JoeWoodOnline

Its 10:30 at night and I should have gone to bed long ago.  However, I’m still sitting downstairs reading on my laptop with tears streaming down my eyes.  Tonight I was digging through the RSS feeds in my Bloglines account and stumbled across Wesley Fryer’s description of Idit Caperton’s closing keynote at NECC 2008.  During the keynote Capterton referred to Telling Their Stories, an oral history project produced by the Urban School of San Francisco.  For this project high school students conduct interviews with Holocaust Survivors, WWII Camp Liberators, and Japanese American Internees.  I only clicked on one person’s story, Lucille Eichengreen, but after 30 minutes of reading and listening to her story I am completely moved by this project.

When I lived in Modesto I participated in a similar type of program called the Day of Respect.  As part of this activity people, such as those profiled in Telling Their Stories, along with other community members who had faced discrimination would share their stories and struggles with students.  The day was quite powerful and I think in many ways a great wake up call for students (and teachers) who often live in a bubble and assume everyone is just like them.  Since then I have always tried to bring these experiences to my students.  I want them to see that unfortunately we do live in a world full of hatred and discrimination, but we can change this by learning to treat each others as equals with kindness and mutual respect.  Change starts with your own personal actions.   When you have a moment check out Telling Their Stories.  It even looks like they have an upcoming summer training.

Joe

Photo: DSC 0029 by Torres21 on Flickr

Just like many universities, UC Davis produces a quarterly magazine for alumni and other “friends of the university” that chronicles campus events and stories about former students.  Since I am a UC Davis alum (Biological Sciences ‘00), I receive UC Davis Magazine.  In the past I used to barely read the magazine before tossing it into the recycle bin.  However, now that we are back up in the Sacramento area and only 15 minutes from campus I find the magazine’s information a little more interesting and useful.

The other night Kelly walked up to get our mail and while he was standing on the driveway mail-in-hand, talking to me about work stuff, I kept thinking, “The person on the cover of UC Davis Magazine sure looks familiar.”  Then it dawned on me, “That’s my cousin!”  Actually, she is my first cousin once removed (I had to look that one up on Geneaology.com).  I knew my cousin Annie and her husband Jeff were organic farmers in the Capay Valley and I also knew that I could find them at the Davis Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.  What I didn’t realize is that they were such leaders in sustainable agriculture and that they also played roles in starting both the Davis Farmers Market and the Davis Co-op.  Read the article for yourself.

As I’m checking out their farm’s website, Good Humus, I’m also learning that they have a CSA program for Sacramento and San Francisco residents.  On a side note, I’ve been looking into joining CSA program ever since I realized Soil Born Farms is right in front of my new school. How cool is that? A big farm adjacent to the parking lot in the middle of Sacramento!  Lately Kelly and I have been trying to “green up” our lives in various ways.  Its nice to know I have some pioneering family members who I can ask for advice.

Joe

This evening I found a few cool sites to share.  MakeUseOf featured 4 Quick Ways to Download YouTube Videos today.  While I’ve done my fair share of YouTube downloading, I have never heard of any of these four.  Normally, I use Vixy.net or Keepvid, but sometimes both of those sites are extremely busy and work very slowly. I tried each of the four mentioned on MakeUseOf and they all worked pretty well.

1. KISS YouTube - Add “kiss” for Keep It Super Simple before youtube in the URL and you can quickly download any movie.  For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ_pz_-sSYQ becomes http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=GZ_pz_-sSYQ and you get a lovely video all about the goal for November’s Prop 1.  See post below for more info.
2. YouTube Loader FireFox Plugin - I downloaded this for Firefox 3 on my Mac and it worked perfectly.  I did need to install Greasemonkey first - just FYI
3. YouTube Catcher - A bit slow, but you do have the ability to download the MP3 only which is kind of handy for some audio projects.
4. Tube Leecher - Don’t you just love the title?  I do! Very simple and very quick.

Joe

Today California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced proposition numbers or this November’s ballot measures.  Normally I am pretty apolitical, especially in cyberspace, but these two items I am pretty passionate about so I feel compelled to share my two cents.

