The start of a new year- 2008

With the start of the New Year I am once again challenged by my commitment and passion for teaching as we get ready to welcome new learners, with hopeful expectations into their first year at Intermediate School. My colleague Lenva and I were talking yesterday and we were discussing the question" What would you expect a 21st century literate teacher be able to do? " (David Warlick)
A very interesting and challenging question.
I thought that I might discuss this with my team at our next team meeting and find out their views.
Sheryl Nussbaum-beach said at the Tuanz conference last year that we are the last generation of teachers who have the choice of whether or not we want to embrace and use technology to support meaningful learning, but I think that that choice no longer exists. I also think that teachers now need to be users of new technologies to support their own learning and teaching practice.
I am committed this year to spend time each week exploring the world of Web 2.0 and to experiment with one or two new tools and to see if and how they would support purposeful learning that would also engage and motivate the students in my class.
This is my spot for sharing with you not just what tools are out there, because there are cazillions of sites out there already doing that, but to show how I am actually using these tools in my classroom with examples of the students work and how student can use these to record, reflect on, create and communicate their learning.
My first addition is Toondoo
I had a play with this yesterday. Some of the exapamles that they show on the first page have some inappropriate material, so just sign up and go straight into making the comic srtip, don't show the eamples unless you have checked these out yourself and selected the ones that you are going to show. However, I think that using this comic strip tool for prior knowledge and then for an assesmnet of knowledge and understanding either formatively or summatively, would be great.
Our team is starting the year off with an Inquiry on " The Brain".
John C. Eccles, 1969 said, " A better understanding of the brain is certain to lead a man to a richer comprehension both of himself, of his fellow man, and of society, and in fact of the whole world with its problems."
To find out what the students know about the brain, I thought that they could make a toon book for me. This could be a homework task or they could work in a group of two or three in class.
This Toonbook would also be a great way for them to show their knowledge and understanding as a reflection at the end of this study and their views on the quote above.
This is my example, but I will post some of the students work in about two weeks time.

gailtmitchell	This is my prior knowledge about " The Brain"

"Make Belief Comix" could be used for the same learning purpose. This tool is great because the students can print off their work. If you do not want to link their work to an ePortfolio or a blog, then this is a great alternative. Here is an example. I will post some of the students work later.