Patrick Higgins has written a great blog post, sharing the  fabulous line up of speakers for TEDxNYED this Saturday. I’ll be there, sharing as much as I can. Check it out!

“When writing itself appeared, philosophers feared that it would weaken memory and degrade intelligence. But it allowed for a great, albeit externalized memory and an enlarged, albeit shared intelligence. [...] The Internet will have similar effects, with some losses but, on balance, more gains.” - Mark U. Edwards,senior advisor to the Dean, Harvard University Divinity School

Teaching academic (as opposed to personal) writing is often tedious for both me and the students. I much prefer talking about voice and style in their personal narratives.

So this time around, I tried a new process, and I am pleased with the results. I knew the students had varying degrees of understanding about Shakespeare and the Renaissance Period. Knowing they also have interests in specific areas such as music and art, I felt comfortable in letting them choose a direction for their research that might tie with those personal interests. As we read Romeo and Juliet aloud during the class time, I asked them to begin learning about the time period for homework.

They spent their evenings compiling information on a variety of topics: culture, religion, food, science. At the end of the week, I asked them to create a wiki to showcase what they had found. I asked them to paraphrase, use bullets, and include images, diagrams, or videos to help the rest of the class understand what they had discovered.

Next, we spent a couple of days reading each other’s work on the wiki. I gave them a list of questions so they would have to visit a random number of pages to answer the right number of questions. We shared our thoughts and examples of interesting facts over the next few days.

Finally, each student had to choose either his own topic or someone else’s to write a mini-research paper. All information and resources were freely shared among the students.

As they began to work on drafts, we talked about how to draw a conclusion about what they had read and researched. I posed questions such as: What did you discover as you read about women during the Renaissance? What conclusions can you draw about women’s roles during that time period? How were you feeling as you read? What were their lives like then compared to current times? Ancient times?

The answers to the questions became the basis for the thesis statement. I was pleased with how easily they were able to think beyond the facts and actually state a position based on the research. And because the research was readily available on the wiki, they knew who the experts were, who to go to for help. Each other.

As they began to edit their final drafts, they shared their work in Google Docs with each other. Then, during our snowstorm, they shared the final version with me!

I am pleased with their work, and I believe they have a better understanding, too, of what it means to gather information, cite sources, and draw conclusions.

And for those who didn’t quite master the writing? They get to do it again:)

I was reading through some of our seniors’ blog posts tonight. They post updates on their Senior Exhibit progress, sharing their ups and downs. Recently some of them have been doing “practice presentations.”

This student’s post caught my eye because I remember when she picked her topic, and we had several lengthy conversations about it. After her practice, teachers in the room offered suggestions for the “real” presentation….and this is what she wrote:

The teachers also suggested that I add bullet points to my powerpoint slides…

Now I don’t know what she had on the slides…perhaps they were messy, too filled with text….I don’t know. But the answer surely isn’t bullet points.

I wish we had time to work with students in meaningful ways about creating solid presentations. I know many of the teachers in the Upper School know how to do this, but not all. And for any given presentation, random teachers make suggestions based on what they “think” best. So this student will now go and create the standard business slides, each filled with the bulleted notes she will probably repeat in her presentation.

I know everyone means well, and I’m sure there were other truly helpful comments. But let’s drop the bullet points and use slides as powerful backdrops to the ideas we are presenting.

Man cannot discover new oceans until he has courage to lose sight of the shore.

–Andre Gide

After watching Frontline’s Digital Nation, I felt such ambivalence. The discussion about laptops in the classroom seemed negative and unbalanced.  Henry Jenkins’ response made sense to me, and it helped validate much of what I believe about how  the way we teach and learn needs to change.

However, I felt no ambivalence about the reports on multitasking. I am absolutely certain I do not concentrate as well when I am doing several things at one time.

I thought for years that I was doing it. Certain I was handling all the information that was coming at me, I frequently checked my email while researching something online for class, while I tweeted and retweeted links to my PLN.

It wasn’t until last year when research surfaced, I began to realize how much I was missing.

Just this week, I:

• misread the directions for a writing contest and had to tell two students that I would have to choose between them instead of sending in both entries (based on class enrollment NOT school enrollment)
• skipped an important section in an email and had to throw together a response quickly
• didn’t write a date on my calendar and will now need to get a substitute
• frustrated my husband who was trying to talk to me while I was reading an article online
• got a teasing comment from a friend when I checked my iPhone during dinner (I swore I would never do that)

Sigh. I need to slow down.

As I walked into the front doors of SLA Thursday afternoon, I had a sense of coming home. Granted the visit was only my second, having attended Educon  two years ago.

The comfort came from walking into a world where people believe as I about teaching and learning.

Carey, Deb, and I spent Thursday afternoon visiting classes, and once again I was given hope that given the right circumstances and the right vision, great learning can happen in a bricks and mortar institution. My tendency these days is to work online. I believe the future of education will be a mix of face to face and online sharing and collaboration–and at SLA it works.

But watching these SLA students shine makes me realize how powerful leadership is in an institution in providing guidance, vision, inspiration, support, and love. Principal Chris Lehmann and his staff seem to do it all.

Listen to one of the students talk:

SLA 1 from Susan Carter Morgan on Vimeo.

Other highlights of the weekend:

• meeting most of my Twitter friends (though I am so bad with faces and kind of an introvert. I had to see @sarahhanawald TWICE before I realized it was, indeed, Sarah. Yay!!) and seeing old friends with whom I share so much in common
• listening to Leif Gustavson lead us in a discussion about collaborative writing and the thorny issues of copyright. (I have SO changed my views.)
• working in a small group with @courosa and @benhazzard as we tackled “big questions.” Thanks for helping plan my next month’s lesson!
• participating in @dlaufenberg’s solid session on school vs real life
• finally meeting @jennyluca from Australia (you are so funny!)
• the independent school dinner where many of us connected face to face for the first time
• and, of course, laughing w/ @capohanda, @dgarcia, and @mcarls

So  many ideas floating around in my head. Too many to list here. I am leaving much out.

A huge thank you to the SLA faculty, @chrislehmann and @dlaufenberg and all the students and parents. Well done. My brain is full.

• From my Google Reader
• Listening to my iTunes podcasts
• Smart people on twitter
• Maps on Deb’s iPhone app
• Texting traffic help from son in car
• Links from @hewilbrandt on Youtube
• Face to face conversations in Philly at dinner w/ @jennyluca @mcarls @dmcordell @rinegarcia and @capohanka

Today…looking forward to seeing the SLA kids and teachers again, two years later. Remembering that first Ustream @chrislehmann did from one of the classes, thinking this school is amazing.

A recent tweet from @dancallahan led me to an article in today’s NYT, which explains why it might be better for kids to play and then eat.

My eighth-graders come racing to class after their 30 minute outside “play” time after lunch, and I’ve often wondered if they are just too excited to buckle down at that point. Eating after play might be just the ticket!

Ok, they’re not smiling. And the photo isn’t even clear.

But it’s all I’ve got today, and I want to write about how much fun I’m having working with the 8th graders these days. We are reading Romeo and Juliet aloud, dressing up and acting out as much as we can. Students have also picked topics about the Renaissance Period to research, placing it on a wiki. This is what I’ve noticed:

Students:

• pick up nuances and laugh in appropriate places
• can’t wait to be picked to read aloud
• do better when in costume

Renaissance Day is Feb. 16. We are so lucky to have fellow teacher Keith Wamsley and Dr. Bill Atalay, authors of Leonardo’s Universe, who will share their thoughts about the time period AND donate two books for a class contest.

I can’t wait.