Prop 1 - Bond Measure for California High Speed Rail

Drive past your local gas station and look at the prices or listen to the latest news headline about the aviation industry.  Need I say more?  We must change the way we transport ourselves in America for both our economic and environmental survival.  As a foreign exchange student in Germany I saw the beauty of public transportation.  I’d happily ditch my car in favor of a high speed train and light rail.  Maybe $4.50+ gas will finally make this happen.  Being a state nearly as populous as a European country and with an economy to match it just seems natural that we should have this project - and it should already be here.  Personally, I’d like to see it expanded to include a direct Sacramento to SF route.

I’ve been pretty much sold ever since I stumbled upon the California High Speed Rail Authority website, but I will admit I am no expert on the high speed rail bond.  However, I have been trying to inform myself by reading the California High Speed Rail Blog and their competitor Derail HSR.  While DerailHSR is a little prettier (CaHSR you need pictures and video clips), CaHSR is much more informative.  So far, the only downside to the project I can gather from Derail HSR is that its expensive and the state is in financial crisis (When aren’t we? Stopping HSR won’t fix that).  Also it looks like DerailHSR consists of NIMBYs who don’t want a train running near their SF Peninsula homes (they admit this on their site).  For me this makes swallowing their arguements a little tough.

Prop 8 - California Constitutional Marriage Amendment

In a state with the diverse cultural an ethnic beauty of California I am quite saddened to see that this proposition even made it to the ballot.  There are so many more important things to worry about.  If you can’t think of one, turn on the TV and watch the first news story you see.  It will be more important.  I’m still trying to figure out how two adults entering into a legal agreement where they promise to love and care for each other until death regardless of their gender can ruin society.  When gay marriages became legal on the 16th all I saw was love, love, and oh yeah…more love.  Our local clerk recorder had a two week waiting list for performing civil marriages.  After 8+ years when we get hitched, we’d like to keep our rights and responsibilities.  Separate but equal didn’t work for water fountains and schools.  It won’t for marriage either.  Should you vote YES you’re taking real rights from real people…I’m one of them.

Even if you don’t agree with my two cents, please do me one favor and make sure you do vote on November 4th.  I hate hearing initiatives and candidates I supported lost with only 22% of registered voters actually showing up.  It makes me wonder if the “people” really have spoken or if we’re living under the tyranny of a vocal minority.

Joe

Photo: I Voted by Idcross on Flickr

This summer I’m teaching three weeks of summer school at my new school with my buddy Paul.  During my portion of the class we’re focusing on blogging (and as I quickly found out reviewing how to properly log on to the computer too).  Due to some server issues and getting the laptops set up for summer school, today was the first day we were able to officially blog.  The short delay actually worked out great, giving the students and I a few days to practice online discussions using Moodle.

I am teaching 15 sections of technology elective over the course of a three day rotation.  My students are 6th, 7th, and 8th graders ranging from first year English learners to English-only students completing academic make up. It just so happened that two of my more advanced classes were rotating through tech elective today and I decided to use them as my blogging guinea pigs.  I am familiar with Wordpress and Blogger, but we are trying out the blogs and wikis software built in to Mac OSX Server this summer, so there was small learning curve for me.

I am not completely sure why, but the fact you can create blogs with the server software isn’t abundantly clear on the Apple website, but you can.  Its pretty easy and straight forward (Note - I say this NOT being the person who had to set up accounts and fiddle with the server - James and Jon thank you again!).  Adding and customizing content seems to be pretty simple too.  The only quirk I haven’t been able to solve is adding pictures using an image URL rather than uploading a file without having to manually enter HTML.  Strangely, this very common feature of many web 2.0 products doesn’t appear to be available, but I am still searching.  Maybe its hidden?  If you have any experience in this area definitely let me know. (*Note - I can now do this thanks to Jon and James - see comment below).

My plan for summer school is to test out blogging and RSS aggregator software (we’re giving Vienna whirl) so that any willing teachers and students can start blogging next year.  Personally, I’d love to see every student maintaining an individual blog that they use in every class!  After all, we are an Apple 1:1 school, but I’m the newbie so I will try not to be so opinionated.  I know I’ve become a better writer (or at least a more comfortable writer) as a result of blogging.  Its also a great critical thinking activity.

