I am so sorry that I have not been communicating on the quick topic this week. I have been so busy planning the trip to the city today, and the 8th grade graduation on Sat. (it is like a mini wedding with readings, music, flowers, awards, etc) I will have a couple of people look at our site in the next few days and have them leave their comments on the site quick topic. Also, I will send those emails for permission to use the pictures on the site. Erin, I will be in touch to see what you have done so that I don't repeat. I hope you are all well. I am sorry that I will be missing class tonight. See you soon.

Kathy - Thank you so much for posting the content of your permission requests!
Now, if Erin or Sarah could please send similar emails to anyone we need to get permission from. There are images on our very first page that need permission. Kathy probably knows what sites they came from if it isn't evident from the links themselves.
Kathy - thank you also for putting the alt tags on the images on our site.
I updated our ASSESSMENT section and fixed the mis-linked quicktopic there. So we should be all set if we each invite someone to visit, review and comment on our site.
I am planning to do some work on the "Kids Activities" section and welcome any input.

Here is the letter I sent out to get permission to use sites.

Dear XXXX,

I am interested in linking to your web page from an educational based website that I am creating for a Masters course through CW Post. This is a graduate program called Team. I would like to know if I could use your logo on that page in order to provide a visual for accessing this page. In no way is this a commercial site and I only intend this site to be used for educational purposes.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kathy Piacentine

Teacher – Graduate Student

Long Island University - CW Post Campus

TEAM – Technology Education And Multimedia

kpiacent@optonline.net

Good work last night guys! We got a good deal accomplished. Sarah have fun this week and we'll let you know about info from class on Wednesday.

Thanks Erin. I'll be back on the quick topic this weekend. If you could quick topic what you guys did in class on Wednesday that would be great.

Great job tonight, STT. Thanks again Sarah, and best of luck this week!

See you all tonight!

Just a reminder that we are meeting at Sarah's house around 6pm Monday (tomorrow).
Thanks for hosting again Sarah!

Erin, I am working on gathering sites about D.C. just to let you know.

Thanks Rachel:)

Edited by author 05-16-2005 10:06 PM
Just got this in an email:
Rachel,
One thing I noticed right off the bat is that you have not used the ALT tag in the properties box on any graphic. Each graphic should have a description in the Alt tag box. This becomes visible when you hover over the graphic.
Donna

and this one from Faye:
Give me a couple of days...grading due to the last day at Suffolk!
Since my time is tied up with end-of-semester stuff at Suffolk, start
here http://webxact.watchfire.com/ for finding out how accessible your
site is.

From Sarah, Erin & Rachel:
Sarah/Erin are going to work on the Related Sites page as discussed in message /m264
Rachel will work on the Kids Activities section.
Kathy is invited (if she would like) to collect Scavenger Hunt links for the Related Sites page (scavenger hunt gets its own section there) and/or create a Kids Activities Scavenger Hunt Page to explain/demonstrate the procedure/value of this travel learning method.
We are all to look at our page for copyright issues and decide what needs to be done (Erin emailed Addi to ask about the pictures on the timeline)
We are all to visit the accessibility page recommended by Faye as mentioned in earlier posting /m273 and pasted below:
For those who want to check "A quick and dirty introduction to accessibility", here's the link - http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/accessibility/index.htm
I was looking it over and there is a handy list of quick ways to improve accessibility at http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/accessibility/07.htm and it links to another checklist that I understood very little of, but the quick one was good.
I will email Faye/Donna and cc to all of us, asking them to review our site and give us a list of accessibility issues to consider.
We can put our heads together on all of this in class Wednesday. We should try to meet Monday, 5/23.

Sorry I missed all the latest discussion and planning. I was in a tech meeting.

Should I stop @ the Golden Pear then? I can get Cobb Salads for us and a wrap with salad for Rachel. What would be your second choice if there are no Cobbs? And Rachel, your order? Or do you want me to stop elsewhere?

Erin, it would be great if you could stop on your way so that none of us has to run out. Do you mind?? Or if it is too much I will run out when we get hungry. Either way is fine.

See you at 5:30! Pizza n things is fine unless you want me to stop somewhere on my way to you:)

5:30 tonight sounds good. Rachel can you give Erin the directions? Otherwise I will repost them. Thanks. What do we want to do about dinner? Pizza n Things?

Let's meet tonight around 5:30. We'll stay in touch with Kathy electronically and include her in any plans we make. In the meantime, we can get into some stuff tonight and continue on Wednesday. See ya'll at Sarah's.

I can not meet tonight. Tom has a doctors appt. at 5:30 in Hauppague that I want to go with him to. Tomorrow night sounds better but probably not till after 6:00. If you want to meet tonight that's ok and I understand. Let me know what you want me to do as my part.

Thanks for the websites Rachel. I can meet anytime tomorrow or closer to 6pm on Tuesday because of appointments. We need to check with Kathy, I guess, and we'll post again tomorrow. Thanks for being so flexible, Sarah!

Are we meeting tomorrow? Just tell me when.

Just to add to our list of changes to consider. In addition to copyright issues, we should also be thinking about accessibility. Faye posted a useful resource to the Tech Quicktopic:
For those who want to check "A quick and dirty introduction to accessibility", here's the link - http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/accessibility/index.htm
I was looking it over and there is a handy list of quick ways to improve accessibility at http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/accessibility/07.htm and it links to another checklist that I understood very little of, but the quick one was good.

I was checking out the websites Bette sent us to this week. The first one - Basecamp project managment seems like a bit more than we need for our collaboration. There are some neat features like To Do lists and Milestones (good for our timeline), but I still think the benefits may not be worth the complexities.
The second site is an Electronic Fieldtrip site that features specially designed electronic fieldtrips. We will definitely want to add that to our links/resources. I was also thinking that we should contact them and invite them to have groups who participate submit something to us to be posted on our Journeys page. Whadayall think?

Any ideas about when to meet?
I can meet tomorrow (Monday) after my Technology Committee meeting (usually ends about 4 or 4:30), but I think Kathy has a conflict with that.
Tuesday is fine for me - anytime after school.
Sarah-how did it go on Friday?

Hey ya'll -
1)We decided everyone will take on a task to work on for the collaboration. Post what you plan to do and attack it for Monday. We can troubleshoot any problems together on Monday.
2)We also decided to try using the "synchronizing" feature of Dreamweaver instead of Getting/Putting - Faye thinks it is in the Sites menu - whoever finds it first can post instructions here, okay?
3)Meeting? When? At Sarah's

A meeting next Monday sounds great. Rachel, all of your suggestions sound good and I think we should try to do as much of them as we can. I was also thinking about checking out our site for copyright issues. As we just found out, Girls Just Want to Have Fun is not ok. I guess we can't have music on our site unless we sing the song ourselves. Also, the pictures on our timeline--I don't know if Addie got those from a site that allows you to take their pictures. Just some things to think about. I wonder if Dr. Sneiderman and Dr. Byrne are ever going to give us suggestions about our site. They would have so much insight. I was disappointed at the end of last semester that they didn't comment. I wonder if they ever will?? Maybe we can ask them. See you all tomorrow night.

How about if we meet next Monday . . . there is a lot of testing going on here at Montauk this week and much to do.
In the meantime, if everybody posts here their ideas for changes, improvements, etc. then we can start doing stuff on Wednesday and meet again next Monday to see what progress has been made. Sarah, is that okay with you?
PS from Rachel - I will defintely miss the start of class, but am hoping to attend the 2nd half after my field trip.

Hi STT! I can meet either this Monday or next Monday- whatever works out best for the group. Thanks for offering your house, Sarah! Rachel and I have talked and I'll try to check with Kathy to see if we are going to meet today or next Monday. Any meeting times in mind? I'll check back in later...

If everyone wants to meet tomorrow, we can meet at my house.

Hey everybody -
I'm sorry I will be absent or late to class on Wednesday. Are we planning to get together this Monday, next Monday or both? If any, where?
Also, I hope that everyone will post their ideas for changes, visions, etc. for the collaboration as I did in the last post. Although I like my ideas, I don't want to force them on the group and I would love to know what others had in mind. Thanks.
PS I'm sorry I will miss Erin's birthday celebration in class - May 11 is her birthday!

Edited by author 05-07-2005 10:02 AM
While I was looking over the other collaboration sites, I gave ours a bit of a once over and came up with some ideas. I thought I'd post them here just so they are up for us to look at when we are ready:
-This site rocks!
-Change home page to better reflect our philosophy and project
 -move the current photo links (copyright issues?) to a less central area
 -provide an intro and prominent links to the various sections of the site
-Kids Activities Section
 -Work on current ideas listed (divvy up among group?)
 -Add a scavenger hunt section (Kathy)
-Re-organize all TEAM related stuff: fall proposal items, current proposal, etc.
-Journeys page – develop (divvy up?)
-Related Sites – create sections
 -Destination Links – provide links to typical school destinations: Albany, Boston, DC, etc.
 -Travel Links
 -Educational Travel Links
  -including a large scavenger hunt section
 -Educational Links that go with our philosophy
-Check page names? (I think Kathy took care of this)
-COPYRIGHT ISSUES?

Thanks everyone for the card. It means a lot to me.

Rachel, thank you so much for the update of what I need to get done. Missing class last week really messed me up. I had emailed Erin earlier this week in a panic and she helped to clarify what was due. Thanks so much for covering what we needed to have done for our site. I appreciate it so much. My grandmother passed away on Monday so we were very busy all week driving back and forth to Queens for the wakes and funeral. I am absolutely exhausted and so sad. Getting through the synthesis journal was not easy, but I am almost finished. I emailed Donna and she is going to help me tomorrow with the portfolio. Thank goodness for Donna, I don't know how I would have figured out what to do. Erin offered to help me with it, but I am glad that I don't have to put her through that. Thanks again for thinking about me.

Erin,
How ya doing with the WHY? Do you need help with the wording or posting? Call me if you need me. -- Rachel

Edited by author 05-01-2005 02:44 PM
Sarah,
Don't fret about the collaboration project. We've got that worked out. We did the assessment based on what we had all discussed previously. You can check it out on the proposal page of the website. Erin is working on the very last polishing of the WHY. Once that is done we will post a note on the site inviting the rest of the class to view it. In the meantime, you should be working on your synthesis journal that is due Monday, May 2nd at 9am (tomorrow!) We are also expected to have our own personal portfolio website set up with a note saying something about what is to come. We did the tech part of this in class, so maybe if you get in touch with Donna she can help you. Also, we are supposed to visit all the other collaborations before class on Wednesday and be prepared to give feedback ("gifts") If you are overwhelmed due to family stuff - just get in touch with Bette. I am sure she will understand. If you need any help please don't hesitate to call or email any of us. I am working on some stuff today at home.

I know that Rachel and Kathy are away. I was finguring that we would meet the Monday before class next week to finish up anything that was not done, but I just noticed that our final proposal is due on this coming Wed. April 27? What does that mean for us? I am sorry that I missed class and that I am totally out of the loop.

Edited by author 04-20-2005 07:38 PM
Sarah - we miss you and hope you are doing okay.

Just a quick note (we are in class right now):
I made some changes, so everyone should do a GET before you mess w/anything.

Oh, and Bette loved "grow" - so if ya'll don't mind I would really like to keep it.

I just emailed all of you to let you know that I will not be in class tomorrow night. My grandmother is very sick and she is close to dying, so I am taking the opportunity that has presented itself to go visit her. Sorry I will miss our collaboration time. I will be on the quick topic on Thurs.

Thanks for the link, Rachel. I am not opposed to the "grow" thing (as per our phone discussion) since I guess it really is what we are trying to say. Perhaps it really is the most precise word- maybe we can run it by Bette, then Dr. Byrne:) I have been checking the links and will continue tonight. See you all tomorrow!

Night, night Sarah.
Thanks for checking the comments quicktopic. We really should do that on a regular basis. I think that maybe Nancy was looking for our proposal. The only reason I think this is b/c I went to the other collaborations to look at theirs!! I confess! It was helpful, though, to see how others are tackling the proposal assignments. The other projects are really coming along. However, I think that we are up to par as well and doing fine with our proposal work so far.
Check 'em out for yourself at http://eev.liu.edu/eev05/collab04_05.htm (yes that is linked on the sneaky books page of www.montaukschool.org)

I'll go through and check all of the links (tomorrow--I am exhausted and have to go to bed). Erin, don't worry about doing it because you are working on proofreading. Rachel--I am sorry that you missed your bike ride. Talk to you all tomorrow. Hey, did anyone notice that Nancy left us a positive note on our website quicktopic? She is so conscientious and thoughtful.

Edited by author 04-18-2005 09:00 PM
Erin, I think our postings "crossed in the night" b/c I didn't see yours until just now.
Just to clarify, I DID NOT check all the links on the site. I only worked on the Proposal page and fixed those broken links.
How do you feel about my wierd use of "grow" in the assessment?
Oh, and I found the time by not going bike riding today even though it was beautiful out. I will say that the assessment thing wasn't such a big deal since our group has been discussing it anyway and you and I talked about it so much at yearbook this weekend.

