MARSHA
RATZEL
Diary #5
The Good, the Bad, and the Internet
This holiday week was short but packed with a full week's worth of work. With little time for reflection, it was a week that was involved in putting out fires. I spent one day learning an application program in a training class. That day felt like a spa vacation since someone else was concentrating on me verses me concentrating on everyone else. Made me realize that I need to refill my reservoir more often or there won't be anything there by winter holiday. A large part of this week was working on CIPA, the Children's Internet Protection Act (PDF file). All districts have to comply by July 2002, and we are trying to figure out a strategy for doing so. Up to now, a strong point of our district has been our information literacy emphasis --- teaching students to be responsible and savvy consumers of websites. And we'd like to keep it that way. The fear is that teachers will feel a false sense of security and let their guards down; that parents will have unachievable expectations that their children will never accidentally able to go to an undesirable website; and students will not see the need to become information literate. Somehow we will still need to convey the message that the most effect filter for students is a "live, certified teacher" in the room with them, guiding and facilitating the research effort. If you don't much about CIPA, it would be a good idea to find out what your district is doing. Because it will impact how we use the Internet. Significantly. Terrific teachers willing to learn The other big chunk of this week was spent following up on the virtual field trip. More and more schools are gearing up. I am spending lots of my time figuring out who still needs to be called upon and what needs to be done. I finished working on assessment tools for each grade level; now I have to make it a priority for everyone to use them. The best parts of this week have been seeing teachers who are willing to venture out a bit. The techno wizards are already all on board and have their plans. The teachers who are calling now to talk about how to implement the virtual field trip aren't techno wizards, but are terrific teachers. And they're willing to try something that scares them to death. And that means I have to be there right behind them or in touch with them --- encouraging and helping all the way. Another victory popped up as I went out to take digital photos of 7th grade reading timelines. Being out in the hallways and classrooms gave me a chance just to stand and talk with teachers without an agenda. It was great to just listen and give value to anything they had to say. And the encouragement I took from listening to their success stories about these timelines made my heart sing. If you want a chance to see the reading timelines, you can go to my online photo album at http://www.photopoint.com and then type marsha_ratzel@hotmail.com . Once you're in my public albums look in the 7th Grade Reading album. It's a terrific activity that engages students in talking about their favorite books and expands into a classwide forest fire discussion of reading. Hopefully helping to develop a passion for reading along the way. Photo album projects can involve everyone These timelines made me think back to my first online photo album projects. Every fieldtrip and project is recorded with digital photos and has been uploaded for parents. Sometimes students have sent their grandparents the web address and private album passwords so they could look over the work. And when their grandparents have added album guest books messages commenting on the work, the kids flipped. A fifth grade colleague used it as an opening activity every year with a bear who explored the school and then uploaded the pictures for younger students to look at. I also remembered back to when the kids asked me to develop online study photos from our dissection labs. They felt it helped them do better on lab practicals. It's good to know you've come a long way and grown in unanticipated ways. Especially when you see how far you still need to go. And you have so much to learn.
