Minneapolis, Myself, and I

I love Minnesota.  I found this vlog about Minneapolis and why Mayor Rybek, among others, loves the city.  I enjoy watching this vlog because I think that the passion for the area is obvious and contagious.  I especially like when the little kid says, "It's in my blood."  Awesome.  The audience for this vlog is more than likely Minneapolis residents, or at least people who are familiar with the area.  Although the vlog highlights some of the sights and activities around the area, it does not go into the kind of depth that would be required to help an "outsider" understand this place.  The sight of the Minneapolis skyline, wildflowers, and Lake Calhoun appeal to "insiders" because we are familiar with them. We know them.  Most of us have memories of them.  The video techniques are pretty basic and don't stand out to me.  I do like that the interviews are done close, so that I can see the expression on the interviewees' faces.  Most of all, I like that it is about a place that I love.



And now for a little bit more about me (myself?  I still can't figure that out...).  I created this vlog to introduce myself to fellow students the graduate class I am currently taking.  Enjoy!



One thing I did not mention is the inspiration for the title of this blog.  Olive was my hamster.  Indeed, she was a wonder hamster.  She was awesome.  She is the one and only hamster I have ever held or loved.  When I created this blog a few years ago, I looked over and saw her scampering away from my husband who had just given her a bath.  Yes, a bath.  She loved baths.  She was special.  She died in July 2009.  I did not change the title of this blog because I like how it makes me smile when I remember her.

I also thought I should include a photo of Jax, who is turning 1-year old on September 28.  This photo was taken when he was about 8 weeks old.

And this is Jax with his brother Scout, who is 2-months older.  Jax and Scout are not biologically related, but they are brothers and best-friends nonetheless.

Search sites and strategies for my final project

For my final project, I am considering doing something that involves one or more of the following:

• teaching writing in urban schools
• relevancy and/or validity of state test scores and/or internal exam scores as it relates to writing
• role of digital technology in student motivation or performance as it relates to writing

My ideas are very vague at this point.  I'm trying to think of something that will be useful to me in my current job, and something that relates to this course.

Currently, I work for SABIS Educational Systems, a company that globally manages many public and private schools, including several charter schools in the U.S. My focus is on curriculum support and development for the K-6 English program.  Among other things, I conduct teacher observations, write mock state exams, create teacher guides, review internal and external exam scores, and align our curriculum to state standards.
 Recently, our focus has been on improving student performance on both state exams and internal exams. I am convinced that one of the main problems that keeps our students from performing well on writing exams is that they are simply not motivated. My supervisor disagrees and believes that our teachers are not knowledgeable about how to relate our writing curriculum to state exams.  She put together a lovely and informative presentation that teaches teachers to review state tests and rubrics, and then incorporate that information into their writing units. While this is helpful and good to know, I do not believe that it will solve the problem that we are in.  Our students know how to write, they just don't want to do it. I suspect that digital writing will offer some type of solution. However, like most public schools, our schools operate on very tight budgets. Frankly, there is minimal technology available for teachers to use with their students. English classes never are scheduled for a day in the computer lab. Computer labs are booked for the entire year for testing and computer classes. Some classrooms have SMART Boards, though. I would like to learn more about how these can be used to motivate students.

All of this brings me to the point of this post.  What are some search sites, search strategies, and databases I could employ to collect information to investigate these topics? In the past, I have utilized the full text databases in the University of Minnesota library. These might prove useful, but I have not yet looked to see what is available on this topic.  I am quite certain that the National Council of Teachers of English will have information.  Some state departments of education might also have relevant information.  I expect these will be the places I begin looking for information.  They are reputable and have a vested interest in the field of education.  Another avenue might be to use Google to search for teacher websites, blogs, etc.  There are so many sites for and by teachers that address writing, student motivation, and incorporating digital technology.  The lack of resources at our charter schools is certainly not unique, so I can probably find information from other educators about they have addressed the same problem.

When evaluating websites, I look for several different things.  First, I look at the domain name.  Anything ending in .com tells me that I need to take a look at the site developers, authors, background, etc. Not all .com sites are irrelevant, but it is important to discover who is producing them and why.  A similar principal applies to .org websites.  Many of these have a particular bias that may or may not discount their credibility.  Sites ending in .gov are generally credible, but they might not have information as current as others. When looking at .edu sites, I note whether it comes from a K-12 or post-secondary school.  I also evaluate the look and feel of a site to determine whether or not I want to use it as a source.  If the site is poorly designed, difficult to navigate, or visually unappealing, I am less likely to use it.  If a site is easy to navigate, contains good information, and is credible, then I will use its links to outside sources to find other helpful sites.

I'm still learning how to effectively use Google Reader and Diigo tools, so I don't yet know how I will use them as I conduct my research.  The highlighting and notetaking feature on Diigo is appealing, and I would like to learn more about that.  Google Reader seems a bit overwhelming at this point.  I need to learn more about filtering and sorting all of the information as it comes in.

Let the journey begin!

Blogs are a fantastic medium for communicating with others.  In my personal life, I utilize blogs for keeping in touch with family members.  Specifically, my sister-in-law keeps a blog called Just a Blink about her family as well as inexpensive do-it-yourself projects she creates.  I love the blog since it helps to stay connected with the incredible things the kids do and say as well as become inspired by her homemaking skills!

My nephew and nieces, photo courtesy of Just a Blink

For a couple of years, I kept a blog as well.  My blog was focused primarily on the crazy experiences I had teaching.  It was an outlet for me to express things that I found funny, profound, frustrating, and exhausting.  For a variety of reasons, I stopped keeping up with my blog.  Since then, my life has shifted quite a bit. I now work at a job where I spend the majority of my day in front of a computer screen, so I'm not as likely to turn to electronic media for as a creative outlet.  Instead, I prefer to spend my time feeling the sunshine and wind on my face, dirt in my fingernails, and the incredible feeling of moving after sitting for at least 10 hours each day.

In this course, I hope to learn ways to inspire students to write.  Nearly all of the charter schools I support are in urban areas with high poverty.  Many of the students are English language learners and most struggle with writing.  When asked to write multiple paragraphs on an assessment, it is far too common that students will write only a few sentences.  I am convinced that our curriculum is not motivating them to write.  I am convinced that it is--truly--preventing any passion for writing from taking root.  This year I hope to find ways of motivating students to write and enough support that I can make some changes in our writing curriculum.  Since I am not in the classroom, the changes will not be as immediate, nor will have have the control of them that many classroom teachers do.  However, I am in a position to influence curriculum decisions that impact thousands of students.  For that, I take this responsibility seriously.  Given the lack of funding for our schools as well as lack of computers in most of our students' homes, I'm skeptical that blogs or wikis will prove to be the answer.  Nonetheless, I am quite sure that I will find aspects of digital writing that can translate into our schools.

Let the journey begin!