Edited by author 04-18-2005 08:55 PM
SARAH: First, I wrote "grow our project" initially and then went to fix it, but that is what we are doing! Unless ya'll really want to change it, I think it really captures the process well. I'm open to changing it, but I'll admit, I really like it as is.
I'm glad you liked the work I did and don't ever feel that your feedback is complaining! Besides, all I really did was write up all this assessment stuff we have all been talking and typing about.
As far as checking the links: Kathy moved around all the pages. Therefore, some links may be broken. Mostly, she was super-careful and learned this really cool "change site-wide" thing from Faye or Donna. However, when I went to the proposal page, some of the links we had within the text were broken. So, Kathy and I were wondering about the entire rest of the site - buttons, hyperlinked text and photos - anything that is supposed to let you click and go to something else.

Edited by author 04-18-2005 08:52 PM
Hi group! Sorry it has taken me so long to post- Rachel, how in the world did you do it with all our other stuff this past week? You are my idol, and hopefully ex-yearbook co-editor (that goes for the both of us)! Kathy called me about the file structure earlier this week so I will spend some time checking out all of the links(as you suggested too, Rachel). Maybe they all do work, Sarah, since Rachel said she checked them as well. As for the why, I will print out all of the stuff since I need to attack it with a pen and paper (old school, I know, but that is how my brain operates). I really like the idea of the online AND written survey assessment. It will provide us with a greater variety of opinions I bet. I'll get back to you all in a bit. Kathy, I hope your eye feels better- I look forward to seeing you soon! (haha, dumb joke)

Rachel--great work. I love the new soon to be buttons on the top and the anchors. Great idea, a much better way to navigate. I just noticed one thing that you wrote: to promote and grow our project. We have to ask Erin, the expert, but I think "grow our project" might need to be changed. I am sorry to make a complaint to the wonderful work that you have done. I am confused about checking on the links because I just went on the website and it seemed to me that everything was linking to where it should. Would you explain to me what I need to do? Thanks.

Edited by author 04-18-2005 07:32 PM
I worked on the WHY a little bit, but I got bogged down in Kathy's scavenger hunt section. According to the notes Sarah posted and the red parts I put on the WHY - we need to address learning behaviors and transmission vs. generative. Anyone who wants to tackle this, please feel free. Otherwise, I'll take another stab at it later.
I also changed our general proposal page. I hope this won't make anyone mad (Kathy?), but I took out our blue buttons to get to the rest of the site. Instead, I made the table a bit wider - makes it easier to read and follow the proposal, I think. I also added ANCHORS that let you click and jump around the proposal page. Try 'em out! To go with the anchors, I added a simple table toward the top of the page that gives you the sections of the proposal, along with a quick click "home." I want to change those to cute little buttons that will fit right where the words are, so I may try to work in Fireworks a bit tonight.
Oh, and as I posted before, Kathy worked on the file structure A LOT, so some links were broken. They were easy to fix. I just recommend that if any of us have time, we should check the links in the site. For now, if anyone works on any page, be sure to check the links and fix 'em while you are there. I just spoke with Kathy on the phone - she would love if Erin and Sarah could spend some collaboration time this week checking the links on the site. Even if you can't fix 'em - just make a list of spots where there are broken links and we can tackle them together. (If you fix 'em that would probably be tech time too, right?)
By the way, Kathy has a big eye problem right now - a scratched cornea (how do you spell that?) So, we probably won't get much quicktopic action from her. That is okay, she put in her time early in the week with our site files.
I also tried to write up some of what we discussed about our ASSESSMENT section of the proposal. It is on the proposal page. http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/stt/pages/spring05proposal.htm Please read it over and give me some feedback. Hey, that is like meta-assessment: assessing the assessment. Ouch. My head hurts now.
Sorry this is so long :)

I am also working on the springproposal page.

Monday 5:45 - I am working on the springproposalwhy page from our site. I will put when I am finished and will post a message here notifying everyone.

I like the idea of a survey. What about doing both zoomerang and a paper survey so that we can get both those who are internet savy and those who are not. Also, a lot of people would probably remember to complete the survey more easily if they have a hard copy to remind them. I don't have time right now, but I will check out the zoomerang website. It would be good to learn how to use it.

Edited by author 04-17-2005 05:59 PM
Any ideas about the assessment part of the spring proposal (due April 27 - that is during our vacation)
We already have our quicktopic for annecdotal informal feedback. A survey is fairly easy to do and we could use an online survey site - I think zoomerang is one. http://info.zoomerang.com/ It could be fun to learn to use this site - maybe useful in the tech log as well :)
Or we could do a regular paper survey and give it to individuals from the categories that Bette suggested in class and others: parent, teacher, student, administrator, non-school person, etc. etc.

hey everyone
Kathy told me over the phone that she spent a great deal of time reorganizing the file structure of our STT site on the server. Therefore, before any of us work on any aspect of the site we each need to do a GET from the server.
BIG GIANT THANKS TO KATHY FOR TAKING ON THIS TASK!

I emailed all of you directions to my house. See you tomorrow.

Hi all! Thanks for posting those notes from Dr. Byrne, Sarah. Rachel and I missed you both last week (as we did our sleep, our health and our lives)! After sleeping past noon yesterday, I am finally back in the groove. Sarah's house sounds great Monday- what time are we all thinking? I am pretty flexible. Sarah, please remind me to get that book Rachel made you get when we meet. I could use it!

yes on the 80's
no on the sleep
disposable digital cameras have proved to have severe limitations - but they are serving their purpose on this trip
more when we get back
i hope class went well last night - it is a shame we weren't there, b/c i know we could use the time together
sarah - your house sounds great!
please email us directions?
off to job shadowing today!

Edited by author 04-06-2005 05:06 PM
Hey Erin and Rachel - We missed you tonight. Monday sounds fine with us. Let us know more about the trip. Weather here has been in the high 60's but I hear that you had temps in and about the 80's. Lucky you!! Hope you are getting some sleep. Keep in touch.

Edited by author 04-05-2005 07:39 PM
I can't believe that you two were up at 1 o'clock in the morning. Spring has sprung a bit here the past couple of days, but no way near D.C. I'm sure. Next Monday sounds good. We can have it at my house as long as everyone doesn't mind driving to Clearwater. (I am pretty close to Addie's) Let me know what you all think. Kathy and I will miss you guys at class.
Rachel--I got the Dreamweaver book and I am doing my tutorials. Thanks for making me get it. Hope you are having fun. I can't wait to hear about the grant with the digital cameras. I had no idea that there was such a thing as disposable digital cameras.

Hi - Rachel and Erin here. We are in DC and guess what? They have this amazing thing here. It is called spring . . and it is wonderful. I hope we can get that where we live soon.
Unbeknownst to us (I'm sure I spelled that wrong!) our social studies teacher assigned a very Schools That Travel type of assignment for this trip! He even got a grant that supplied each student with his/her very own disposable digital camera. More about this as it progresses.
I know we have a bunch of work to do on our site and our collaboration project. I will "put" the changes we made last Wed. to the site - but not tonight - it is almost 1:00 am. I will do it tomorrow night for sure.
Are we still planning to meet Monday, April 11? I think it is a good idea. There is something else that night that I wanted to go to - a program on cyber safety at Southampton High School - but I do think it is important for us to meet that evening. I will try to find out more about the cyber safety program and maybe we can get something like that for Montauk in the near future. So whadya say - Monday, April 11 we meet at ? We can most certainly meet at Rachel's house again if that works for everybody. Or maybe someone else wants to take a turn hosting? Whichever is fine.

Erin and Rachel--good luck on your trip. I hope you have a good time.

Thanks for the birthday card. I loved it.

Here are the notes from last night:

First sentence—you want to say generalized statement that it is very important that people experience what you are talking about.

Pedagogical perspective—getting learners into field experiences has some pedagogical merit.
This site is intended to …..
Whitucke argues that this helps students…

Change “ivory tower”? a model that we exist in isolation out of the outside world
As Reimer argues that travel brings relevance to the ivory tower as a way of developing

Schools that travel is designed to support this concept.

At end of some specifics that the site does to get at the multiple intelligences

Studying in classroom settings? Subjects that they are studying. How do we extend this school based learning? What is different from what is done in school?
Get beyond that augment, bring to life, extend upon what students are studying
Pedagogy model, anchoring it, reference
Not just my opinion

S that that travel builds off of this

Things?

Transition between transmission pedagogical and a field based action generative constructionist in nature–involved in scavenger hunt
Our site does this and that’s why we want people to use it

Personal mastery
Reference five disciplines
Echoes of words, working together, shared vision
Looking at intellectual behaviors
How are you able to do this internaces?? of two different models, five pushing one way with 14 learning behaviors coming across another way

Learning behaviors—learning to appreciate others

Create an environment that involves them more, more pedagogical sense of fun
Hard work may not be fun but it may be enjoyable

Create an experience of learning that will have a different kind of an impact than a transmission model
What is your experience of learning that you are creating
Write one sentence about what your site is going to do
This site is intended to ------------ because
Help you keep focus

Scavenger hunts only one part—that is what we are going to do with each of the others (after intro) travel in three diff. ways scavenger hunts, etc.
What is the validity of using scavenger hunts?


Goals:
1. think about reorganizing our files—keep in mind, we are considering that we are going to change a little—kids activities—learning models
2. get all our TEAM eev stuff out, one button on the home page and not anywhere else
3. learning model—“Chuck part” model always starts with this can be done no matter what the focus is
4. try our model—get others to try the model
5. have a forum that is a gallery of the models in use
6. web based support in our learning model

Oh, and thanks, Sarah- I'd like to talk to Chuck b/c I just introduced (after I added much more which I'll bring to class)the Giver project that has a lot of parallels to Chuck's project.

Hey Kathy! I agree...I checked out the sites over the weekend and a lot of them could be potential links (like Mystic, which is a very common field trip site for NY and New England). I will review my notes to see which other ones we miay want to consider. As for the Library of Congress, I was so surprised by all of the exihibits they had to offer. I visited it once a few years ago, but there is so much more now. I bet Rachel is already on it!

Chuck just emailed Rachel and me. He said that he wants to answer our questions in class instead of via email. He is going to ask Bette for a few minutes in class on Wed.

Edited by author 03-28-2005 06:56 PM
Hey has anyone checked out the sites that Bette posted for the week. Some of them might be good links for us to add to our pages, especially the ones to Mystic and Ellis Island and the Planetarium. The one on the Taj Mahal is also pretty cool. A lot of sites we could use. Let me know what you think. Rachel and Erin check out the one on the Library of Congress. Can we use that with the DC trip.

Edited by author 03-28-2005 06:09 PM
Rachel
I'm still really confused about the works cited part. Here is my attempt at what I think it should look like but can you help me with the fine tuning.

I got this article as a ProQuest document(ProQuest document 594531851). I don't know if that has to be cited somewhere:
Feldman, S.(2004) The Real World. Teaching PreK-8, 34(7), 6.

My other source was from
http://www.watsonadventures.com
but there was no specific article in it to go to.

As for the conclusion maybe we can grab a few minutes before class on Wednesday to pull it together because I think we work well when we put all our heads together and just keep adding to the paragraph. As for Chuck's project I agree with the fact that students don't really work well when their direction is vague but we might be able to come up with a little more structure to modify it slightly. Lets also take a quick look at that on Wednesday.
I like the idea of checking the quick topics before we edit the page. I think that is really important. As for renaming the files I think that we should redo the folder names as a group so that we can all have input on what the file structure should look like and what we want to rename the folders as. It's a lot of work but maybe we can all get there early or else possibly stay a little later if need be on Wednesday.

I forgot about the conclusion!! Anyone care to take a stab at it and post here?

Thanks for your effort on the quicktopic, Rachel and Sarah. I reread the why and unfortunately, I also have no answers for our citation issues. (Mine is posted on the quicktopic somewhere- last week, I think, if you want to copy and paste it in). I think we can bang out a conclusion when we meet if you have not done so already. I agree with Sarah's comment about students having difficulty with such open-ended assignments and it would be nice to hear Chuck's feedback regarding the reaction of his students. I am going to look over his assignment again for both our website and the Giver project I am working on. Giving him the link was a great idea. Thanks!

sounds great.

I just emailed him too! Oops. I gave him the link to our quicktopic in case he had time and could just answer there. I hope that was okay.

Edited by author 03-26-2005 10:54 AM
I emailed Chuck this morning, so we will see what he has to say.

Rachel, thanks for all of your hard work posting on the quick topic. I think that your idea of posting to the quicktopic whenever we update our pages might work better than the phone calls because it is quicker. I think that we all check the quick topic quite frequently so it shouldn't be a problem.
 I checked out the questions on the why and I am of no help with the citation questions. Did Chuck say that he has more to give us in terms of his project or did I just imagine it? I really wanted to find out more about the success that he is having with the project. When I read the assignment, I thought it was a great idea, but my immediate thought was that the students would be paralized with how open and unstructured the assisgnment. I know from my own experience, that the kids feel more comfortable (only because it is what they are accustomed to) with being told exactly what to do. I really want to know more about how Chuck's kids reacted and if they were able to be successful in choosing a topic and going from there. I think that it would be helpful to our collaboration to find this out so that we don't encounter the same problems that Chuck might have encountered. I have to run out now, but as soon as I can, I will email Chuck to see if he can help us out some more.

