IVC Connections

Roxanne Glaser tagged me on a meme that is circulating regarding beliefs about all students. You can see her post on the topic here.

At first I thought, “Gee, thanks, Roxanne. A writing assignment. And one that makes me really think at that.” And I guess that is really the point, to get you to think. So now I say, “Thanks, Roxanne, for including me.”

The original post was by Martha  Thornburgh. She asks the question, paraphrasing of course, what do we, as educators, really believe about ALL students?

Here are my thoughts:

1. I believe all students can learn. However, this does not mean that they all learn at the same rate or in the same way. But I do believe that ALL students can increase their knowledge.

2. I believe all students have the desire to learn. The trick here is finding what interests them and engages them.

3. Lastly, I believe ALL students, child learners and adult learners alike, want learning to be enjoyable. Do any of us really want to sit and listen to someone talk on and on and on? I mean, really?

The directions from the original meme are as follows:

1. Share three things that you believe about all students.
2. Reflect on your thoughts in your blog. (If you do not have a blog, you can share your ideas in a comment from this post.)
3. Be sure to link to this post and to where you were first tagged.
4. Tag your response with AllStudentsMeme
4. Invite others to join the conversation by tagging them to be a part of the meme.

Because most of the people that I know who blog have already answered this question, I’m going to tag a couple of people who don’t have blogs. Feel free to comment here or on the original posting.

So “Tag, you’re it!”

1. Angela Conrad

2. Ken Conn

3. Dr. Bruce Ellis

Today we were transported to the North Pole. “A Visit with Mrs. Claus” was sponsored by ESC 3. Mrs. Claus read to the classes and answered questions about Santa, herself and the reindeer. Even though we didn’t have any interactive classes, the students were mesmerized.

Some of my favorite questions from the day:

Q: How do reindeer fly? A: We sprinkle magic dust on their hay.

Q: What does Santa Claus eat? A: Mostly cookies, but I make him eat his vegetables, too.

Q: What time do you and Santa get up? A: We don’t sleep much this time of year. Usually only a couple of hours a night.*

And my favorite question of the day…

Q: Why is Rudolf’s nose red? A: We feed him “Hot Tamales”. The hot tamales makes his tongue red, then when he licks his nose, it turns it red and starts to glow.

*Funny story for my Twitter friends. When I tweeted this question, I received an answer from @MrsSantaClaus on Twitter! She says they get up at 4:30 am. I just though it was hilarious that she answered my question.

So this week my schools have been participating in the Holiday Story Exchange, and while I would love to be able to write how those conferences have been going, I can’t. All of the connections have been made point-to-point. And when that is the case, the only monitoring capability I have is a snapshot on the web interface with no audio. This got me thinking, “Is this the best way to do it? Or should I bridge all the calls like this so that I can monitor the conference, instead of just the connection?”

The pros that I see to being able to monitor the conference are these: 1) I can see the quality of the presentations and have a better understanding of what we might need to focus on in future training. 2) Knowing that I’m watching in the background and available for support might make teachers more comfortable in the conference. 3) Plus, it’s just plain fun to watch what the classes have come up with.

Pros for leaving them point-to-point include: 1) It frees up my time to do other things. 2) It encourages/forces the teachers to become more independent with the equipment.

I would love to hear your opinion. Whether you are a teacher, a bridge operator, or instructional support, do you think all calls should be bridged? Or are point-to-point calls OK?

We just finished six session with the Indianapolis Zoo and their session of The Mitten. It was fabulous!

They started each session with a roll call, confirming each site could see and hear OK, and giving the mic expectations (it was a multi-site conference.) Once the program started, they gave some brief background of the story and of Ukraine customs, which is where the story takes place. They then read the story to the students, keeping them engaged the whole time. Then after the story they take a closer look at each animal, some with live models. They did an excellent job of keeping the students engaged and keeping all sites involved.

It was a great experience for all involved and definitely one we will repeat next year. I highly recommend it!