Also the Phoenix Film Festival finished its first ever awards ceremony on April 30th in the PAC at Korea International School. Greg Israel and I would like to congratulate and thank all the students and teachers who were involved in the process. We’d also like to thank Apple, Korea for donating 9 iPod Nanos to the event and the KIS administration and PTO for ponying up the money for the other Nanos. We had 31 films from five countries and seven different schools. The winners list can be viewed on the Youtube channel as well as the awards ceremony.

As the Technology Integration Specialist I need to help a lot of teachers who often feel very uncomfortable with the technology. I make sure to compliment what they of accomplished and I point out the wonderful work I see the students doing. This helps them try more and to adventure further into the waters of technology as a vehicle for teaching and learning. Again, I could have a pragmatic approach — time is money and the extra time and care really doesn’t pay off in the end, but I know that isn’t true with teachers who are experimenting with new ideas. Compliments pay off bigger dividends than the cost required to give them; not to mention the fact that is the human thing to do.

Here is a short collection of some of the reflections I am currently working on.

1 — The Phoenix Film Festival — The festival hasn’t even happened yet, but Greg and I have thought of some improvements for next year. First, we plan to start promoting and planning from the beginning of the school year with a calendar of dates with different tasks that need to be accomplished and time frames for finishing those tasks. Greg and I want the festival to live beyond our time at KIS, so this type of planning is necessary for the future of the festival. Second, we plan to offer clubs at the middle and high school levels, so student can begin to take over the process. After all, it is their festival. Third, we plan to reflect on the festival once it is over.

2 — Recent communication — I had an unfortunate communication with one of my colleagues recently where I inappropriately communicated my frustration with a situation involving a duty schedule for our parent-teacher conferences. Due to the great demands on my time as the Dean of Students and the Technology Integration Specialist, I try to plan ahead at least one or two weeks in advance so I can focus my time correctly. Robin Schneider, my principal, had came up with a great idea of having a showcase of digital work done by students on display during the conferences. Sadly, his idea came the week before the conferences, but because I felt the idea was great, I told him we should move ahead with the plan. It required me to collect a lot of student artifacts in a very short period of time and then compile those artifacts into presentations. We looked down the road at what else was coming and saw the Middle Matters staring us in the face. At that point we both felt that it was manageable because during conferences I could work on the layout of the Middle Matters. On Wednesday, the beginning of the conferences, I received an email with a duty schedule for the conferences. I was surprised to find that I was listed on the duty schedule with 12 hours (four hours per day) of supervision duty during the conferences. Instead of taking a deep breath and counting to ten, I exploded and shot off one of those emails that you aren’t supposed to write when you are angry. I have apologized to Jamie Otis, but still can’t believe my own behavior. We all make mistakes and the best thing to do is to admit the mistake and apologize to the appropriate people. In addition to my unprofessional response, I do feel that the problem highlights one of the major concerns at the school — time lines and planning. Why was the duty schedule handed out on Wednesday morning of the conferences? It should be out at least one week before the required work so people can plan accordingly. This doesn’t excuse my behavior, but it does place a framework around it.

3 — KIS Podcast and KIS YouTube Channel — Both are off and running and the important point now is momentum. We need to continue interviewing teachers, students, and administration about the 1:1 program for the podcast and continue uploading student samples to the YouTube channel.

4 — Discipline — I am currently trying my best to add a guiding and mentoring approach to our behaviorist/control discipline policies. This is an example of merging two philosophies together to make a livable situation for everyone concerned. Our school-wide discipline approach is very much from the behaviorist philosophy of education — a system of rules and punishments. My personal philosophy is more to the guidance or constructivist approach, so each major discipline case is coming with some serious discussion of appropriate behavior and what can be learned from the situation. I’m feeling better about the situation, and the students involved so far seem to leave the room feeling better about receiving discipline.

Reflection is an important part of education and we must all engage in it.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Wikispaces: This is where my class is organized. I place assignment and assessment information here, online discussions and feedback for students, students upload projects, and comment on their own work and the work of others. It is laid out unit by unit with each student or student group having their own page for assignments.