One more :)
We need a system for editing and updating the site to make sure we aren't getting/putting at the same time and to make sure we each work on the most updated version each page.
How's this?
-Always check the quicktopic before getting or putting
-Always get the latest version and put as soon as you make changes
-Always post to the quicktopic right before you get and right after you put
-Keep checking the quicktopic for notices from others who may be doing the same
-Don't forget to refresh your browser when viewing the quicktopic to make sure you are viewing the latest messages
OR
We call each other when we are working on the pages (easier, but not as fail-safe?)
Okay - that gives us a lot to chat about here, huh?
Happy delay or day off!

How about this for this week:
1)Visit the WHY page and look over the questions I have there. I will seek out some answers among my librarian pals, but be aware of what our current road blocks are.
2)WHY conclusion?
3)Review Chuck's stuff - work on ways we can adapt this for STT. How do we want to present this? The "Kids Activities" section will change - will that affect buttons, etc.
4)We should reorganize file structure - I'm thinking about what Donna said toward the close of class last night. Right now everything is filed by our names (and Keri & Addi). Maybe we should think about logical files that go with sections or topics on the site. Probably better to work on this when we are together.

Everyone should keep checking back to see the WHY http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/stt/rachel/spring05why.htm because I'm working on our conclusion and making our footnotes and citations correct according to APA style. I need to work on it in quiet.

Kathy - Thanks for all the magic you worked with the hotel reservations. You are the travel goddess!
Can you please post your article citation for our WHY? It would be best if you could make an attempt to put it into the correct format according to the APA style (http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm)
If not, just post the pertinent info (title, author, etc.) and I'll figure it out from there.
Thanks!

Erin, the book that I ordered is:
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 Hands-On Training (Hands on Training (H.O.T)) by Garo Green

Reimer, Mark U. (2001). Networking Through International Tours. Music Educators Journal, 88 (3), 34.

Here is my article citation-finally!
Thompson, Barry R. & Thorton, Holly J. (2002). The transition from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation in the college classroom. Education Chula Vista, 122 (4), 785-792.

Sarah- I forgot that you missed that presentation. Chuck's ideas are very much inspired by Schools That Learn - you can see it all over the handouts. I'm sure you will catch on to it all pretty quickly.

I must have been absent for Chuck's presentation so I have a bit of catch up work to do so that I understand what you guys are talking about. I will look over what you emailed Rachel. Thanks.

Erin I agree with you about all the focus being on the why and not developing elsewhere but we still have time for that. Rachel I like the idea of incorporating Chucks project and think it will work well in our framework. Let me know what part you want me to work on. I will work on citing my pages and have them ready for Wednesday. Anyhing else let me know.

Edited by author 03-21-2005 07:31 PM
Rachel, I think that is a great idea- to begin with personal mastery as a starting point (like we discussed today). Perhaps we should include a link to Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences (or to a chart we create). Or is that the type of stuff that we will link behind the scenes and not for the general visitors? Rachel, I think you can go ahead with your idea and we need to figure out what parts we can all create/expand upon Wed. night. I, myself, am not sure where to start. I feel like we have spent so much time on the "why" that we have not gotten a chance to work on the other aspects of the site. What do you think? Anything I should work on?

Chuck sent me his project stuff and I've sent it on to ya'll by email. I would like to take these and adapt them to our project (travel) and make them the starting point of our model. (I've asked Chuck for permission and we would need to cite him as a source). Please look them over if you have time and let me know what ya'll think.

I agree with Erin that we should each work on our own citation. I will be more than happy to check them over with my "librarian" eyes, but I'm sure we can all follow the format guidelines and do just fine.
Now that we will have this WHY assignment out of the way for now, I think we should focus on incorporating what we learned while doing the WHY and where we want to take the collaboration next.
I would like to revise our "kids activities" section to begin with a specific description of how to foster a personal goal or vision for the travel learner (that's where Chuck's assignment will come in handy). We can still use the stuff I did in the fall - but it won't be the first part of the section. We can direct visitors to that AFTER they have learned about the personal vision/goal/mastery stuff. It would be a group of sample options that the travler may choose. We could add more groups of samples, beginning with the brainstorming list we did in class a few weeks back that dealt with subject focus rather than "ways of seeing."
Let me know what ya'll think and if it is cool with everyone, I can get started restructuring that section of the site.
I would love to hear what all your thoughts are of how we can re-vamp, add to or continue on with the collaboration project.

Hi! No offense taken, Rachel:) I think I have a copy of Chuck's assignment in my folder that I can bring to class. I agree that that would be good to incorporate personal mastery as well. Thanks also for the link to the APA style- not your fault. I'll get my citation ready. Anything else we want to focus on before Wednesday (workshop night, right)?

Beyond our WHY assignment - As I mentioned earlier, I think it would be interesting to look at incorporating more personal mastery and goal setting into our model, like Chuck did with the assignment he presented in class. Please let me know what ya'll think of this idea. I will email Chuck and ask he wouldn't mind to send us a copy of his handout that he showed us in class and planned to use with his students.

Hey everyone! I think we did a GREAT job on our WHY and presentation. At first I felt like we were lost and then it turned out that the research and writing we had each done individually melded together so nicely. I'm sorry I had the wrong citation style. We will need to fix that. If you go to the montaukschool books link you will find a link to the correct style: APA. You will also find a link to the NECC quicktopic there, but I'll post that here - mostly because I am tired of talking to just Erin there (no offense Erin :)
http://www.quicktopic.com/30/H/Zy2eP4Jrm33p

Edited by author 03-16-2005 06:10 PM
Here is the updated version:
Our goal as educators is to make subjects students are studying come to life in the classroom. One means of doing this is through scavenger hunts. In addition to students gathering information on specific topics and learning about a variety of things, students need to interact and work together to achieve a common goal. Scavenger hunts provide an interesting, exciting and educational means to accomplish this. When hunts are designed properly one of the most valuable lessons learned is that in order to be successful, students need to use the strengths of everyone on the team. Children who are capable of seeing the big picture are just as valuable as those who are good with words or those who are good at navigating from place to place. By using scavenger hunts, students start to bond and form relationships with one another. They learn to appreciate each others diverse capabilities and understand that by working together much can be accomplished. Students will remember the fun experiences that they shared with one another and grow in their learning at the same time.

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, created by Howard Gardner, identifies eight intelligences in human nature. They include intrapersonal, interpersonal, logical/mathematical, visual/spacial, verbal/linguistic, bodily/kinesthetic, naturalist and musical/rhythmic intelligences. "Research into best practice indicates that when multiple paths to learning such as inquiry-based strategies, cooperative learning, hands-on experimentation, problem solving, and dialogic processing are central to the learning experience, increased conceptual learning occurs."

Here is the paragraph that I wrote. Let me know what has to be edited.
Our goal as educators is to make subjects students are studying come to life in the classroom. One means of doing this is through scavenger hunts. In addition to students gathering information on specific topics and learning about a variety of things student need to interact and work together and have fun at the same time. Scavenger hunts provide an interesting and educational means to accomplish this. When hunts are designed properly one of the most valuable lessons learned is that in order to be successful students need to use the strengths of everyone on the team. They need to be designed to bring out the various skills of each member of the team. All students’ have different strengths. Children who are capable seeing the big picture are just as valuable as those who are good with words or those will who are good at navigating from place to place. All of these students need to work together to succeed and achieve common goal. By using scavenger hunt students start to bond and form relationships with one another. They learn to appreciate each others diverse capabilities and understand that by working together much can be accomplished. Students will remember the fun experiences that they shared with one another and grow in their learning at the same time.

Sources:www.watsonadventures.com
The Real World
Sandra Feldman. Teaching Pre K - 8 Norwalk:Apr 2004. Vol. 34, Iss. 7,
p. 6 (1 pp.)

Subjects: Classroom
management, Teachers, Teaching, Students, Citizenship
education

Author(s): Sandra Feldman

Document types: Commentary

Section: Teacher to teacher

Publication title: Teaching Pre K - 8. Norwalk: Apr 2004. Vol. 34, Iss.
7; pg. 6, 1 pgs

Source type: Periodical

ISSN/ISBN: 08914508

ProQuest document 594531851
ID:

Text Word Count 474

Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/
pqdweb?did=594531851&Fmt=4&clientId=19673&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Edited by author 03-15-2005 09:35 PM
Okay, Sarah. I'll bring it. I actually found an article that describes a trip to Costa (travel:) where the teacher used the multiple intelligence (my topic) approach and created tasks much like our own on STT. I'll bring it too. And Rachel, I found a good article to back up the intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation for learning thing that we discussed as well. Perhaps it will be of use. I also have quite a few choices of quotes for my paragraph on MI. I'll write out a few different versions tomorrow and bring them to class since I am a little tired and a bit cross-eyed now. Great job on the drafts so far- like Rachel mentioned, I hope we get some time to meet about our "why" compilation and about NECC. I can't imagine what groups are doing who dodn't get a chance to meet, like we did! Bon soir!

Erin,
I was just rereading your message about the article in Edutopia. Could you bring that to class? Thanks.

Virginia Witucke, a librarian and former instructor at Northern Illinois University, states that “field experiences help students develop values, commitment, social sensitivity, and motivation to learn.” This article goes on to state that fieldwork, (or travel) brings relevance to the “ivory tower” and is a way of developing involved and informed citizens, while being a unique and valid way of learning.

I don't have the title of the article. I have to keep looking for it. Rachel, I gave you the information for the works cited, I guess minus the title. I'll keep working on it.

Let's hope we have time in class to work on this. I'm pooped. I'll check back tomorrow during the day if I can.
BTW, I emailed Bette to ask for time to organize for NECC. I hope we get time for both.

Edited by author 03-15-2005 08:29 PM
My part of the WHY:
In Peter Senge’s Schools That Learn, Carol Ann Kenerson states that “The epitome of personal mastery in the classroom is helping children to decipher their passions, to explore whether they believe these are possible, and to nurture their courage to delve into it, without judging them right or wrong.” In keeping with this concept, the Schools That Travel model calls for the travelers to define their own learning by deciding for themselves their own PERSONAL MASTERY goals for the travel experience (and beyond).

Citation:
Kenerson, CA. “Legal, safe, and something you want to learn” Creating a passionate classroom. In Senge P, Cambron-McCabe N, Lucas, T et al. Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education. New York: Doubleday/Currency, 2000: 110-116.

P.S. I tried to do italics using the html tags, but I don't have a clue what I'm doing, so it didn't work :(

Thanks for the input Erin. :)
While catching up on my STL reading and logs I found some margin notes I had written about a way we could improve our collaboration.
On p.191 they talk about “Self-management: How can students plan and organize their own learning? How can they set their goals, and name the milestones they expect to reach along the way?”
This is what Chuck presented to us in class. We need to incorporate this into our Schools That Travel model. We already have the students defining their own learning, deciding what they want to focus on, envisioning their own personal mastery goals. We should take it a step further and create a model for self-management, much like Chuck did for his students.
After we finish the big WHY, of course. I wish it would be over so that we could get back to working on the actual collaboration project.

Edited by author 03-15-2005 07:25 PM
I had an exciting time at ASSET as well. It was definitely more beneficial for me to be able to discuss and share (not just treasures:)what we were learning. AND...You are very right, Rachel- It is Personal Mastery that we were talking about! I think quoting STL is fine since we have other resources, like Sarah said. I like the page 111 one best because it mentions what it provides, not what is lacking without it (if that makes any sense). I am studying my articles now and will post some content later.

Edited by author 03-15-2005 07:16 PM
I am supposed to find some support of the traveler/learner/student/kid deciding what to focus on for the trip. I am realizing that what we really mean is that he/she DEFINES his/her own learning by deciding for themselves what their own PERSONAL MASTERY goal is for the travel experience (and beyond).
Below are some juicy bits I got from STL. Which one(s) do ya'll like best?
p.19 "Learners retain only that which they truly want to learn."
p.111 "The epitome of personal mastery in the classroom is helping children to decipher their passions, to explore whether they believe these are possible, and to nuture their courage to delve into it, without judging them right or wrong."
p.138 "Students without a purpose for their studies are lifeless learners."
p.161 "Parents and teachers can help these students make a committment to the work by inviting them to think about their expectations and hopes for it"
p.170 "When young people don't know what they want to create in life, their education can seem arbitrary to them."
p.173 "One of the most fundamental choices young people can make is to be the predominant creative force in their lives."

I think quoting from Schools would be fine because it is not the only source that we are using. I will be on quicktopic tonight.

Edited by author 03-14-2005 09:07 PM
Great to hang with ya'll today. I know I got a lot more out of the whole conference because we were all there together exploring, discussing and collecting treasure. Let's try to all be on the quicktopic a little bit tomorrow night. Maybe we can each post our paragraph that quotes our article. I'm still having trouble finding an article that really touches on student choice as motivator and factor for effective learning. I feel like that is what so much of Schools That Learn is about. Do you think I could quote from the book? Please help!
P.S. Erin - thanks for driving

I have to go to a chiropractor appointment in Northport. Sorry, it would have been nice to have the company.

I would love to, but I have to go to a School Library System Council meeting in Bellport afterwards - I hope I have energy for this big day ahead . . .

Asset tomorrow- anyone want to carpool?

Agreed.

