CK German School

LG Consulting is excited to bring the Central Kentucky German School to reality. Providing cutting edge, technology infused German instruction to students of Central Kentucky will begin this fall, September 2014. Please visit our web for more information - http://www.ckgermanschool.com

Cursive Handwriting - Nein Danke!

While listening to Dr. Terry Holliday, Commissioner of Education in KY, last week at Leadership Kentucky, I was so glad to hear him and others discuss cursive handwriting.  He explained to the group of KY business leaders, educators, bankers, and more, that the reason we, humans, started to use cursive handwriting was because of the quill and ink.  If you were using a quill to write, and picked up the quill between each letter, you'd end up with a mess, thus making cursive a more attractive alternative. 

When was the last time you used a quill and ink well to write?

As I continued to reflect on this, I began to change my mind on a previous stance (just like our politicians, I'm a flip-flopper) that it is important for the mental and cultural development of our students to teach cursive writing. 

Should we not rather be teaching our students have to type on little glass screens?  I know that not everyone is using touch screen devices, but at some point in the future, this will be the case (Meet George Jetson...ba-ba-da).  Why do some people continue to harp about the fact that we are not teaching cursive handwriting to students, when that is preparing them for absolutely nothing. 

We as teachers need to take the future into account for what we are teaching our students.  What will help them in 10-20-30 years?  As the various inspirational videos (just check out YouTube) say, and I'm paraphrasing, "we are preparing our students for jobs that don't yet exist".  Let's get with the program and get students using more and more devices, wireless internet, and cloud services.  This is where we are now.  Who knows where we will be going (that is, if the Mayan's are incorrect).

Using Google Voice to Assess Students

I've talked recently with several colleagues about how I use google voice in my classroom to assess my students' speaking skills in German.  I remember back in German 1 when I was a student in high school, and (even though my German education was a bit unconventional - with Distance Learning), we still had to take quite a bit of time out of our scheduled class for speaking practice with the teacher (or tutor in our case).  When I started observing more and more German classrooms as an undergraduate student, I saw this more and more.  The teacher would give the class an assignment that would last the entire period, he/she would stand in the hallway (by the door), and call students one by one out to give their speaking quiz.  It was such nerve racking for the students to have to perform on the spot with the teacher towering over them with his/her clip board.  If they said "Ich bist Lucas" the teacher would start scribbling down marks that the student did not have control over the verb "sein" and could not correctly conjugate the verb. 

I've found a solution.

Google Voice is a free service offered by the fine folks of Google.  Users create a telephone number and can set up their voice mail system.  For teachers, I recommend linking the telephone number to your school's main office (so that all "prank" calls go there instead of to your email - more tracking available on that side).  Absolutely select "do not accept blocked calls" and you definitely need to link the account to your school email address. 

By linking the number to your school email address, you are able to have all voicemails (as mp3 files) and text messages come directly through the school server (therefore it is being tracked and logged to protect you and your students). 

You need to have permission from the parents (in some situations) for the student to use their phone during the school day, and most definitely need to have "approval" by your school administrators.

I generally will ask the students to spend their designated homework time planning what they are going to say during the quiz (usually it is a verbal response to a prompt).  Sometimes, it is best to assess spontaneous speaking too.  After explaining the ground rules to the students, I ask them to get out their cell phones, go find a place in the hallway that is quiet and away from other students, call my google voice number, leave a voice message with their response to the prompt.  Then my blackberry starts buzzing with all of their responses. 

Something that usually would take an entire class period (to assess 30-35 students), now can take 3 minutes to get done during the day.  This does allow for less class time to be "wasted" and keeps students engaged.  It also allows the teacher to grade the speaking skills on their own time (during planning, before or after school, or on the weekend - see previous post on weekends...), thus giving them more time to listen, and re-listen to each student's skills to more accurately assess them. 

I'm sure there are 3 million other ways to do this, but this is what works for me. Let me know if you give it a try or need help with setting it up!

Everybody's Working on the Weekend

Firstly let me apologize for not being a good steward of my blogging.  Having had a rather "busy" summer, then the start of the school year, plus graduating Georgetown College (with my MA in Education with endorsement in Instructional Computer Technology), receiving the Deans Honor Award, planning a trip to Savannah, St. Petersburg (FL), South Africa (again), and Germany (with 30+ students).  Shew.  So here I am - just working on the weekend right?

I've been reflecting on the tune (by Loverboy in 1981) and its lyrics a bit this weekend, as, in reality, we are all so connected to everything these days, there aren't such things as weekends anymore.  Many of us tend to always have work that needs to be done on the weekend, but I'm talking about those of you who don't necessarily have to work on Saturday and Sunday.  With iPhones, BlackBerries, iPad, laptops, digital/satellite TV, and more, we are still constantly receiving and processing information, thus not actually giving us a relaxing break. 

I cannot help but think about what a weekend should be (to the normal human).  On average, people work 40 hours a week, then have two days off.  Those two days should be left for family time, time to work around the house, time for religion, time for yourself, etc.  With all of our buzzing and glowing devices, tweets and posts, calls and text messages, we truly aren't taking weekends "off" these days.  Those of us in the education world know this well. 