Youtube: Yes, for those who don’t know, it is a very useful site for education. It allows students and teachers to upload videos to the Internet and then embed the videos in a Wikispaces or other website. You are thinking, “Why bother? Why not have the students upload directly to a wiki?” Many sites have limited amounts of storage space and videos use a lot, so embedding uses virtually no storage, but makes the videos easy to access in one location for management, reviewing, and sharing.

Podomatic: Basically this is the podcast version of Youtube and I use it for the same reason — save storage space on my wiki. Students and teachers upload the actual podcasts to Podomatic and then embed in our wiki.

Slideshare: Again this is a place to store student and teacher presentations without eating up space on the wiki. My students upload their Keynote and PowerPoint presentations to this site and then embed it in our wiki.

United Streaming: The school I work for has a United Streaming account. It is full of videos on different topics that are designed for educational use. Great classroom resource. You can use the videos best by downloading them directly to your own computer and then using them whenever you want/need.

TeacherTube: Similar to Youtube, but with reliable content added by educators. I don’t actually post much content here, but I find videos to use in class; especially if I can’t find the thing I’m looking for on United Streaming.

Edublogs: This is where I have my students blog and where I have my professional blog about education. I have the students embed links on the wiki to make for easy access.

Diigo: It is a social bookmarking tool. You can share resources, leave notes on website, and make groups to share websites. Diigo helps remove a level of junk from the Internet. Students and teachers can share reliable and useful websites that they have discovered. Great for helping students with group research for projects, because they can share resources and take notes collaboratively.

Voicethread: This site I haven’t use much myself, but I feel it can be a great resource for classes. You can post up a photo and students and teachers can make comments centered around the photo with a built in podcast producing device.

Facebook: Believe it or not: Facebook can be used in educational ways. Students can join groups or causes that allow them to connect with people around the world who have similar interests. They can share information and knowledge and teach each other.

Certainly the last website on my list is going to draw fire from several people in education. But as I stated before, these are tools and students need to learn how to use the tools. Tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year these tools will probably change; in fact, they will change. But change is the only constant in the universe, my colleagues and friends. Isn’t time we start acting like it?

I will write a follow up post to this about different programs I use and how I use them for class in the not too distant future. Stay tuned!

The technology coach section of the job is running along smoothly. The high school technology coach and I work well together, so that is a huge bonus. So far we have offered two after school workshops: one called Mac Basics, for those people who are totally unfamiliar with the Mac, and another called iMovie Intro to show the basics of iMovie. (By the way, I’m not to happy with the new version of the program, but whatever.)  The teachers are eager and very fun to work with. In the coming weeks we are going to offer some workshops on Wikis and blogs and how to use them in the classroom. In addition to the workshops, we are roaming the halls and helping teachers in the classrooms. Last week we handled the account set up for the online textbooks that the school is using in middle school math. I think the teachers we very relieved that they didn’t have to handle it all alone. Plus, it set a great tone for the school year — both the middle school principal and I were in the classrooms helping out right from the beginning of the year. Teachers need support; more importantly, teachers need to feel supported and comfortable. Also we have started a Wikispace to share technology help and ideas with the faculty.

So I’m into the third week of this new gig and I’ve found that the discipline part of the job, the part I was dreading, is actually the easy part. Before, as a teacher, I hated discipline and having to come down on a student for breaking rules. I’ve discovered why it was such a pain now, because it was personal. The student broke the rules in my class; the student disrespected me; the student basically pissed me off. Now a student comes to my office, I don’t feel that way. When I read the report, or hear the story from the teacher, sure it bothers me, but I’m not emotionally involved with the situation; therefore, handing out the punishment, or tough love, or whatever is not a reflection of my personal feelings or attitudes. It’s just the job. It is a very liberating feeling. I think it is good for the students, too, because they don’t have to see another angry person; instead, they get a smile and a detention.

Greg, the high school Technology Coach, and I are in the process of planning some workshops on iMovie, Wikis, and Garageband for the faculty. Plus, we have arranged some MacBook Basics workshops for those facutly members new to Mac. The faculty seems into it — we have eight returning teachers planning on attending MacBook Basics and 16 signed up for iMovie.

Now I’m off to the lunchroom to monitor students and hopefully grab a bite to eat.