Rachel, I think you have a good point about "shirking" our assignment. The why is not a technology assignment, so as it would be nice to get better at Flash by using it for the "why," it would be too bad if we did not have enough substance in our assignment to answer the question fully.

Yeah - what Erin said. I really like the Flash idea, but we all need to LEARN how to do it first. Also, I don't want to shirk our actual assignment.

Edited by author 03-09-2005 08:40 PM
Sarah, I think we should do the pristine paragraphs for now and we can always transfer them into Flash (with help, of course) if that is what we decide to do. Any other ideas?

Edited by author 03-09-2005 08:38 PM
Sarah, I found a cool travel article in the Feb./Mar. issue of Edutopia, called Border Crossing. I need to reread it/examine it more closely to see if it may apply. If you didn't get the journal and it it is applicable, I'll get it to you or we can look at it on Wed. And Rachel, the Flash idea could be cool if it flies with Bette and Dr. Byrne. You and Kathy would just have to help out Sarah and me in the technology area of it. It is a good option that would be more exciting and would enable us to learn more technology while we are making it, as opposed to just creating the text. I have found a few good articles, but am still going through them to see what we want to use.

Rachel, did you give up on the Flash idea, or are we still going for it? Or, should I start working on that pristine paragraph?

Edited by author 03-09-2005 07:22 PM
Rachel here is an interesting webquest/scav. hunt about a library media center and the internet. You should check it out
http://www.samnet.net/ludlowhs/lmc/fr_orient_WQ.htm

Rachel I couldn't get to the link but I will check it out tomorrow. I agree we need stick to the same format as the HS. I found a few of interesting connections to scavenger hunts but would like to find one more. I will send you what I do have already. If anyone comes across anything let me know.

Remember when the ads on the left side of this quicktopic page were all about scavenger hunts?
Now they are all blog ads!
Why do you think that happened?
Maybe because I keep posting and rambling - like it is my very own blog!
LOL

Kathy:
This is quite different from the format style we teach the kids. That is okay though, because the one we use is based on how they teach it at the high school and we want to stay consistent with them.
Don't you like the way LIU demonstrates how to follow the format? The color coding is very smart!

AMA Style Guide courtesy of Long Island University
http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citama.htm

I will still DO the works cited page if ya'll want me to, but I recommend that everyone take a look at the format so that we will all make sure to record/save/post/whatever the correct bibliographic information for each type of source.
KnowhatImean?

okay, maybe my flash idea is a bit ambitious

My article is from proquest.

I have a really brilliant (ala Blair on Facts of Life) idea!
Instead of annoying paragraphs - let's do a FLASH movie or slide show of our WHY!! We can learn flash while we do it. We can avoid writing pristine paragraphs and just flash meaningful quotes and snippets across the screen.
Whadya all think?

Rachel--Here is the information from the article that I am using for travel.

Subjects:
Americans abroad, Students, Music education, Travel

Author(s):
Mark U Reimer

Document types:
Feature

Publication title:
Music Educators Journal. Reston: Nov 2001. Vol. 88, Iss. 3; pg. 34, 7 pgs

Other topics we should include:
-use of technology
-purpose of website forum - gallery
There is so much to our collaboration!

I can do the works cited part.
I may end up with no articles b/c I can't figure out a good search term for students choosing what to focus on/study and how that will motivate them

I propose that we split up the main topics of our collaboration. For example:
Sarah-Travel
Kathy-Scavenger Hunts
Erin-Multiple Intelligences
Rachel-Learner Choice/Motivation (need a good search term for this topic - please help!)
Then we each find support for our specific topics - write a paragraph that quotes, paraphrases, etc. from the sources we find.
We collaborate and help each other along the way.
Once we each write our specific part - we then work collaboratively to put it all together.
Finally, we get Linda Fuller to proofread it for us.
Oh, and don't forget to collect the proper citation information so that we can include a works cited/works consulted page/portion (following the APA format as directed by Bette)

Edited by author 03-09-2005 04:26 PM
Hey all- I found a video on The United Streaming site that Rachel showed us. I have yet to view it- Do you think it may be worthwhile? I used keyword: Howard Gardner, since I am focusing on the multple intelligences aspect of our "why."

What Is Art?
"What is art?" is not a simple question with only one correct answer. Philosophers who explore possible answers to this question are called aestheticians. For grades K-12, the objective for a lesson focused on aesthetics is the discussion itself--not a consensus or agreement. As a teacher, your task is to encourage the students to investigate the possibilities. This unique module, featuring an original script, music, and images of classic and well-known art, is the starting point for such a discussion. As Howard Gardner argues, a multiple-perspective approach helps develop deductive reasoning, creative problem solving, and higher-order critical-thinking skills. There is no wrong answer as long as the student is able to explain his or her reasoning. The search for an answer to the question "What is art?" continues with you, your students, and your community.
Grades: Gr. 5 - Gr. 12 Runtime: 3:55 ©2004 Arts4All
Teachers' Guides

Just to get us on the right track - I will paste below the WHY that is due (rough draft) for next week. We will need to find support from articles and other published works that provide a rationale for our collaboration and what it aims to achieve.
WHY:
Tell your initial ideas about what theories, ideas, issues, needs, are addressed in your project (e.g., the anchoring of your project in theory and/or relation to others' work in the field). We will discuss with you how to move from your initial ideas to a polished grounding of your project. Due mid-semester will be a second version of "why" and at the end of the semester will be due a polished version. This may be as simple as a commentary telling in a few paragraphs how the work relates to the field and to learning theory with links out to information on works in the field and to theory (either in paper on the web). Include a list of references with annotations for the polished version. Use APA formatting. Throughout the year we will delve deeper and deeper into the "why." We will ask you to develop your anchors to ground your work solidly, month by month. Think in terms of answering questions such as: What pedagogical principles are evident in our collaboration? What theory or theories are we basing our work upon? What gives us "comfort" that our collaboration is educationally sound?

Hi group, since we are meeting this afternoon, let's not forget to post on our quick topic so we don't lose our momentum.

The ERIC databases from the Post library are very clunky! There is usually a link in the article record to the full text, unless it is not available. The full text usually comes up as an adobe pdf - therefore you need to have adobe acrobat reader on your computer - which I think you both do.
So, we just got email from Bette that from 4:30-8:00 we are to meet with our group online.

Hey Sarah! I just spent a couple of hours in the database and don't have exactly the same problem, but still encountered one. I found a couple of articles (after first coming across the one Rachel found, of course) I was able to mark the articles and view/save the short format, but not the entire article (even after marking full format). I'l check w/ Rachel tomorrow- she got the full one I think, or we'll figure it out in class. I would rather check it out in person since we are meeting tomorrow night anyway. See you then!

I am having major problems with searching the databases. I have tried a few different ERIC databases with no luck. The one that I am on right now is finally working, but I can't get any of the full texts. They download and all I see are blank pages. Any suggestions?

Erin - you can't help it - you're an English teacher!

Rachel- In addition, you are probably right about the "in addition" part- I sometimes overscrutinize for redundancy:)

Bullets sound like a good idea. They always help to simplify things. Linda had great wording ideas...Perhaps- students choose their own method of virtual transport? We'll check it out together Wednesday. I am psyched for a workshop night to work on this. I will look for an article, too. Thanks, Rachel!

Just a reminder that we decided on Wednesday that we would each look for at least one resource (article) from the databases that would support our rationale for our collaboration.

More suggestions from our consultant Linda Fuller:
the students choose their own method of travel
the students determine their own mode of virtual transport
the student travelers decide which method of travel suits them
As they travel through virtual worlds of balh blah blah, they encounter...blah blah blah and

I want to use outlining and bullets!! :(

linda said:
the second sentence (foci) is unclear..could we rewrite that in a more succinct crisp style that allows the visitor to clearly understand how each student selects?
So, how about:
The students determine their own individual _________ for experiencing the travel. Students may select a specific method of expression (written, photography, etc.) or a specific topic (war, art, geography, etc.) or both to focus on throughout the trip.
I think that the "in addition" is correct there, but I am open to changing it.
Sarah said if Erin noticed it, won't others.
This brings me to another point - this kind of stuff is almost impossible to write clearly and in plain langauge and in a paragraph.

Thanks Rach- In the "why" paragraph, 4th sentence, is "in addition" and "as well" redundant? Otherwise- cool for now:)

Here are some other notes from our collaboration discussions last class:
Explore and document
Method of expression

Provide examples
Ways of seeing
war
Art
Allocation of museum resources
Memorials
Maps

We need to continue to work on the text I posted below – tie in with Schools That Learn – essay on furniture class, etc.

Here is our "why" that we worked on in class last time (two weeks ago):
The purpose of the Schools That Travel Collaborative Project is to provide a model from which students can create their own personal vision for their travel experience. The students choose the foci they personally wish to master for the trip, be it by subject or way of seeing (or both). They are also responsible for their own expression of what they have mastered. In addition to their own personal mastery goals, the students are encouraged to collaborate in teams and create shared visions as well. This may be done in group work or by simply reflecting on and critiquing each other’s progress as they work towards their personal mastery goals.

I just wanted to let all of you know that I am leaving tonight for the week. I will be back on the Quick Topic a week from Sunday. Have a great break.

Hey guys I hope you all got and read my email. I will miss you all, have a great class tonight. I tried to log on to see if I cold still take the summer photography class but they already kicked mr off. Could one of you send me the dates of the class so know when it starts and when it ends thanks a lot. I will keep in touch:)

I am with you guys. Perhaps we could plan a local trip (Marine Museum would be good, like we talked about)the second week or weekend in March. This would open up a lot more aspects of the site we can work on and give us a better idea of how to incorporate our field trip model. I am up for it! Unfortunately, I don't think I can meet the Monday after break. Let's try to make a plan tonight.

I agree Rachel. I feel as though our collaboration has been bit stagnant since our break. We need to jumpstart it and get some new things going. Planning a local trip sounds great.

Hi everyone! I can't believe how fast this week went. I'm glad we are all getting a handle on the technology side of the collaboration. I feel a lot better about Dreamweaver and server stuff now that we have had a lot of practice working with that stuff.
I was thinking we should move along with actual collaboration project. We should start to tackle the stuff in our timelime, such as: outreaching to others to create content for the Journeys page, taking a mini field trip locally (EH Marine Museum in Amagansett)with a few handpicked students and trying out our original model, etc.
What do you think? We can work on the outreach electronically and plan for the field trip to take place after the vacation.

Hi all! Kathy, I think we agreed on keeping the button list we originally establised @ Rachels house and in school. The only change was that everyone wanted to keep the button for each particular page on that page (ie- journeys button on the journeys page). We'll check it out tomorrow- I'll bring my laptop to school.

What did we decide in terms of the buttons? Do we want all buttons on all pages. Please let me know so I can update my pages. Thanks

Thanks Erin for your kind words. I have been working on my buttons (now that I know how!) Are there any changes going to be made to the pages that are part of the actual website or are the changes just having to do with the pages that discuss our proposal/eev elements, etc.?

Nice work last night, ladies! Thanks Rachel for presenting-you always word things so well. The scrolling could not have been better, Sarah:) Kathy, I'll check over the buttons- I wrote the list down last night. I can work on it at school with you 1st period if you want also. If anyone wants me to add something to the timeline, let me know (now that I know how!). We are not meeting on Monday night, right?

Please make sure you get before you put any info up on the web site. I worked on getting the pages uniformed with tables and order of buttons. Any problems let me know.

5:30 sounds great thanks rachel for getting it all together. See ya tomorrow

5:30 is good for me too! Thanks, Rachel.

5:30 sounds good to me. What do you all think?

I sent an email to ya'll with directions to my house. I didn't want to invite the whole world (who knows who is lurking on our quicktopic!) to our meeting. It's hard enough getting a word in edgewise when it's just us!

I spoke with Kathy. She's been upisland - a family member is ill. She agreed with us about meeting tomorrow. Now we just need to nail down a time. Earlier than 5 is tough for me and Kathy too. I can do 5, but if people want to meet closer to 6 that is great for me and Kathy. I know we don't want to be working on this into the wee hours of the night :) How's 5:30?

OK - Sarah, Erin, Keri and I all want to meet tomorrow. Kathy what do you say? My house? What time?
I'll have some snacks for us and we can order pizza for dinner?

Sounds great to me.

I agree, Rachel. It would be much easier to collaborate and get it all together and ready to go for Wed. Thanks for offering your house. I can meet anytime on Monday. And think, we can log the time for EEV! What do the rest of you think?

I think meeting on Monday is a good idea. I'm more than happy to host this one. If we all do decide to meet.

Did everyone read bette's email about the presentation on 2/9. Do you think we will have enough time in class to do it or should we meet on Monday?

Thanks Rachel, I'll check it out. Like Keri said, we will hopefully get more time to spend on it. Looks like we have a lot to discuss tomorrow!

Rachel I looked at the EEV presentation that we are suppose to have done by the 9th hopefully they will extend it to the following class since we missed a class and i'm sure everyone has questions about it.

Keri- I'll print the tech growth plan for you. :)
Everyone - Did anyone notice this little bit in the work due for February 9:
Continue with the EEV Guidelines

Prepare for In class 2/9: "Present rough draft orally"
The EEV Guidelines is a link to this http://eev.liu.edu/ee2006/Spring05/Due/CollabGuides.htm
I think we all better take a look at that!
I hope Faye and Donna can provide some insight on Wed. for us . . .

