In this episode, Maria Knee and Lisa Parisi were joined by Alec Couros, Peggy George, Lisa Thumann, Scott Shelhart, and Barb Gilman.  We discussed teaching as a calling or a job.  Then we moved into how this answer affects how we help pre-service and new teachers.

This episode is a conversation about the teacher evalaution process that exists in various schools. We were joined by Shannon Smith and Ginger Lewman who shared their thoughts and experiences with evaluation in their schools.

Sorry that the chat log was lost this week due to a technical glitch. Thank you to everyone who met in the chat room and added their comments and questions to our discussion.

This week, we were joined by Karen Janowski for our Conversation about Inclusion.  We tackled such issues as how to run a great inclusion program and who belongs and who doesn't belong in an inclusion classroom.

View Chat Here:

This week the show focused on starting the school year. We discussed what folks do when planning for the year and what routines and procedures are important to establish with students. We also shared what we might do differently in the upcoming school year and any new projects or ideas we are thinking about.

Chat Log

In the midst of planning a re-launch of a school-based social network, Youth Voices, we happened upon a paper that clearly and fairly described the problems many of us face when we blog with students in our classrooms. In her paper in the June 2008 Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT Vol. 4, No. 2), Sarah Hurlburt discusses some of "frustrations and puzzlements" that many of us have had in using classroom blogs over the past several years.

Sarah articulates our reasons for wanting to set up a site like Youth Voices. Many of us have felt the gap between the promise of blogging and the results in our classrooms.

The point at which the instructor feels [classroom blogging] to have failed in some way, is when these individual written elements fail to interconnect – when the social element, upon which instructors place high hopes for a subsequent critical element – fails to materialize.

Defining Tools for a New Learning Space: Writing and Reading Class Blogs

Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim invited Sarah Hurlburt on to our webcast to continue the dialogue about blogging, and we were joined by elementary school teachers, Lisa Parisi and Linda Nitsche.

Enjoy the podcast, and read Sarah Hurlburt's paper.

Also, we invite you to help us re-launch http://youthvoices.net on Wednesday, August 27, 2008. Join us, right here at EdTechTalk at 9:00pm Eastern / 6:00pm Pacific USA Wednesdays / 01:00 UTC Thursdays World Times.

For the Chat Log, click Read more, below.

Lisa Parisi, Cheryl Lykowski, and Susan van Gelder were joined by Wesley Fryer.  They discussed the K12-Online Conference, the notK12-Online Conference, and a new project, Story Chasers.

Chat Archive:

Lisa Parisi and Cheryl Lykowski were joined by Hall Davidson.  Together, they discussed many topics such as cell phone use in the classroom, technology today, and the Discovery Education Network.

The Chat:

This week the show focused on bullying.  Lisa Parisi and Ginger Lewman, filling in for Maria Knee, were joined by Nicole Hill and Robin Martin.  Together we tackled such issues as a school's responsibility when it comes to bullying, the best thing for a parent to do, and how to deal with bullies and victims.

Chat log below:

Maria Knee and Lisa Parisi conversed with Ben Hazzard, Lisa Thumann and Ginger Lewman about the use of interactive white boards in the classroom. They discussed the benefits of using IBW's in the classroom, using the without the environment be too teacher centered, the advantages of one brand over an other and best practice in using IBW's.

Chat Log

Lisa Parisi and Maria Knee are joined by Alice Barr and Pamela Livingston to discuss changes in school environments.  They tackled such questions as "What changes do we want to see in a school environment and why?  How do we help create change?  What holds us back?  Why are some teachers so eager for change while others avoid it?"

Chat Archive:

Maria and Lisa are joined by Kevin and Michelle Honeycutt, Debbie Boisvert and Sheila Adams for a conversation about good teaching and technology.

In this first show, Maria Knee and Lisa Parisi are joined by Colleen King and Ginger Lewman.  Together, they discuss the issues and effects of praise in the classroom.

Chat:

1. What is your show concept?

             Conversations will be a show inviting people in to converse on various topics relating to education in the 21st century.  Some topics to be discussed are extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation, what is a tech rich classroom, setting up social networks for kids, the importance or lack of importance of social networking for administrators.

We are joined by Brian Crosby, Kim Cofino, Kevin Honeycutt, and Ginger Lewman to discuss options for networking with students.

Chat link here.

This episode of Teachers are Talking, hosted by Lisa Parisi and Susan van Gelder and Cheryl Lykowski  featured Natalie Rusk from MIT and Karen Randall from a school in St. Paul Minnesota, discussing Scratch.  It took place on April 10, 2008.

This episode of Teachers are Talking, hosted by Lisa Parisi and Susan van Gelder,  featured Karen Janowski of Boston, discussing special education and assistive technology  in the classroom.  Our next show will be on Thursday, April 10.

We had a great show discussing Webquests in the elementary classroom.

First, we shared the wiki that we used to plan this show. Then we defined what a Webquest is and talked about Bernie Dodge, who is the "father" of Webquests.

Lisa shared a Webquest template and Jose Rodriguez, shared the Webquest he is using with his summer school class. We then went through some resources, which can be found on our Diigo list.

Here is a great slideshow on Webquests:
[slideshare id=73726&doc=webquest-template4036&w=425]

We were then joined by Lisa Parisi who discussed work she had done with her students using the internet for inquiry based research.

Chat Below