Summer Frustrations

I am so frustrated that I don't have enough time to learn everything I want this summer. After ISTE, I got enamored with Web 2.0 tools and their applications in the classroom. To that end, I joined Twitter and have been bookmarking blogs and articles of interest. I have made a Google Doc of interesting things I want to explore further. My mind is overflowing with ideas...
Can't keep it all in my already 60+ year old overcrowded brain...just have to use these online tools to keep it all organized. There is so much I want to share with my colleagues...hope they are as interested and excited as I am.

And Google...there is SO much it offers...google earth, google maps, google sketchup, Google Lit trips, Forms, Google Docs, Google groups (like Yahoo groups I think). Do you know I just found a Jewish Educators Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/jewishednet.

There is so much...Can't wait to share it all...

Practical Questions about Using Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom: online etiquette

As a followup to yesterday's blog about using Twitter and blogging in the classroom and having students commenting as you learn a question came up: How do you prevent & what does a teacher do about inappropriate comments when you are teaching this way and projecting comments on wall? The person I was discussing it was wary about using this in the classroom and wanted to hear opinions of people already doing it.
My initial reaction was, to give a lesson first on "Proper online etiquette" or in Hebrew "Online Derech Eretz" (online good manners) and have consequences to actions. First of all, a teacher can delete the comment. Another would be to explain the consequences of bad "online manners" and commenting inappropriately before doing it, and a consequence might be to take away ipad or computer privileges.
I would appreciate any and all suggestions and answers to this problem.

Mishnah 1 Brachos

:Okay, I think I have discovered America...not perfect, needs some work, but basic idea

I was trying to do text analysis of chumash, mishnah , any limudei kodesh on the ipad, with ability for students to collaborate, discuss, answer questions etc...you can do it via a blog. I prepared this on my laptop. Got the text from Davkawriter, copied and pasted it. Then I made questions. They need cleaning up with justification etc..not smooth enough..but answers, discussions etc. can then be posted as comments on blog. There is ability to highlight in different colors, on Blogger, different color texts, etc...

Again: would love comments and ideas about this idea.

מֵאֵימָתַי קוֹרִין אֶת שְׁמַע בְּעַרְבִית. מִשָּׁעָה שֶׁהַכֹּהֲנִים נִכְנָסִים לֶאֱכֹל בִּתְרוּמָתָן, עַד סוֹף הָאַשְׁמוּרָה הָרִאשׁוֹנָה, דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר. וַחֲכָמִים אוֹמְרִים, עַד חֲצוֹת. רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, עַד שֶׁיַּעֲלֶה עַמּוּד הַשָּׁחַר. מַעֲשֶׂה שֶׁבָּאוּ בָנָיו מִבֵּית הַמִּשְׁתֶּה, אָמְרוּ לוֹ, לֹא קָרִינוּ אֶת שְׁמַע. אָמַר לָהֶם, אִם לֹא עָלָה עַמּוּד הַשָּׁחַר, חַיָּבִין אַתֶּם לִקְרוֹת. וְלֹא זוֹ בִּלְבַד, אֶלָּא כָּל מַה שֶּׁאָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים עַד חֲצוֹת, מִצְוָתָן עַד שֶׁיַּעֲלֶה עַמּוּד הַשָּׁחַר. הֶקְטֵר חֲלָבִים וְאֵבָרִים, מִצְוָתָן עַד שֶׁיַּעֲלֶה עַמּוּד הַשָּׁחַר. וְכָל הַנֶּאֱכָלִין לְיוֹם אֶחָד, מִצְוָתָן עַד שֶׁיַּעֲלֶה עַמּוּד הַשָּׁחַר. אִם כֵּן, לָמָּה אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים עַד חֲצוֹת, כְּדֵי לְהַרְחִיק אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעֲבֵירָה:

1. What is the Mishnah asking us?

2. What are the different opinions offered?

א. רבי אליעזר

ב. חכמים

ג. רבי גמליאל

3. say this רבי גמליאל Why does

עַד חֲצוֹת said חכמים feel the רבי גמליאל Why does

"Social Media" in teaching Limudei Kodesh

I don't know if this will work. It depends on the blocking in one's school. Is it possible to have limited twitter? If the answer is yes, I have some ideas.