Edited by author 01-31-2005 02:08 PM
Hey hope everyone had I great weekend. It there anything we should be working on now or are we going to set up a plan this week in class? Also can someone print out a tech growth plan for me. My computer can't download Adobe reader so there for I can't get the growth plan. Thanks for your help:)

Hey STT Sorry I didn't make it to class last week I didn't want to drive in the snow. Erin Thanks for the email it was helpful. Sorry i have been slacking. I just couldn't beleive that we are already back. I agree with Kathy that we have to put it all together on one server and also get Addie's pages from her. Sara I think that is a great question to ask in class on Wednesday, Do we need the EEV pages kept on our website? TTYL

Erin, you were the one who helped me find the quick topic. I guess I didn't make that clear. Thanks again.

Great ideas Sarah! Sorry if I was not specific enough with the location of our QuickTopic. I am glad you found it! So much to consider- I agree that a lesson plans section or project description aspect on the site is really important. We can also revisit/discuss aspects of the other sites that we can use to help us. I spent a lot of time on the other EEV's and we can brainstorm ideas, keeping those sites in mind as well. Looking forward to it! PS- Thanks Rachel for the continued support of my snow-driving. I could't have done it without you:).

I love on Evelyn, Deb, and Perri's website the strip of pictures on their homepage. Maybe we could do something like that with the student's work?

Sarah- You sure made up for lost time. You made some really good points in your last post and raised some important questions to consider. I am looking forward to seeing everyone in person so we can figure out where to go from here.
I'm with you about the snow . . . it was pretty bad driving home (Erin did the driving and she was awesome)
Keep an eye on the weather for tomorrow. They are predicting snow overnight and into the morning. It should be all done by class.

Edited by author 01-25-2005 07:43 PM
Sorry I missed class the other night. I had a bad feeling about that snow. Erin thanks for keeping me updated. I can't believe this, but I couldn't figure out how to get to this quick topic. I forgot about the secret books. Rachel, you have been so busy. Thank you for taking so much time typing up the feedback and asking people to assess our site.
I think a major thing that we need to work on is unifying the buttons. I agree with your assistant principal about not wanting to send people off to other sites before they get involved in our site. I also liked the idea of putting student's work on the homepage, but we would lose the look that we have now. Something to talk about. Also, your assistant principal brought up a good point about including information of how to go about drawing these creations out of the students. Lesson plans are another thing we could start working on. It is good to have so much to think about. What I want to know is why everyone did not love our color FFFC? Did Sean leave the gift about not using Girls Just Want to Have Fun? When does this website become the real thing and not the project about the website. Can we now get rid of some of the "extra" stuff that we needed for the assignment? See you all tomorrow.

Hey STT! Rachel, thanks so much for taking the time to post the TEAM comments as well as those of your uncle and Amy! Wow! It is was so nice of them to review the site so carefully and share their thoughts with us. It helps to have an outsider's point of view since we are so engrossed in it. Your uncle's comments about the EEV thing make sense. We need to consider those aspects of our site as it expands beyond the TEAM classroom. Amy had some wonderful ideas as well- she seems to really see how it is a work in progress and had a lot to contribute. I think I agree with her about our home page- possibly sending out visitors before they even really explore our site. There is so much to consider and add. You and Kathy are right that the first thing we need to do is get the files/website organized (easier said than done, I guess). That is a good starting point for Wednesday. See you then (more snow flurries, of course!)

Edited by author 01-24-2005 12:41 PM
Thanks for the reminder about the COMMENTS page, Kathy!
I agree about getting the pages up in the correct space on the server. I think we are going to do that in class on Wednesday (if the Internet is working).
Did anyone else get any other feedback? If so, please post it here.

Edited by author 01-23-2005 01:46 PM
Another way to improve our site is to also look at the feed back that we recieved on our comments link. I have posted that link here so we can look at suggestions to incorporate into our page.
http://www.quicktopic.com/28/H/B9yBdqGdkZH

Rachel thanks for posting the comments and getting Amy's critique. I like some of the points that she made. Very deep in her thinking and analysis. We need to get the web site and files onto the new server so that anyone can correct or edit the existing pages. We need it remotely set rather than locially placed so that changes that need to be made can be made through out the week and not just by the person who created the page.

The following comments are from our new Assistant Principal. She really spent some time looking over the site and formulating useful feedback. (By the way, she gave me this in hard copy and I scanned it and used the OCR – official character recognition – feature to create an editable document so I would be able to copy and paste to our quicktopic! I never did that before!)

Congratulations on your creation and initiation of such an important web site! I believe it will serve as a great meeting ground for ideas and inspirations. A particular strength of the site, which demonstrates your team's comprehensive research, is the inclusion of exemplary web site links that provide tools, methods and concepts for assembling "models," i.e. the lesson plans provided on the Haring Kids site and the super contest, "A Life in Fifteen Seconds," on the Taking It Global site.
As you build your "model" across the year, you may already be planning on building in "How to's"/lesson plans, so that they become instructive "models", (including objectives, descriptions of concepts, approaches, materials, steps involved, and timelines like the one you have for your own completion for the your project, but for the execution (including pre & post instruction) of the particular activities students choose. Lesson plans might also include links to disciplinary and interdisciplinary standards and to the sites your students visit in Washington. Now your site showcases innovative "products" of your/Montauk's field trips. I'm sure educators will be excited to learn how students received instruction in these creative media and approaches.
In turn, I would suggest a home page, which more immediately features "your model." Advertising the web sites of destinations on the home page potentially sends visitors off to other sites before they get to your "purpose", especially as you indicated its "not where or when or how. . ." (I suggest rethinking this phrasing because the where, when and how are extremely significant and integral to the successful planning of a fieldtrip and its accompanying activities. The where, when and how have to be relevant to the curricula, age appropriate, and most importantly, imagination-spurring. The educator's selection of the site is part of the craft of excellent lesson design. Students need to be guided in their understanding of significant sites as well as directed in the "innovative" use of dynamic media.) You might consider dramatically highlighting interesting/arresting student products on the homepage that capture the visitor's imagination, in the same way students are to have their imagination captured by the sites they visit, (as occurs on the home page of the Taking It Global site, "The Gallery Features," which immediately presents intriguing glimpses of artists and their products.)
How amazing this site will be across time, as your own models and student products unfold, and as other schools build upon your methods and contribute their best practices and student interpretations of their journeys. It's an honor to work with trailblazing educators like you. Congratulations on laying the groundwork for a vibrant nexus to help both educators and students grow.

This is from my uncle (I asked him as a relative, a university professor in political science, a parent and a school board member):
Great site. A couple of minor points that you can quickly fix:

The Timeline and Purpose pages don't retain the buttons on the left that
allow you to go from there to any of the other pages.

You have an EEV Elements page, but I have no idea what EEV is.

On the EEV page, the Journeys button is not linked to the Journeys page.

I will start by posting the card comments and “gifts” we were given at our last class of the fall semester:
• Awesome set up – nice use of tables
• Awesome Interactivity
• The Rollover!
• The resources for kids
• Kid works
• GIFT: Don’t use “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” 
• fieldtrip.com cool link for teachers
• Loved quicktopic assessments
• Student activities lots of ideas for teacher extend field trip
• Great work! Cool for students and teachers!
• This site has great work in it. Excellent job with interactive aspects.
• Love the Journeys and Comments aspect.
• Kids page is awesome.
• GIFT: Make sure your buttons are the same on all pages!
• I like how playful and interactive the site is.
• It’s something that teachers can really look at and get ideas to make school trips more fun for students and teachers.
• GIFT: Some text is too small.
• What works: organized home page and roll over great.
• SUGGESTION: font size bigger for old people, thanks.
• The buttons are great and give structure to the page for me.
• I like how the Inspirations page give info without paragraph form – very effective
• Great page layout and design.
• GIFT: Consider label on rollovers for pictures on homepage so that everyone knows what the links are.
• Great buttons, very convenient.
• GIFT: Could use more color, but other than that it’s great!
• Pictures for links, colors
• Have name of links in the picture or on the bottom
• Great job! Good ideas, very informative, teacher and student friendly as well as for the community as a whole!
• Great organization!
• Excellent job! So many options!
• Like the music – can’t wait until it’s all together.
• Great music
• Great buttons
• Great student work – fabulous! Love the creative arts – with student work
• All kinds of media
• GIFT: I would like to give a gift . . . but they have all the gifts and they are gifted!
• All works!
• Like student work
• Easy to navigate
• All kinds of pictures are great
• Really like use of quicktopics for input
• I liked the color schemes and the concept of the site. Everything was obviously well thought out.
• GIFT: The only “gift” I’d like to offer is not to justify the text because it creates such big gaps.
• Great work!
• Tons! Lessons
• Boring color
• More picture
• Great work, great colors
• Like how interactive site was
• On certain pages make font a little bigger
• Loved it
• Great layout on homepage, easy to understand, nice visually
• Kids activities page really fun! I want to do this!
• GIFT: Maybe students could write out pages on Albany & Disney, etc. and link to these websites?
• Love the music and rollover
• Like button for each requirement
• Great images
• Timeline like calendar! Great
• Colorful
• Best Yet
• YOU GUYS ROCK!!
• I am in the best group – your STT homie - Erin

Hey everybody
Sarah and Keri - we missed you on Wednesday.
I was just trying to think of how we could get back into the swing of developing our schools that travel collaboration. I suggest we each post, read and consider any feedback we’ve received. Then at our next opportunity to meet in-person, we discuss some of the issues that came up and how we may want to address them?

Edited by author 12-26-2004 02:38 PM
Hope you all visit the site on our break from TEAM. Thanks for a great first semester. I think we complished a lot and had a great time doing it. HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a good time off from school.

I agree with you Sarah. I just thought that we already have these buttons that take you to each part of the page. If we were to add an entirely new thing called "assessment" we would need a new button and each of us would need to add it to our page. Assessment is our one weak spot. I just thought I would try to add something to a page we already have and it made some sense in the philosophy section. Also, it is an accurate statement about our philosophy and one way assessment can occur. I'm open to suggestions and I would most certainly add more to the philosophy page or change it in any way . . .
I don't blame you for wanting to improve this aspect of the project, on the other hand -
done is better than perfect?
nobody is perfect anyway?
we now have some healthy room for improvement?
What do you think?

Edited by author 12-12-2004 06:47 PM

Rachel, is the addition you made to philosophy for assessment? And if so, is it enough? I think what you wrote sounds great, especially in that it includes the constructionist theory, I am just anxious that they are looking for more concrete examples of how we are going to assess the website. Sorry to be so annoying about this one point.

Edited by author 12-12-2004 05:02 PM
Travel fan is NOT j.p.p - I asked him today. Check out the philosphy page. I added something. PLEASE anyone tell me if we need to change it. I can fix it up in a jiffy! I hope everyone is doind okay with the rest of the work for the end of the semester.
Here's what I added:
In keeping with constructivist philosophy, assessment is part of the learning process. The travelers themselves provide information on the quality of their learning. The evidence of this will show in the products created by the learner: works of art, photography, videography, writing, etc.

Sarah just tell me the song and artist I will download it if possible.

Edited by author 12-11-2004 07:44 PM
Sorry I have not logged on sooner. It looks awsome! Sarah thanks for catching on to the eev elements. Kathy and Rachel the pages and links are outstanding. You all did a wonderful job. I am still working on the buttons for my one page for some reson they won't show up when I post the page. Faye gave me a suggestion to try some I have been working on that. Hopefull i figure it out before Weds. Night. See you all there!

Edited by author 12-10-2004 09:14 PM
Wow! You guys rock! Sorry I haven't posted since our last meeting. I had @ conference up the Island today. Sarah, thanks for catching the assessment part- I was wondering about that at the end of the night Wed., but was not sure where to go w/it. Addi and I only listed very general stuff on the timeline for assessment- nothing specific. Kathy, Keri and Rachel- awesome job w/ the buttons. Kath, I really like your idea of including our tech. helpers on the inspiration page. Rachel, I think the students work, poetry and photos look awesome. I am so glad the scanning thing worked- I would've felt bad if it didn't. I also liked how you linked the virtual panorama sites on the digital page- great thinking. Thanks to all for all of your hard work and for the last minute additions- I think the site looks fabulous! PS- Does anyone know who that last "travel fan" is on the project quicktopic? I have my suspicions...Happy Holidays- See you Wed.!

Kathy, great job with the Tech. additions.

I am still worried that we don't clearly lay out how we are going to assess. On the timeline it talks about reading the student's quick topic, but is that enough? Should it say something about feedback and postings from educators? Theoretically, we would like lifelong learners to post their ideas or things that they have created. Could that be part of our assessment? Sorry for the last minute suggestions. It just occurred to me as I went over what we needed to accomplish with the assignment.

Edited by author 12-10-2004 07:32 AM
thanks sarah
i just get little link happy sometimes
i hope we got it all in now
i am pooped!
kathy - thank you soooooo much for doing all those last minute add ins - you rock! (as usual)
off to school . . .

Everything looks so great. Rachel, when I wrote about how was the student's work I didn't realize that you already had it up. It looks awesome. Great idea with linking the subject of the work with the website. I am so psyched about how it has all come out so far.