After teaching 5 classes a day, the last thing I want to do is continue working; therefore I sometimes save my extra work (grading, planning, etc.) for the weekend (not counting my extra duties).  Because of the current state of technology, I can work more efficiently from home (on grading, planning, etc.) than I can from my school.  I am just as connected (if not more), and can be a bit more relaxed in my own comfort zone.  I really don't mind this.

Technology, as great as it is, has a hold on weekends.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I encourage everyone to take a techno break (at least for a few hours) on a weekend (whenever that may be).  Take a break from the tweeting, texting, facebooking, etc.  Technology has it's place, but we cannot forget basic peace and quiet in our lives too.  I look forward to taking my own advice (maybe) and turning off the phone, the iPad and the MacBook, and just having a bit of peace and quite. 

Scott County Technology Jubilee 2012

Scott County Technology Jubilee 2012

On June 12, 2012, I'm presenting at Royal Spring Middle School at the 2012 Scott County Technology Jubilee sponsored by Scott County Schools.  I am so excited to be able to present on Social Networking and Micro-Blogging (which I need to do more of).  If you can't make it out to Scott County tomorrow morning at 8:50AM - check out my presentation (it's rather bone dry, I don't like to type everything - makes it too boring).

Follow the conference on twitter using #sctj12.

Thanks!

Lucas

Scott County Tech Jubilee - June 12, 2012

I'll be presenting at 8:50AM - Social Networking and Microblogging - please consider registering to come - should be a great time, and lots of great educators sharing their ideas and techniques!

Scott County Technology Jubilee

Tuesday, June 12 at Royal Spring Middle School

Click HERE to register

* Registration is required ~ attendees and presenters

See the attached 2012 Technology Jubilee matrix of sessions.

Presentation booklet with presenter names and detailed session descriptions coming soon!

Feel free to share this opportunity with your instructional aides/para-professionals and administrative staff.PD and EILA Credit will be provided.

Click HERE to view and download the Full Conference Presentation Booklet (coming soon).

TWEET with us!
Use #SCTJ12 to Tweet your comments during the Technology Jubilee!

Reflection

A Reflection on Independent Study – Georgetown College – SP2012
Lucas M. Gravitt

            As I was deciding on which technology elective to take this spring, I am so very glad that no class being offered interested me.  Not to say that Georgetown College does not offer good classes, but I truly was not interested in any being offered during this semester.  After working with Dr. Andrea Peach, I designed this independent study course to explore the use of mobile devices in the classroom, evaluate applications currently designed, and to learn how to design my own application.  It was a fun time indeed.

            As I began on my journey (as I called it frequently on my blog site), I was excited to research and find articles pertaining to the topics in which I was interested.  After scouring over probably 30 articles, I had found 12 that made sense for me to write a reaction blog post about.  This really gave me an idea of where the world of technology in education was, where it has been, and where it is going.  Having posted my reactions and reviews on the blog (and subsequently on Twitter and Facebook), I was quite excited to see that there were more than a few people reading my posts and enjoying what I had to say.  To date, I have had nearly 300 viewers on my blog, from nine different countries (in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia).  One thing I learned during the process was completely not predicted; with social media, one can truly be connected with the world. 

            After attending the KySTE conference in Louisville in March, I was reinvigorated in my quest of app development.  Having attended several great sessions of apps, use of iPods/iPhones/iPads in the classroom, I came away with a greater awareness of the power of technology.  One session in particular spoke volumes to me: Build Your Own App.  Even though the presenter had some technology glitches, she shared a variety of methods of how one can create their own app, and discussed how to go through the process of becoming an Apple Developer to be able to place your app on the marketplace (I’m at that stage now).  I am forever grateful for the experience and I highly recommend this conference to any teacher or administrator.

            As I began to make my app, after reading about XCode and other app coding wares, I realized that without several hours each day, I needed to find a nice template to help my design.  I chose to use ibuildapp.com to help me on this process.  I played around with graphics some, decided exactly what it was that I wanted to present, and then started making it happen.  It is so much easier than you would expect.  As I tried to link some things from my classroom website, I found that our district and school’s website is by no means mobile friendly.  I plan to enter into discussions with our tech-gurus to discuss the implementation of a mobile friendly website. 

            As I have designed lukasedtech (my blog portal where my work is posted) to be a platform from which I will launch my consulting firm, I am more than thankful for all of the support from instructional technology people around the world.  I have been asked to start writing for kyedtech blog, have made contacts in Europe, and in conversations with someone to perhaps begin working in developing Africa as broadband access and device availability is expanding.  The possibilities are endless and I am thankful that this class enabled me to discover and learn content in which I was most interested. 

            From this point on, the lukasedtech blog will be used solely for promotion and consulting as I continue to expand my skills and begin to change the world of instructional technology.  I look forward to giving presentations at local, regional, and national conferences - and hope to be able to continue to better education through the use of technology.  Thank you.