While I’m testing out software I’m also trying out some blogging instructional strategies.  I’d really like to see student blogging move beyond simply being a digital collection of responses to teacher generated writing prompts.  However, I think that may be where it has to start - especially for middle school students.  I am still plotting out the transition from prompts to independent writing.  It may just have to be something I figure out along the way.  Last night I spent a ton of time on Clay Burell’s blog, Beyond School, digging through all of his thoughts.  If you’re interested in student blogging he definitely has tons of innovative ideas and resources.  Make sure you peruse his blog along with his collection of Del.icio.us blogging links (there are 91 of them - so many things, so little time).  One of the best things I found was his description of what makes a good blogger at the bottom of his school’s blogging policy. I couldn’t agree more.

So, how did the first day go?  Well, I think three quick student comments sum it up the best.

• Five minutes after checking out “good” and “bad” blogs one student asked, “Would it be okay for me to leave a comment and let them know that I like what they wrote?”  We hadn’t even discussed comments yet, so I was pretty excited at her eagerness to share ideas.

• Our student blogs are available only within the school network.  At the end of the period another student walked up to me and asked, “How do I set up a blog I can use at home? This was pretty cool.”

• Finally, a third student asked on his way out the door, “Do you think my summer school teacher will mind if I blog when I am done with my assignment?  I want to write more before Monday (when I will see him next).”

Hmm…I’m thinking they took to it…well like fish to water.  I’d say that’s a success.

Joe

Photo: Fish Bowl by Rick Simmons on Flickr

Its sunny, 82 degrees with 34% humidity and yet I am sitting inside with the air conditioning on and the windows tightly closed.  “Why?” you might wonder.  Well, it seems most of Northern California’s hilly areas are on fire after a rash of dry lightning strikes last weekend.

Sacramento, along with the rest of the Central Valley, is the place where all of the smoke is flowing due to a nice on-shore Delta Breeze.  We seem to be getting the brunt of the smoke from the Napa/Solano Wildfire. Today was the third day of smoke-induced hibernation and frankly I’ve had enough!  My eyes itch like no body’s business and I’ve developed this lovely bloodshot portion in one eye that makes everyone ask, “What happened?”  I’d like to say something macho like I just got done breaking up a fight at school, but in reality my eyes are just a good barometer of any atmospheric changes whether they be allergens, dry air, or now smoke.

Another side effect to the fires has been the limited time I’ve actually seen Kelly other than when he’s on the news or madly Blackberrying about the fires.  He did, however, make a lovely Google Map for the California OES website.  Guess who showed him?  I also got him using Flickr. I bet Brian and Burt had no idea how far their trainings would travel. 

I snapped the picture above this morning as I headed to work around 7am.  The sun shouldn’t be that orange and the high rise buildings in the distance are located in downtown Sacramento only 2.5 miles away.  Fortunately, the weather forecasters are predicting that the smoke should be gone by Friday, but Kelly has heard more lightening is on its way.  Might be time for day trip to San Francisco!

Joe

As I mentioned in my last post, I was a bit distracted by household chores last week, so I missed the official announcement that Encyclopedia Britannica was going to adopt a wiki format. I did hear a little snippet on NPR that led me to this article on Wired News from last week. I wonder if librarians are nervous about this change or view it as pathway into finally understanding Wikipedia?

Personally, I am quite thrilled to see Encyclopedia Britannica make this change in philosophy. Right now I am working my way through Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and I’m growing more and more convinced that mass collaboration is our future. I’d hate to see a valuable resource like Britannica disappear just because they couldn’t join the 21st Century. I have had lots of experience with Wikipedia and for the most part I have always found this resource to be highly accurate. Granted controversial topics or brand-new entries may be a bit biased or inaccurate, but this also leads to a great conversation between my students and I about checking multiple sources. I never had this conversation with my teachers when I was a middle school student. I just assumed that if I found something in the library it must have been accurate and unbiased. How untrue!