Kathy, I think that sounds great.

I can add technology used to the inspiration page. Then we can include Faye and Donna as inspiration and thank them for their help. What do you think?

Hey,
I'e been working away aligning the sites and making sure all the links on my sites work. I edited the name of the home page so you will probably hae to chang the link. If you have buttons on your pages, try to match the order on the home page if you can. The link will move with the button. If you start at the home page you can get all the links from there. The new home page is at:
http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/kp/groupsite/index.htm

Sorry for posting so late it has just been a busy night.

do you mean that we need to list things like
dreamweaver
fireworks
the program kathy used to do the music loop
etc.
if so, where should that go
if we make any new pages they need new buttons to those pages
it is better if we are going to add anything that we put it on an already existing page
where could that kind of stuff go?

Rachel, your feedback about Albany is very helpful. Anything else you, Erin, or Addi can think of would help all of write that portion of the Synthesis Journal. As for the technology, I feel that they are asking for what examples of technology did we use on our collaboration. I heard Meg's group saying that they could list something that they were using (I don't remember what exactly) in the technology part of it. It would be a shame if we didn't included one of the things that Dr. Schneiderman is looking for and then we lost credit because of it. I can help you tomorrow on it. Do we have a time that it needs to be finished?

Sarah-I just posted and then bumped into your new message. As far as consistency of goals with actions - yes, BUT we now know some things, like it would be better to use our model in place of other assignments (the kids had too much to do and too much going on) and stuff like that - if that matters.

If you visit the opening page of the kids activities:
http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/RK/schoolstravel/assignments.htm
it says:
"The basic model involves allowing the student-travel-learners to select different perspectives or ways of seeing/experiencing travel and learning. Sample ways of experiencing are shown below. Click on each category for more information including technologies, resources and samples!"
That should do for technologies, right?
What about ASSESSMENT? If we really do need to add some more explicit information, the timeline might be a good place to do it.

I am working on the Synthesis Journal. The question is: are our actions as conceptualized now consistent with our goals? I think that it is, especially from your enthusiasm about the student's work, but because I did not get a chance to see the work that the students created I just wanted to double check with the Albany crew. Thanks.
Also, I forgot to mention how great everyone was last night. As I am answering the questions about participant roles I can't think of anything negative to say or anything that I feel needed to be changed (NOR do I want too). We all really work well together.
Keri, I don't know how to send you a song. I'll ask my sister, but any suggestions are welcome.

Everyone please email me a song that you would like to here on our
'soundtrack' Thanks

Great job last night everyone.
I think we can talk about technologies from your page Rachel.
Kathy and Rachel some of the buttons are not working on your pages. I think we have we done a fantactic job and we do have next semester to work out the kinks and add.

I think we need to spell it out. What about a link from eev elements-1.technonolgy used
2. how to be assessed--based on feedback from students experiences and educators who have used the site as a model

Good questions Sarah . . . there are some technologies listed on the portion I worked on, as well as online resources - do you think that will work? Assessment is mentioned in the timeline (for example: April "read and reflect on studen's quicktopic) do you think that is enough or do we need to spell it out? If so, what do we want to say and where should it go?

Did we tell how our project will be evaluated and did we talk about the specific technologies that we used?

EVERYONE-Kathy changed the title of the site . . . so you may need to update some links from the buttons on your page.
. . . any idea what we should do about JOURNEY? It links to nothing - maybe put coming soon under the button?

KATHY - please post the updated site url for the start page, the creators page and the inspirations and anything else we need to know

Hi everyone! I think we did some really hard work last night (in some really uncomfortable chairs) and it paid off. Kathy - the buttons are great (some weren't linked when I checked last night - but I'm sure you'll get to that today if you haven't already). Once again, I'm sooooo glad to be in this group!

treasurehuntadventures.com Treasure Hunt Adventures website. Participate in a teambuilding event where teams need to answer trivia questions, solve riddles, and complete group adventures in order to win.

watsonadventures.com Watson Adventures Scavenger Hunts website. Locate clever "search-and-discover" hunts that are both fun and educational for all participants.

This site is meant for ALL life-long learners who wish to engage in travel and learning via a constructivist philosophy. The travelers choose their own "way of seeing" the travel experience, allowing them to construct meaning on their own terms. It matters not where or when or how the journeys occur - it is learners' ways of experiencing the travel that will provide the real learning. Travelers create products from their experiences that will in turn invite the entire community of learners to share in the experiences of all.

This site is meant for ALL life-long learners who wish to engage in travel and learning via a constructivist philosophy. The travelers choose their own "way of seeing" the travel experience, allowing them to construct meaning on their own terms. It matters not where or when or how the journeys occurs - it is the travel experience and the learners' ways of experiencing the that will provide the real learning. Travelers create products from their learning that will in turn invite the entire community of learners to share in the experiences of all.

EVERYONE
please read and edit - i don't care about VIA if ya'll don't want it there:
Who is this site for?
This site is meant for ALL life-long learners who wish to engage in travel and learning via a constructivist philosophy. The travelers choose their own "way of seeing" the travel experience, allowing them to construct meaning on their own terms. It matters not where or when or how the journey occurs - it is the travel experience and the learners' ways of experiencing it that will provide the real learning. Travlers create products from their learning that will in turn invite the entire community of learners to share in the experiences of all.

Rachel here are the scav. sites
Scavenger Hunts

Three different companies that create hunts:
http://www.treasurehuntadventures.com/

http://www.watsonadventures.com/stage.html

http://www.cityhunt.org/home.html
Check out their index of pages link

Our meeting tonight went so well- I felt like we got a lot accomplished, and I came late! I look forward to completing this phase of our collaboration on Wednesday and feel very fortunate to be in a group with such wonderful members! Go team! (Okay, that was cheesey:)

Sorry I missed your message, Sarah. I will begin annotating some of the sites and we can continue it @ Kathy's.

Sarah you table looks great and Keri the EEV elements sound great too. I think we are meeting at Kathy's agian @ 5:00, Tom may be cooking us dinner if not maybe we could do chinese??? See everyone at 5:00 and Erin will be late b/c she has ELA tutorial in Montauk until 5:00.

Where did everyone want to meet tonight?

Erin,
I am working on our website page. I am muddling along very slowly. We need to make these websites annotated. It is taking me forever to figure out how to do this table and go to each site again and annotate each one. Also, annotation does not come easily to me. If you happen to read this on Sunday night, and you have some time, could you come up with some annotations for the other websites and cool travel sites and maybe some of the bottom albany sites. I am working my way down the list very slowly. If not, we can work on it together tomorrow. (After you spend 2 hours doing ELA!!!)
Rachel, thanks for your suggestions. I had posted to tech. and got an answer from Faye.
4 o'clock or 5 tomorrow?

I'm not sure I know the answer to this. I am wondering if you added a new column or if you just "extended" the width of a column. If the case is the latter, then check to what the text alignment is set to (right, left, center and/or top, middle, bottom of cell). You may want to post this question to the technology quicktopic.
And thanks for posting to the website quicktopic. I will show the kids tomorrow that they have been heard!

I am trying to work on my website table. I thought that I sucessfully expanded the table to fill the width of a page, but I am unable to type in the area that I extended. How do you expand an existing table?

Edited by author 12-04-2004 06:17 PM
I was wondering if some non-Albany members of our group could visit our "feedback" quicktopic at http://www.quicktopic.com/28/H/B9yBdqGdkZH and post responses to the messages that the kids posted? I would like to show them on Monday that their input was read by someone and we will consider their comments and appreaciate their input.
Also, we are still planning to meet again this Monday at Kathy's, right? (Thanks for hosting again, Kathy!)
Sarah - I hope your head is feeling better. That scoring stuff sounds like torture - all the more reason for us to ease up on all the standardized testing!
Keri- Thanks for gettin the info about the conference trip in June, can't wait to hear all about it!
Do ya'll think I use too many exclamation points!?

Keri and Kathy--I am so sorry that I didn't show up at class last night. The scoring was exhausting and took forever and I had such a terrible headache I had to go straight home.
Adi, Erin, and Rachel--I can't believe all that you are doing. It all sounds so great. I can't wait to see everyone's work on Monday.

Also class last night went well Kathy and I worked on the webpages and learned how to make buttons. I also found out information about the trip in June. I will tell you all about it when we meet. Enjoy your trip.

Addi, Erin and Rachel thanks for keeping in touch with us. It all sounds great, I can't wait to see all of the students' work. I think you are all off to a great start. Keep up the wonderful work. See you on Monday.

One more thing: check out http://www.montaukschool.org - we posted a pic from the trip!

Hello! Greetings from the Colonie, NY Holiday Inn where they give you FREE broadband Internet access in your room! Whoo-hoo! We took advantage of this wonderful gift and invited a few students to check out our Schools That Travel Website. They even posted feedback on our quicktopic at http://www.quicktopic.com/28/H/B9yBdqGdkZH
We had a great day today. After our early morning departure and bus ride from Montauk, we had a wonderful tour of the State Capitol, experienced outrageous art in a public space (the Concourse), toured the State Musuem and visited the Crossgates Mall! Our creative arts travel learners already have some beautiful masterpieces done. One of our designated still photographers is totally new to the world of photography and is LOVING it! We have at least one very diligent digital videographer. All of the students are writing in their journals so we have the written/verbal category as well. There are plenty of drama kings and queens, but that category has been a little tough to define. As for scavenger hunt research - there are lots of info and fact hungry students taking notes at every turn!
The best part has been sharing our ideas with students, teachers and parents on the trip. Everyone is very intrigued. We are hoping we will have internet access tomorrow night at the Holiday Inn in Oneonta, NY and will have a chance to share our website with more of our fellow travelers.
We hope class went well tonight and are looking forward to meeting again with everyone on Monday night.

Edited by author 12-01-2004 05:21 PM
Sarah & Erin
Here is the link. Can you guys link it to the home page. http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/kb/

Edited by author 11-30-2004 09:00 PM
Kathy and Keri,
I have to score the NYS SS5 Test tomorrow in Dix Hills. I think that I am probably going to be late to class. I will see you when I get there.

I will work on my webpages and figure out to upload the pages and disconnect my website that is up now. Also I will make my pages more interesting. See you wednesday.

Edited by author 11-29-2004 08:37 PM
I will work on getting some more websites related to the other destinations too (Gettysburg, NY, Disney World, etc.) and email them to Sarah to add to our new table (if that is what we decide to do).

Edited by author 11-29-2004 08:33 PM
here is the website link that Erin and I worked on
http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/sm/index.htm

Edited by author 11-29-2004 08:19 PM

Sarah here is the beginning of the timeline please link to site! thanks addi
http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/ar/index.htm

Here is the link to what I've created:
http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/RK/schoolstravel/assignments.htm

my house is the 2nd on the right. #10 Buell Lane Ext. See you at 4. Addi's got the soda, Erin's got the all essential candy. We'll order pizza.

Kathy's house around 4 sounds good. let me know if i can bring anything. see you all there.

Edited by author 11-28-2004 08:55 PM
So, Kathy's house it is around 4. Thanks, Kathy, and see you all tomorrow (Sarah, I think it is # 10, just past the intersection on the right- you'll see the cars).

Kathy, I'm almost positive that I remember where your house is, but just in case, what is the number? Thanks.

cool site sarah. Kathy the page looks great but i don't get any sound, must be my computer, I'll try it again. Kathy's house sounds good. Pizza also sounds great, let me know if I can bring anything.

Kathy, your house sounds great. Are we still talking about 4 o'clock?

I loved that site Sarah. If you want we can meet at my house. It shouldn't be a problem. I'll make arrangements with my mom and Tom in terms of the kids.

Edited by author 11-28-2004 07:23 PM
Cool site, Sarah! What is really great is that it was created by students (from what I gathered when I checked out the "I Spy Team"). It is another good idea for when we consider the outcomes of the pilot project. As for tomorrow, I'll relay your message about meeting in EH somewhere (understandable) if it is not determined tonight. Addi and Rachel are in Springs and Kathy is in town- I can't make the call since it is not my house we are considering:) Talk to you soon!

Edited by author 11-28-2004 07:14 PM
check out this website, it's called I Spy in Cobleskill

http://www.mvls.info/ispy/cobleskill/index.html

Kathy, awesome job on the title page. How did you ever think of the song? Great. I also love the school bus with the kids.
I have been working on gathering websites having to do with the Albany trip. Is there anything else that I can work on tonight?
As for where to meet tomorrow. It would be great if we could figure it out tonight. I have a crazy day tomorrow. Also, if it's all the same, I would rather meet somewhere in East Hampton if that's ok since we all live in EH anyway. My house is also an option. I guess we just need someone to make an executive decision!!

Kathy, I love your choice of music for the title page! I have always liked that Rusted Root song- very fun and upbeat! It is definitely an inviting song for our travel theme- send me on my way! Good thinking!

Edited by author 11-28-2004 06:20 PM
Rachel's house is also an option as is the Montauk School library/computer room (if Keri and Sarah don't mind the drive). We can still get pizza delivered there too:). Keri and Sarah- would it be possible for you to call the school tomorrow (668-2474) to finalize the plan (ask for Rachel or Kathy- easiest to get a hold of at any given time) if we can't determine it here on the quicktopic? As far as I can gather, it seems like we are meeting somewhere tomorrow around 4pm- place still yet to be determined. We'll chat tomorrow. Thanks!

