missions

TTT #290 - NYCWP Teachers Fostering Youth Voices with Jim Nordlinger, Amal Aboulhosn, Carla Cherry, and Valerie Burton - 3.28.12

Youth Voices

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers we have a conversation with three teachers from the New York City Writing Project who are part of a study group that has been sponsored by the NYCWP to foster and reflect on the use of Youth Voices by these teachers. Paul Allison, Chris Sloan, Monika Hardy host a conversation with Jim Nordlinger, Amal Aboulhosn, and Carla Cherry from the NYCWP along with our colleagues Valerie Burton, and Fred Mindlin.
teachers290
As an introduction to this conversation, we offer these reflections posted by one of our listeners on her blog, "Short Quips: thinking in (hyper)text" (Check out here blog, to see this teacher's complete response, and view her About Me.):
Tonight I participated in my first live educational conference online through EdTechTalk. The conference is called “Teachers Teaching Teachers” and takes place every Wednesday night. I did not join the group via video, but rather just watched/listened to the other participants and participated through a live chat feature....

It took me a while to catch up to what was being discussed. Participants were throwing around the term “Youth Voices” and I thought at first that it was just a cool catch phrase for high school kids who were blogging. It wasn’t until i joined the live chat that I got a better idea of what Youth Voices is. Youth Voices, it turns out, is a huge site where the main purpose is to offer a space for youth to participate in discussion. It is a place where youth can post their thoughts and comment on other youth’s thoughts....

One of the discussions among the video participants revolved around how teachers should/are assessing their student’s contributions on Youth Voices. One educator shared how she is setting guidelines for how much/what her students need to contribute to Youth Voices within a specific time frame. For example, she will stipulate that her students need to write one post and make one comment within a week, and if they do both they get the marks for it. This particular educator works at a school in the Bronx and has found that participating in Youth Voices has empowered her students to have their voices heard. She noted how much time and effort can be put into a short comment, because the students are very aware of their online presence and ensuring they present themselves appropriately.

... It was an interesting experience to view it. I think the biggest thing I got out of the experience was that I was also able to network with educators from far and wide- always a positive when you are working on developing your professional learning network.

... I would love to come back to join in a conversation in the future, especially if I am looking for information specifically related to the topic being discussed. I am curious to know whether there are any live educator chats/conferences specifically for Early Childhood Educators. If you know of one, pass it on!

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #234 - On a mission to save the Earth with Matt Montagne and Peggy George! 2.2.11

Matt Montagne joins us on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Matt has been a leader in putting together a 24-hour Earthcast in April the last couple of years at Earthbridges.net. Matt also helped us build the community and to launch Voices on the Gulf. Matt’s students have also been building the Gator Radio Experience at his school, Castilleja School. Please join Matt, Peggy George and others as we try to build some curriculum together, looking toward Earth Day 2011. Here's the link to a Google Doc that Matt opened during this webcast: Missions Brainstorm.


Matt MontagneMatt Montagne joins us on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Matt has been a leader in putting together a 24-hour Earthcast in April the last couple of years at Earthbridges.net. Matt also helped us build the community and to launch Voices on the Gulf. Matt’s students have also been building the Gator Radio Experience at his school, Castilleja School. Please join Matt, Peggy George and others as we try to build some curriculum together, looking toward Earth Day 2011. Here's the link to a Google Doc that Matt opened during this webcast: Missions Brainstorm.

Click Read more to see Paul Allison's description of why we might want to create curriculum missions for Youth Voices and to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #233 - Bud Hunt and Gail Desler on citing sources, loving Audacity and more - 1.26.11

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan catch up with two other National Writing Project teachers, Bud Hunt and Gail Desler.

First we talk to Bud about his conversation at this year EduCon 2.3.  We encourage you to follow the links at the bottom of this description from the EduCon site (I hope we did our "linktrubition" correctly here!):

Dr. Remix; or how I learned to stop worrying and love citation
Browse recordings: livestream.com/educon8
Who: Bud Hunt, St. Vrain Valley School District (CO) and Joe Bires, Haddonfield School District (NJ)
Conversation Description:
     This presentation is an extension of a Twitter conversation in response to a keynote presentation at ISTE 2010. One presenter felt that he was witnessing an act of plagiarism, while the other felt he was seeing remix in action. Their constructive disagreement is worth further exploration.
Clearly, there are many differing views on the role of proper use of the work of others. What is the place of citation in the work we are doing with students and others? When should you cite? How? What does a digital citation, or "linktribution" as Alan Levine calls it, look like online?
     Perhaps you never thought about it or perhaps you never considered the issue in its totality. This discussion will raise your awareness of this issue that fundamentally affects us because ideas are at the core of all of our curricula. Through citation, we ask students to connect ideas together and create new ones, but the issue of citation masks the fundamental question of the relationship between ideas and their creators.
Websites:  http://www.budtheteacher.com - http://edtechleadership.com - http://bit.ly/drremix