Joe

Photo: Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition on Flickr

Last time I posted was TWO WEEKS AGO! I can’t believe it, but then again I had to take some time off from blogging and even keeping up with my Bloglines account. Yesterday I took a peek at my Bloglines page and I had 972 items to read! Naturally, I just clicked “Mark All Read” and started over today. Whatever was there I am sure will be posted again on someone else’s blog (or at least that is what I am hoping for).

So where have I been? Well the last few days of school were crazy with graduation, packing up my room, and saying “until we meet again” to some wonderful friends and colleagues in Modesto. Last week I attempted to catch up on all of life’s chores that had been building up while I was commuting. I finally completed the refinishing project on our massive dining room table, set up the “Mac Lab” in our downstairs office, pulled a ton of weeds, and built some bookshelves. Don’t be impressed - they were from Ikea, so it just took an allen wrench, screw driver, and some good spatial/visual skills to figure out the poorly written directions.

This week I started summer school - hence the Heaven part. “Summer school is Heaven,” you might be wondering? Well, this summer it is. I totally lucked out and have been able to split a technology elective with @pauldevoto at my new school, the Jonas Salk High Tech Academy. Its an Apple 1:1 school (Heaven part 1) and during my three week portion of the class we’re focusing on blogging (Heaven part 2). We just started, but the kids seem pretty jazzed about having their own online space to write, read each other’s work, and post comments in return. Today I sold the whole concept by talking about how much I used to hate writing until I found a venue (blogging) where others could respond to what I posted. Every single student seemed to relate to what I was saying. That was awesome! We’re using the blog feature built into one of our Mac servers and Vienna as an RSS aggregator. So over the next few weeks hopefully you’ll be hearing reading even more about this experience.

Joe

Image: Student with New Macbook on Flickr

I have this set of classic novels sitting on a bookshelf downstairs. My grandmother bought them for me years ago. They are really nice, leather-bound books containing some great pieces of literature including Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, and the The Count of Monte Cristo. Nearly all of these books I have started at least once…some probably more like 5 or 6 times and all of them have a bookmark somewhere near the beginning. I always start with the best of intentions, but after a night or two I can never seem to complete them because they are so long and I get distracted easily.

Well, tonight I stumbled upon something that might help me complete at least one. On Dale Basler’s blog I found a post about Daily Lit. This service takes a large literary work and breaks it down into small chunks that are emailed out to you each day (or just M, W, F) at a specific time. You can also receive these short portions of a large novel in your RSS aggregator. So, I subscribed to The Count of Monte Cristo and had the first of chunk emailed to my phone. Tomorrow morning while we’re headed down to Great America for the 8th grade trip I can read it and sometime around 3pm the next chunk will be sent to me for the journey home.

Joe

Could it really be two posts in one afternoon? Yes, you see I’m avoiding the inevitable packing of my desk. Its a mess and needs lots of sorting!

I know the next few days are going to be a blur, so before I delve into three days of graduation practice and 8th grade trips I formally wanted to say good bye. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with each and everyone of you. On my last few trips down from Sacramento I’ve been thinking about how much my teaching has changed since arriving at Ustach three years ago. Before starting in the Sylvan District I barely knew how to use an LCD projector and certainly had no idea what Moodle, Interwrite Pads, and Inspiration were. Now I have a blog, multiple classroom websites, and was freaked out about the idea of teaching in classroom without student laptops when I first started looking for a job in Sacramento. Fortunately, I will be in place with lots of computers and Macbooks to boot! I must admit I owe a lot of my technology professional growth to three people specifically - John Patten, Burt Lo, and Lisa Anglim. If you ever have the chance to work with any of them, you are quite lucky.

As I have been packing and dragging boxes out to the car I have received one frequent question - “Are you keeping your blog and how do I stay up to date?” First of all, I am keeping my blog. Its kind of a USB thumbdrive for cool things I find, so I’d be lost without it. If you’d like to subscribe to new posts you have two ways to accomplish this - subscribe using an RSS reader like Bloglines or Google Reader OR (the easier method) plug your email address into the “Subscribe via Email” box on the right side of the main page (to get there click on Home at the top of this page). That way you’ll be sent a note when I update.

Enjoy your last few days and I hope to see many of you up in Sacramento!

Joe

Photo: California State Capitol on Flickr.