Hey Check out the site I posted again. I inserted music!!! Yeah.
http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/kp/group%20site/title.htm

Wow, Kathy- Your pages are so cool! Nice work. I am happy to meet whereever tomorrow. I guess we should meet shortly after school ends, maybe around four? We could order pizza or something for our working dinner (always thinking about food:) and then get home at a reasonable time. What do you guys think? Thanks for all of the home offers- I have wireless too, but my place is kind of off the beaten path. We'll keep in touch and make a definite plan later tonight. I'll check back.

 Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Kathy the title page and links look wonderful. I have been working on my reading and logs. I can still meet Monday night where ever it does not mater to me.

Here's what i've created so far.
http://eev2.liu.edu/ee0406/kp/group%20site/title.htm
We can insert our group pictures and another funny one under it to change the roll over to our pictures. I just did the sunset and winter to demonstrate what we could do with 2 pictures. Any and everything can be changed. Links are attached temporarily to each picture.

hope that everyone had a nice holiday. i have been concentrating on the readings and working on my end of the tech. stuff. Kathy thanks for offering you house, we can use mine too. i have a wireless router too. just let me know so that mark can make other plans with Max!

Edited by author 11-27-2004 09:17 AM
Hey, Guys! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I have started working on the title page and name page and should have it somewhat intact by Monday night. Are we still planning on getting together on Monday? What time, where? Let me know. I have a wireless router set up at my house if you want to meet here. I could probably get my mom to take the kids for a while so that we can work in peace. Let me know.

I was worried I missed a lot since I hadn't posted since class, but I realize you all have been just as busy! I have just been working on collecting sites for Albany (like Sarah) and am trying to get back in the game. If there are any other tasks I should focus on now, let me know. Rachel, I think I can help with some of your stuff since you took on quite a few tasks. Have a great holiday and well deserved break- I'll check back soon!

Rachel thanks for posting the criteria for the project. Boy it sounds like a lot but I'm sure if we make a list and just divide up some of the jobs we can get it accomplished. Possibly team up so no one has to work alone. We can plan our attack strategies tomorrow night.

Thanks for the EEV outline, Rachel- That will give us a good starting point for tomorrow with regards to organization. Sarah, I did tell you I'd get the itinerary to post, but I forgot- sorry! I'll try my best to bring one tomorrow. Anyone @ MPS- feel free to remind me if you see me! (I have been a bit spacey after missing a few days last week and having report cards due this week.)

I have been reading everyones messages and they all sound great. Rachel thanks for posting the requirements for the website. If I remember correctly I think we said that we would use the simpsons theme for our Dec. presentation just to make it a little bit fun for the class. I am excited for tomorrow night so we can outline and hopefully start our website if we are given tome.

Edited by author 11-16-2004 06:45 PM
Sarah - I'm sorry I don't have the Albany itinerary handy. Many of the sites we visit are mentioned (and linked where applicable) on our school site. Maybe you can get a little taste of what we do by clicking around there:
http://www.montaukschool.org/seventheighth.htm#albany

Edited by author 11-16-2004 05:48 PM
I agree that we really need some good planning - both for our "pilot" program and our December website presentation. I was just reading over what is required and I thought it might be helpful to post it here, just so we all have it fresh in our mind for tomorrow's face-to-face collaboration time:
• Be web-based with multiple pages
• Include a title
• Include all participant names, e-mails, and photographs
• Include a rationale telling why the project will be done and what will be its expected impact.
• Include a section telling of the importance and value of the project
• Include a description of the project, who will be involved and how they will do it.
• Include a section telling how it will address at least six elements of the EEV Key Elements when it is complete
• Include text, images, and sound
• Include annotated links to resources (Use Schools That Learn as a model for hyperlinked, multi-dimensional presentation of resources/grounding)
• Include a section telling how it will be evaluated to know if it was successful
• Include a likely timeline for completion with milestones noted.
• Include a section telling about technologies to be used in any ways related to the collaboration

I took that right from what Bette posted to our class site. If I left out anything please post it.

Hi everyone. This discussion of what characters to use is interesting. I hadn't thought about the Simpson's as "inappropriate" because the satire of it all is so smart, but those kids do behave completely inappropriately all the time. On the other hand, the "students" of the Simpson's like Jimbo Jones, Ralphie, Nelson, Lisa, and even Bart, represent our students so well - if only as caricatures (sometimes they are dead on). So, they may be great examples to use in the interest of educating ALL learners and the dignity of the student and all that stuff we read in Schools That Learn.

Does anyone happen to have the Albany itinerary with them at home (I am sure the chances are slim to none and slim's out of town). I should have asked you sooner, but I forgot. If not, tomorrow. Thanks.

Keri--I forgot to commend you on your wonderful notetaking and your ability to keep us on track the other night.

Cool website for the Simpsons- I didn't even remember all of the characters! Good possibility:)

Hey y'all! Awesome job with the purpose/value wording, Rachel- you are so good at that. Like Addi, I will need to go over it many times in order to revise- we can revisit it on Wed. together. I do like the Simpsons idea for icons, especially holding the tools and stuff, and I will visit the site you posted. I think if we use only the kids, and omit Homer and his drinking buddies, we should be okay. I think Calvin and Hobbes can be just as inappropriate at times, and maybe Disney characters would be too juvenile. Unless we used Finding Nemo characters or something? We can still brainstorm. We should definitely solidify our plan, b/c we have off next week and then the following week we are in Albany- already! Time flies, right, ladies?! See you Wed.! (And yes, Kathy, let's incorporate a scavenger hunt:)

Rachel and everyone I read all your notes, ideas and comments. Rachel the purpose and rational sound good, I have to copy it down and read it a couple of more times and see if there are an changes i would suggest but i doubt it! Maybe Kathy is right about the Simpson and the whole role model thing. Should we use other characters, Disney, I don't know????

Keri, thank you for keeping and postig notes.

I Think Erin is right we have to solidify some of our plans for Albany and how we are going to incorporate that into our December presentation. Remember that we are off next week. so we should also discuss some vacation goals for the group.

Kathy - the Simpson's thing came about b/c in class we were told not to just put up a lot of boring text to read for our december presentation. We thought the Simpson's would make it more fun. The idea (I think) was that on the page that we explain about the different assignments for the trip (still photo, video, creative, verbal/writing, etc.) we could use the Simpson's characters as sample students and give them the assignments. So, we might have Bart holding a camera, etc. If we can't manipulate the images too well, we could just do a character image then a plus sign and then an image to represent the assignment. Just a thought . . .

Sarah, i'm glad you liked my wordsmithing . . . i'm definitely open to editing and revision from anyone :)

Rachel great ideas on the purpose and importance statements. Where did the ideas of the simpson characters come from. Sounds like a good idea even thought I think that Bart and friends are not great role models, but I guess kids relate well to them. My favorites are Calvin and Hobbes(? spelling) but I don't think there are many characters related with them. I'd love to experiment with learning how to aminate also but I'm not really exposed to Fireworks yet. Still wondering if we want to do an internet based scavenger hunt or set one up as an actual event. Possibly both?

Rachel, you have such a way with words! I think what you wrote is great. The idea of manipulating the Simpson images in Fireworks sounds great, but I have no idea how to do Fireworks, so I am not going to be of much help with that.

Edited by author 11-14-2004 01:58 PM
well, i've just had a lot of fun googling for simpsons
there are some very subversive and "inappropriate" simpsons images out there, just in case you were wondering

i saved some of the more useful ones, but i also found a page that has all (or just about) the characters including lots of "students" like ralphie and jimbo jones
they might be the most fun to use because they represent different kinds of kids who may be different kinds of learners
anyhoo - the page is http://www.jrj-socrates.com/Cartoon%20Pages/simpsons.htm
check it out if ya like . . .

i was thinking that we could try to manipulate the images in fireworks so each character would look like he/she was holding some sort of tool related to his/her focus. like we could put a camera in bart's hand, etc. if/when we decide on the characters and their "assignments" we could each take one and try to edit it

Edited by author 11-14-2004 01:29 PM
Keri - You get the MVP award this week! Thank you for being so alert and on task in class on Wed. and for posting them here.

Here is my first stab at revising the "statements"

PURPOSE:
The purpose of the Schools That Travel Collaborative Project is to create an interactive innovative model that any school (or group) traveling to any destination can apply and adapt to enrich the traditional field trip model. In addition, the Project will provide a forum for development, collaboration and publication of each group’s model and its results.

IMPORTANCE & VALUE:
The importance and value of the School That Travel Collaborative Project are that the interactive innovative model will make the trip more meaningful (before, during and after), will make use of diverse learning styles and give participants (students) ownership of their own learning and travel experience.

What do ya'll think?

Hey all! Sorry I missed class on Wednesday. Thanks for the detailed notes, Keri. From what I can gather, I like that we are determining what our goal is for December and moving towards it (with the icons and slide suggestions). I think that we need to further outline our plan for the Albany piloting this week (unless you guys already did) b/c it is really coming up quickly (as is everything else). Then we can plan for any prep work that we need to do with them in school. I like your idea, Kathy, about actually doing one of the prepared hunts ourselves to get some ideas for what would work best for our own hunt. I associate scavenger hunt with racing around so it would be great to see what it is like in an actual museum situation. I might be the weak link next weak when it comes to our folders, but I'll try my best to get back in the game asap. Thanks!

Here Are the Notes sorry I didn't put them on sooner

What we discussed in class 11/10/04

- Albany our pilot
- Time line will figure out after Albany trip is done.
o See how well it goes.
o How far we want to take project?
o When do we see ourselves done with it?

- Project in general
o All take part in this week
 Finding clip art and photos that may relate to our site. (save in folder)
 Use Simpsons for Dec. presentation. Find icons.
 Find resources related to website. (General, Albany)
 Dec. site needs EEV elements page
 Feedback page (Quicktopics – directions before adding to QT, Identify role during trip, QT link)
 Revise statement to fit into these objectives. (need two different statements)
• Include a rationale telling why the project will be done and what will be its expected impact.
• Include a section telling of the importance and value of the project.
Rough draft: Please revise and put back on quick topics.
A model that may be applied to every body’s travel experiences.
An interactive model, all teachers can implement into his/her classes’ fieldtrip. Makes the trip more meaningful, reach diverse learning styles and gives students ownership.
Do Not Forget SCAVENGER HUNT!!!

Edited by author 11-11-2004 11:49 AM
Sorry I missed class last night, everything went well and hopefully that will be the last surgery. Thank you for your concern. How was class? Did anyone take notes. If so could you post them. There is a scheduled hunt for the Museam of Natural History on the 11 of December. Don't know if that is good for anyone but let's possibly try one in the near future. I'll see if I can gather more info on the hunt and post it.

Kathy, the hunts sound like a great idea the web link you gave us has some really different and interesting things on it.I'll push it for you tonight in class. I hope that Tom is healing and if there is anything you need, call.

Edited by author 11-09-2004 05:56 PM
I spoke with a woman today from one of the on line scavenger hunt companies that does scavenger hunts in the museams of NYC. They sound really cool. http://www.watsonadventures.com/stage.html
Maybe we could get a group of us to go into the city to do one of these hunts and use it as a starting point or base for one that we might be able to use to apply on the Washington or Albany trips. I know, I know ... You guys already do so much on these trips that you don't have time to fit in anything else but you never know! It might give us a perspective that we had never thought about before. There will be a changing of the guard soon, Rachel, Erin and Addi so maybe you can add some of your own style to the trips when that happens! I just found out that my husband has to go in for surgery tomorrow and that I won't be in class tomorrow night. I will speak with my Montauk collegues on Friday and get the up date. Let me know what you are thinking. Maybe I'll call in tomorrow night if I get a chance and you have your cell phone on.

Hi all! Sorry about not communicating sooner. One day I will have a weekend not full of rehearsal dinners, weddings and swim meets with the husband away. Anyway - Great ideas. I like the idea of the outline to highlight a progression towards a final outcome. I think that to break into subgroups and each group start collaborating on a mini project might be a good way to begin. I'll start working on a scavenger hunt, if any one else wants to help. I guess we can discuss this tomorrow night in more details. Do we have spy wear on our quick topics?? Any one else check out the posted links on the left hand side of the screen on scavenger hunts???

Edited by author 11-08-2004 11:07 PM
Ditto for what Addi and Sarah said. By the way, my college sociology professor said that a little OCD makes one more successful- so we should be in good shape!:)

Edited by author 11-08-2004 09:19 PM
Everyone has had great input in our quicktopics. Sarah asking for an itinerary was a good idea it may guide us to find edit our activities that we already came up with. I do agree that we all need practice with dreamweaver and would be benifical if we all could practice creating our website. If we have time on Wednesday to figure out some of the websites structure this would be helpful.
Rachel thanks for the notes.

Sarah & Addi - I agree with you both about needing some organizing. Last Friday some of us from Montauk participated in a Project Adventure workshop and learned S.T.O.P. - Stop, Think, Organize and Plan. I think we are ready for one of those . . . let's try to do that on Wednesday night. I hope that they give us a good chunk of meeting time.

