the two classes with the same students. We will have to have the same kids in comp also in my second semester forms of fiction class since English classes are one semester and biology classes are all year. But i think many collegue's feel threatened, like if I do this they will be forced to too.

I am presenting a session on integrating the WWW into English Classes with Darcy Randle at the South Dakota Council of Teacher's of English Conference the end of March.
Pat

2003-01-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

How has your semester begun with computers and composition. Also, I'd like to ask you again to write about your collegue's reaction to the fact that you developed a web-based composition curriculum. What were their reactions? How did you feel about it?
dawn

2003-01-17T19:49:00.000-08:00

Pat,
I am off for the weekend after finishing up the semester and have monday off, but I promise to be true to our intentions here once second semester starts. I have a few things to say about your latest post but i'll wait until i'm in school and have a chance to think clearly. Another couple is going with us to Chicago to the Art Institue this weekend to see a Medici exhibit. We are staying Sat. night at the Palmer house. I am looking forward to it. This week I worked on getting all my exams graded, grades done and in the guidance office and a yearbook deadline. I can't believe I did it. Maybe i didn't. Maybe there is a huge mistake awaiting my return, but c'est la vie.
talk to you soon,
dawn

2003-01-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

Dawn,
I can't seem to copy and paste that message in here. I am going to have to check it out and see if there is a limit on the amount of text. I hope not because this seems like a nice place to post things. I necessary, I can put something on one of my web pages, but I'll see what I find out about limits on this blog. Two more days and I start that comp class. I have one more day of this semester left and then a teacher work day. I took a chance and put up a calendar for the semester with the warning that it was subject to change.

2003-01-12T17:20:00.000-08:00

Dawn,
This is accessible online if your know the address. It is http://cybercomp10.blogspot.com/ so it is conceivable that someone could wander in. But I think It is highly unlikely.
Pat

2003-01-12T17:18:00.000-08:00

Hi Dawn,
I will use this at school too. We might try posting every day at first, you on your class and I on mine, so we have lots of data. And then when we write the book, we'll have lotsof data. This should be fun. Yours of course is a full year class and mine will only be a semester this year, but we hope to make it a year long by combining a section with a section of forms of fiction. As for this being private, no one but you or me can log on. I have to check if anyone can access it any other way.
Pat

2003-01-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hi Pat,
I will send this url to my school address and try to use it from there. Is there a way to get what we write off of here at the end so that we can keep a record, in case we write the great american book? And this will be private, just you and me?
dawn

2003-01-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

Dear Dawn,
I hope you have decided to join me here. I think this is a good place to keep a partner journal and the URL is easy to remember.

Pat

2002-07-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Students,
This will be our WebLog or Blog for Sophomore Comp. I will post a prompt for you to respond to or you will devise your own entry. In your Blog entry you may respond to my prompt or build on one of the reponses of one of your classmates. Use your first name only when you sign your posts please. You will need to post at least one good Blog entry each week.
Mrs. Schulze