Next up in the podcast, Gail Desler brings us up to date on here work as a technology integrator in the Elk Grove (CA) Unified School District.  Among other things, Gail describes why she loves Audacity so much, and here's some of how she puts it in her wonderful Edublog, BlogWalker:

     The appeal of  Audacity to students is that they can edit all or just parts of a recording. For the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of observing Teresa Cheung’s 4th graders delve into Audacity to edit their Stories from Heart audio interviews. Once students see how easy it is to zoom in and delete an “er” or “um,” or shorten a pause, or amplify a section that’s too low, or remove background noise, etc., they become active sound editors. I love watching the confidence level of ELLs grow, as they relax, knowing how easy it is to redo words or even a single word until they’re satisfied with the output.
     But more importantly, as Teresa’s students listen, for instance, to Chase’s mother explain how she came to be born by a waterfall, or Devina’s grandmother talk about growing up in Berkeley in the ’50s, or Anthony’s mother talk about her childhood days escaping Laos,  the students take pride in sharing and preserving family stories, cultures, and languages. As the collection builds, so does the celebration of common threads and diversity in Ms. Cheung’s classroom, along with an appreciation for the power of the human voice.

Finally, Paul, Chris, and Susan mull over some of the changes they are planning for Youth Voices. Within days of this post, Bill Fitzgerald and the other "primates" over at FunnyMonkey will have finished a re-launch of Youth Voices on their new Voice Box installation.

The VoiceBox installation profile is designed to simplify the work of groups looking to create or expand their online presence. Groups who could use this site range from media organizations to not-for-profits to schools to advocacy groups. If an organization wants to build a place for their stakeholders to publish, interact, and get more informed, then VoiceBox could support that work.

We are very excited because we hope this re-launch will allow us to work with more students and teachers at Youth Voices.

We hope you enjoy this podcast. Enjoy peaking into the thoughts and plans of five National Writing Project teachers from across the country.

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan catch up with two other National Writing Project teachers, Bud Hunt and Gail Desler.

First we talk to Bud about his conversation at this year EduCon 2.3.  We encourage you to follow the links at the bottom of this description from the EduCon site (I hope we did our "linktrubition" correctly here!):

Dr. Remix; or how I learned to stop worrying and love citation
Browse recordings: livestream.com/educon8
Who: Bud Hunt, St. Vrain Valley School District (CO) and Joe Bires, Haddonfield School District (NJ)
Conversation Description:
     This presentation is an extension of a Twitter conversation in response to a keynote presentation at ISTE 2010. One presenter felt that he was witnessing an act of plagiarism, while the other felt he was seeing remix in action. Their constructive disagreement is worth further exploration.
Clearly, there are many differing views on the role of proper use of the work of others. What is the place of citation in the work we are doing with students and others? When should you cite? How? What does a digital citation, or "linktribution" as Alan Levine calls it, look like online?
     Perhaps you never thought about it or perhaps you never considered the issue in its totality. This discussion will raise your awareness of this issue that fundamentally affects us because ideas are at the core of all of our curricula. Through citation, we ask students to connect ideas together and create new ones, but the issue of citation masks the fundamental question of the relationship between ideas and their creators.
Websites:  http://www.budtheteacher.com - http://edtechleadership.com - http://bit.ly/drremix

Next up in the podcast, Gail Desler brings us up to date on here work as a technology integrator in the Elk Grove (CA) Unified School District.  Among other things, Gail describes why she loves Audacity so much, and here's some of how she puts it in her wonderful Edublog, BlogWalker:

     The appeal of  Audacity to students is that they can edit all or just parts of a recording. For the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of observing Teresa Cheung’s 4th graders delve into Audacity to edit their Stories from Heart audio interviews. Once students see how easy it is to zoom in and delete an “er” or “um,” or shorten a pause, or amplify a section that’s too low, or remove background noise, etc., they become active sound editors. I love watching the confidence level of ELLs grow, as they relax, knowing how easy it is to redo words or even a single word until they’re satisfied with the output.
     But more importantly, as Teresa’s students listen, for instance, to Chase’s mother explain how she came to be born by a waterfall, or Devina’s grandmother talk about growing up in Berkeley in the ’50s, or Anthony’s mother talk about her childhood days escaping Laos,  the students take pride in sharing and preserving family stories, cultures, and languages. As the collection builds, so does the celebration of common threads and diversity in Ms. Cheung’s classroom, along with an appreciation for the power of the human voice.

Finally, Paul, Chris, and Susan mull over some of the changes they are planning for Youth Voices. Within days of this post, Bill Fitzgerald and the other "primates" over at FunnyMonkey will have finished a re-launch of Youth Voices on their new Voice Box installation.

The VoiceBox installation profile is designed to simplify the work of groups looking to create or expand their online presence. Groups who could use this site range from media organizations to not-for-profits to schools to advocacy groups. If an organization wants to build a place for their stakeholders to publish, interact, and get more informed, then VoiceBox could support that work.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.


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