Imaging teaching Parashat Korach. Then have the class tweet the major points ... for example: one hashtag could be @Korach; others could be @Datan, @Aviram, @eshet Ohn ben Peles etc...

they could tweet the Perek...with reactions from other members of Bnai Yisrael (some will be left to imagination)...this can all be tweeted from the seat on ipad or laptop and projected on screen, so all the tweets are coming up as they are written...can you imagine how involved the class would be in learning. This could be a reward for learning the Perek well.

or the Meraglim imagine the meraglim tweeting their "spying out the land"...

My imagination is running away with me...

Yosef and his brothers, selling him

or blogs...kids could write blogs...

Moshe's blog..from when he grows up in Paroh's palace, to killing the mitzri, to going before Paroh (let my people go), the makkos, etc etc...instead of a "diary" which is just one kid writing it and maybe reading it to class, whole class is involved...each child could write a different section of Moshe's blog...and everyone could comment...and again, it could be projected in front of class with real time comments coming in.

or Yehoshua's blog..capturing eretz canaan...

or yosef's blog..from when he was sold until family comes to mitzrayim.

Just some ideas to incorporate web 2.0 into limudei kodesh. I would love to hear your ideas, comments, critiques. As I said, this is just "off the top of my head."

More to come, just thought of some other applications. Will try them out first before blogging.

My Definition of Social Media

Interesting ideas I am coming up with. I got into a discussion with our tech committee head about "social media." His first reaction was, "can't do it, Facebook is going to be blocked." I argued, that social media doesn't have to be just Facebook. Maybe I am wrong. I feel social media can be used in the 1:1 or blended classroom (even with Facebook blocked) because anytime you have students collaborating together, able to comment on each other's work, using Web 2.0 tools, etc, you are dealing with "social media." Correct me if I am wrong.

I am trying to come up with some ideas of using "social media" in teaching Chumash, navi...my next blog will explore these ideas and have some questions.

Are you a teacher Mr. Winkle would be comfortable with?

watch this video and answer that question

.http://t.co/0XaAPyb #jed21

Getting Started

I realize that I've been sending out lots and lots of emails to my fellow teachers at my new school, Ohr Chadash, with suggestions of websites/blogs/iPad apps. I'm beginning to feel like a nudge, so I decided to start a blog, post all suggestions to the blog and then just send them links to my blog when I post. It's much easier for me this way also.

Where am I getting all this great material to suggest? From Twitter!! I discovered twitter, among many other great discoveries at http://www.isteconference.org/2011/ last week...4 days of educational technology...great experience..maybe I'll write about it some other time. Back to Twitter. I've heard about it, used it a bit, but didn't realize the potential until I started using it as @orhchadashtech. That is, what is called, my hashtag. If you go on twitter, join, make your own hashtag and start following me. Then you can follow some of the people I follow. Most of the people I follow are in education, use technology, specifically 21st Century tools, Web2.0 tools, Jewish Education. I read their blogs, which give great real live classroom advice to using technology in the classroom, follow their links, many of which lately, were sessions many of us attended at ISTE. It's overwhelming, but I've learned so much in the last week and a half. Try it, you'll be pleased at how much you can learn. Each post is only 140 characters, so I'm learning not to be so long-winded, a problem I have with email and blogs.

The name of this blog: EdTechBubby...I have been teaching for over 40 years...have used technology in the classroom for about 1/2 of that time...I've gone from Apple 2 computers, to pc's projecting Chumash lessons made on powerpoint, to smart boards, to being a full fledged computer teaching at the now former Yeshivat Rambam. There I taught grades K-5. We used Microsoft Office and I can truly say the students I taught are proficient in many aspects of Microsoft Office, depending on what we covered in their grade. Now I am the newly hired tech teacher at the new Ohr Chadash Academy, Baltimore. I say tech teacher, and not computer teacher, because we have enough iPads for grades 4-6 and I am working on trying to integrate them into the classroom, maybe even establishing 1:1 classrooms.

The Bubby part...I am a bubby of 7 very tech savvy grandchildren...I can say I've learned a great deal from them...texting and emoticons from Eliana, great powerpoint tricks from Ezra and much much more...from all of them. I hope I can transmit what I learned from them and from my edtech colleagues to all my students, and colleagues at Ohr Chadash. I hope to share what I learn, via this blog and Twitter. Remember follow me on Twitter @ohrchadashtech.