Addi, I agree. I still have a lot to learn with web design but I think that if we all work on it together, we will get more out of it. I do think that first we need to come up with some sort of outline that will plan out our deadlines for our project due in December. Maybe we could come up with some way to split up our tasks so that we each would have a concrete thing that we would be working on.

Thanks for the notes Rachel. Rachel I don't think you should feel bad about the website creation. We should create it together and many of us still need more experience with dreamweaver. maybe the web design part should wait anyway, i feel as though we need to plan more. I think we have many wonderful and exciting ideas but we need to bring in the reins a bit. I think we should create a list of goals for our group and have some deadlines or mini-dealines for some of the things we would like to do. I don't know perhaps I am tooooo OCD?????

Thanks for the detailed notes, Rachel- I apreciate and like the examples of the overlapping group activities and how they relate to our EEV goals. I do have drama ideas to contribute as a result of our 7th grade drama into literature program that we have created in conjunction with Guild Hall and a local actor. You have been busy as a bee! Sarah, I will find an itinerary for the trip next week and post it or bring it with me to class. It will be helpful for all of us to plan activities (and I sort of forget our exact plans too). I think we can bring all of these ideas together on Wed. and maybe we can even begin a template for the website.

Rachel, great job with posting the notes. I think that we were very successful last Wednesday. Would somebody please post what you normally do in Albany so that I am familiar with it? Thanks.

I feel that I must admit to you all that I don't know if I'll be able to come up with even the beginning of a website creation for us by Wed. I have been working in Dreamweaver on something else and I really got into it. I spent a lot of time on it today and may not get another huge chunk of time to do something else. But, you never know . . . anyhoo - I again invite anyone else to create something OR see how we each do next week OR do some stuff together on Wed. 11/10 . . .

Edited by author 11-06-2004 01:30 PM
Okay, the notes are here. Let me just say that I think we are all BRILLIANT! I love this idea and I'm so impressed that we could go from excitement about Bette's examples to giddy and overwhelmed to super-productive and creative. I really like our "model" and I think it hits on so much of what we are aiming for in TEAM, including several wonderful EEV Key elements: http://eev.liu.edu/ee2006/fall2004/Classes/KeyElements.htm
I will try to make a little something on dreamweaver for us. I invite others to do the same and we can compare/contrast/merge or whatever

Edited by author 11-06-2004 01:26 PM
Notes from Wed. 11/3:
-Long term - present chunk and/or outline in Dec.
-SCAVENGER HUNT: difference btw. webquests/webhunts/scavenger hunts - teach and use differences: what do students notice in differences, etc. THINKING ABOUT THINKING = METACOGNITION
-Students travel on school trips to wherever and are assigned different views/perspectives/eyes/medium ??? for trip
-Suggested assignments:
*still photography
*video photography
*written/verbal
*creative arts: draw, paint, sculpt, collage, etc.
*performace arts: skits, tableau, etc. (Erin knows good drama people for this)
*scavenger hunt organizing
-all student travlers go to mostly same sights, etc., but view/experience very differently depending on assignment
-assignments can overlap and involve one another, for example: 1) performance art creates spontaneous dramatic presentation outside of museum and video photography captures it on video, 2)creative arts does chalk drawing on sidewalk in downtown wherever and still photography captures it on film, 3)scavenger hunt organizers use documents, sources, etc. from all other groups in hunt, 4)written/verbal describes any action by other group . . .
-we "pilot" these groups for Albany trip and report back to group, possibly use some stuff in our Dec. presentation to TEAM
-entire process should serve as model for other schools that travel or for travelers in general
-Rachel volunteered/asked group for approval to begin creating SOMETHING? in dreamweaver for our present b/c she wants to do something with that application anyway

Hi! I agree with Keri- I think we had a great conversation last night (despite our initial giddiness). I feel like I have a better idea of what our plan is and how it may eventually play out. I like the groupings we brainstormed for the students and think "piloting" them on our Albany trip will enable us to see how they work. We will of course keep in touch on the quicktopic while we are there to keep everyone informed- almost like you'll be there too (you'll just be getting more sleep:). Anyway, if anyone has some notes, maybe you can post them. It will help remind me about the other ideas that were generated. Thanks!

Edited by author 11-04-2004 01:35 PM
Hi all. Last night went really well. I think we are on the right track. I hope Montauk will be able to do a trial run up in Albany. Wish we could all be apart of it. Our website sounds great if it worksout to be an outline that all schools can use to make a feild trip more meaningful and interactive.

Also, the school program we use for adendance is called Eschools.

Hi all- I, too, am torn with this realism thing. I really want to develop something we can use but also want to challenge ourselves to go beyond our "industrial-age" thinking (good book reference, right?). Maybe we could come up with a balance of the two- perhaps group-focused/driven learning that enables students to not only experience a well-rounded view of the curriculum, but also to focus more in depth on what interests them. I am off to check out all those websites Kathy and Sarah-thanks!

Edited by author 11-02-2004 07:04 PM
Rachel, I think your realism is good. I don't want to go off trying to develop something that is just not realistic. I found a great site with different webquests http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/WebQuests.html
I had fun doing the drawing website, but I don't know if it was my wireless mouse, but I had a hard time controlling my drawing. Anything that I tried to draw comes out terribly.

Everyone has such good ideas.
I liked the idea about curriculum themes and I also understand the "anti-packet" feelings. As far as that Holocaust unit goes . . . I bet Erin has stuff that is even better than that vendor. She and our reading teacher have been fine-tuning a holocaust unit (that is integrated with our visit to the Holocaust Museum in DC) for some years now. I really liked the idea of each student (or group of students) having a different focus (foci?) for the trip, especially the ideas of photography, history, art history, etc. I am wondering about the reality of the situation. I mean, on the one hand, who cares about reality, let's just take this thing in great directions. On the other hand, public school just doesn't seem to work that way and there is state curriculum and all that jazz to follow. How would it work if only a few kids learned about the government in DC and a only a few learned about the history, etc. etc. Maybe it wouldn't be THAT extreme. Sorry, didn't mean to put a damper on things. I guess I am just wanting this thing to realistically work with our existing trip and I need to move away from that thought.
I was thinking we could do the discussion board/quicktopic thing during and post and also that collaborative drawing thing - kind of like an online journal illustration. I have yet to try it with anyone else though. I tried to get my administrator to do it with me, but the invitation was taking so long to get to him and I didn't want to keep him on the phone waiting any longer.
Thanks for the scavenger hunt links Kathy! I will check them out.

Edited by author 11-01-2004 06:59 PM
Sorry the links in the last entry were giving me a hard time so I reworked them to allow better access.

Scavenger Hunts
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr113.shtml

http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/shunts.htm
Rachel – check out the one on composers- links might be good for 5th grade project

Here’s one on Christmas in other countries:
http://www.henry.k12.ga.us/pges/xmas_around.htm

I think that a scavanger hunt would be a good pre-trip activity and or an activity that students could do while they were actually at the location. Maybe we might want to include one in our activities.
A New York Theme
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/tg/basil.html

Here are some scavanger hunts that looked interesting. I liked the format and setup.
Scavenger Hunts
<http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr113.shtml>;

<http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/shunts.htm>;
Rachel – check out the one on composers- links might be good for 5th grade project

Here’s one on Christmas in other countries:
<http://www.henry.k12.ga.us/pges/xmas_around.htm>;


A New York Theme
<http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/tg/basil.html>;

Erin, I liked your point about the students creating their own questions. I wonder if a pre-trip activity could be that they would actually develop what their purpose would be. So they might be in a art history group, but then they would have to as a group (with the help of their supervising teacher) develop what they want to accomplish on their trip. So this would have them research the place that they were going and to think about how to get the most out of their trip. Then, hopefully, they would really "own" their trip because they were invested in it.
Keri, I liked your idea about informing the other students about what each group is concentrating on. Maybe as a pre-trip activity each group could discuss their ideas and get feedback from each other. And then as a post trip, they could present what they each did on the trip. So the architecture group could learn from the drama group, etc. A problem that I am seeing with this idea is that it might make students pigeon-hole themselves into one topic, instead of introducing them to new things. I don't know.
Rachel--that website was cool. I would love to see it work with someone else via email or instant message. Did anyone do it with you?

Sara and Keri, great ideas! I like the idea of trying to come up with an alternative to the packets- something that will will engage the students on a deeper level and one which will foster self-motivation. Pre- and post- trip activities, like Keri mentioned, would make it less of a logistical nightmare. Perhaps incorporating an online journal for the students, like we discussed (I think), would aid in the process. Maybe we can set up a message board or quicktopic in other areas where the students would essentially create their own questions and answers through dialogue with one another. That would be for the older students, I suppose. Still have to check out that website, Rach. Will do so tonight.

Edited by author 11-01-2004 02:07 PM
Sarah great idea maybe we could have the students pick topics that they are interested in. Research and then represent that topic to the class which would inform the other students what they are going to see during the trip. The students then would pick the same or another topic that interest them and that would be what they did during the trip. Kind of like what we did in team.

We could also add virtual tours of places that maybe the students will not go to.

I was thinking about the curriculum aspect of our site and how we could make it interesting, stimulating, exciting, etc, for the kids. I went to a conference this week and there were different venders there. One was for school trips. They had different curriculum ideas to go with their trips. For example, for D.C. they had a whole packet on the Holocaust museum. I wanted to get my hands on it, but you have to book the trip first. In theory, it sounds like a great idea. But, when I thought back to my own experiences with school trips where I had to go around and fill out some sort of worksheet, I hated it and couldn't wait to finish it so that I could really look around. So I was trying to think of how we could make it more interesting and truly educational instead of just something that the kids have to do before they can have fun. I was wondering if we could set it up, so that before the trip each student could choose a topic that interested them. (Similar to how the Ross School has a three week term where the students spend all of their school time working on just one thing). For example, there would be a photography group that would go all around wherever we pick with different assignments and the history group would really delve into the Holocaust Museum (or whatever museums are in the city we pick) because that is their love or interest and they could go a lot deeper than just answering a few questions on a worksheet. I don't know if this idea would be a logistical nightmare though. What do you all think? Rachel, I haven't gone on that imagination website yet. I am going to do that next and write again.

Edited by author 10-30-2004 07:58 PM
http://www.imagination3.com/LaunchPage# (cut and paste if the link doesn't work)
recommended by Faye via email last week . . . you have to try it - WE have to try it! It's an online COLLABORATIVE drawing program. This fits in with our idea of activities to do while on the field trip - like an artistic quicktopic. It lets you save your creations too! Please someone email me or IM me if you are on this site and want to collaborate . . . rkleinberg@aol.com

Edited by author 10-28-2004 09:56 PM
Rachel, you rock. I idolize you and your skills. Addi, thanks for the notes. Kathy, I am not sure you are sold on the scavenger hunt idea:) I am very excited about this project. I, too, felt that our meeting went so well- everyone had such great ideas while at the same time being open to new ideas. I have to check out the EEV website still and process some more. I like where we have gone so far with the travel idea. I will be away until Monday, but I will try to get in and post again between now and then.

Hi, everyone. I feel that last night went really well. We are off to a good start. Thanks Rachel for setting up our quick topics. Just wanted to sign in. for this up coming week maybe we could brainstorm on how our website might be set up. Get an outline of what we would like it to include and the structure. I think we have a great topic and am excited to see what the outcome will be.

I lost the notes so here I go again
Place/ Travel

*Student=Blind spot/ point
*Cyber Safari-scavenger hunt
*Forum-competitive???
*Choose only a few places or ony one as the model
*Must be interactive-Parent, techer and student
*Imaginative travel
*"360 degrees"-journey through a painting
*Connecion to home
*Vrtual scrapbook
*Amuzement Park
*Digital journal
*Shadowing/ Service Learning
*Contrived Trip
*Places: DC, NYC, Boston, Albany, Disney.....
Theme: Schools that Travel
*involve other schools/local/across country

Last night's meeting was great! I feel like we are all one the same page and each have wonderful ideas and contributions to make. I am excited now. anyway I thought I would post the notes from our meeting last night.

Place/ Travel

****Stundent==blind point/spot****
I. Cyber Safari-scavenger hunt (Kathy)

A brainstorm last night, huh? LOL

Thank you Rachel for being so efficient and putting up the quick topics so quickly. You are the best!! I had a brain storm last night and thought that it might be fun to some how create some kind of scavenger hunt to be included in the web site activities. I'll go on line and look up some different types that are out there and possibly link a few here over the next day or so, so that we can see the different types and figure out how to design a good one that might spark the kids and parents interest. Always put something competitive(Rachel says spelling doesn't count) and people go crazy! Talk to yeah soon!

Edited by author 10-27-2004 09:16 PM
Hi everyone! Whoo-hoo! We have a quicktopic space for our Schools That Travel collaboration.
First, I want to say how much I enjoyed our group time tonight. I really like our ideas and the way we presented them to one another.
Second, I want to ask Addi and Keri who took notes to post them here early in the week so we can spring off from there.
Third, I recommend that we all take a peak at the Key Elements in EEV at http://eev.liu.edu/ee2006/fall2004/Classes/KeyElements.htm before we get too far into it, just so we have them in mind. I think we naturally do these things anyway, but it probably wouldn't hurt to look them over.