www.gliffy.com

O__//**rganization, Planning, and the Zen Art of Flow (Flowcharts that is.)**//__

My contribution to the Cadre 12 web tool box is the website **Gliffy.com**. Gliffy is a web tool that will help both the corporate and education based members of our team. Gliffy is a tool that can quickly and elegantly produce...
 * Flow charts
 * Tech Network Plans
 * Floor Plans
 * Family Trees

The site is designed with ease of usage and flexibility in mind and within just a few minutes the point and click interface becomes almost second nature. For me as a teacher it allows me to create easy to follow 'graphic organizers' for my kids. A quality chart to help them with both difficult math concepts as well as vocabulary. Take for example the flow chart I created for the concept of Order of Operations...



The site allows a teacher to create a seating chart which has actual reference to the space in the room and allows the teacher to integrate the flow of the networked computer systems in the room. Not only can a teacher plan for where the desks will be located, but student computers, teacher computers, telephones, and TVs. For the corporate floor manager, one can create a floor plan which will assist in intelligent inter office communication and collaboration.


 * //Extension for Education//**... Our learning circle examined three websites with the idea that all three would be used in tandem to create a Social Studies Project which hits many of the national education standards... Children will use Wetoku.com, a site which allows students to do video interviews, to interview the oldest living family member they have about an important event in their own living history. Students will then use ImageSpark.com, a photo collection and sharing site to create a photo slide show to go with the collected oral history, Students will then create a Family Tree using Gliffy which will feature links to the actual photos and oral history at the other two sites... Students will learn about their own history and the place they hold in it.

But recently I received in my room an Elmo and a projector and it is changing the way I perceive presenting to the class. I have always wrote furiously the entire days lesson on the white boards only to erase it all at the end of class and begin my lecture over again. Inevitably one class ends up getting cheated, I run out of steam, I forget a fun add on that the other 4 periods got to see, something. But this year with my Elmo/projector combo I find that I am only writing the notes once and re-using them. But this has created a new problem for me. I have always felt a sense of free form with my illustrations because they were being created right before the students eyes, they happened quickly, so the dog that looks like a cow with fangs is perfectly fine, and kind of funny. The class gets a kick out of it. But now when the next period comes into class they dont get to experience it as it is created, they dont sense the mistakes as fun, they just see a poor drawing of a wercow. This has left me taking evermore time on my illustrations, which in turn has eliminated the speed benefit of doing it old school. As I have been working on this project I have realized that a well developed set of pre-made slides will help with the students perception of the concept. Yes my art was always cute and created a sense of whimsy in the classroom, but a well balanced and created flow chart will be a tool the student can take with them, all I have to do is press print. I dont want to lose the connection that my drawing creates between my students and myself, but I do want to create a solid library of existing visual aids to which I will add my art as I see fit. My concern is that I am getting a little bored. I am very much ADD and in using the technology I have nothing to think about or create for a couple of days (We operate on a rotating schedule which leaves me often teaching the same lesson for two days straight**.) I have even found myself being the instrument of distraction, while my class is diligently copying my pre-made note pages I get bored. I engage the first couple of students finished (the honors kids with whom I love to interact) and I start extending the lessons for them, introducing fun facts, valuable tangents. But the kids who are slow to copy the notes hear us talking and want to be involved. Often the side bar is way more valuable in knowledge building than the standardized lesson I am forced to teach, so I dont want to exclude anyone, and like a total idiot, I AM DISRUPTING MY OWN CLASS! I believe in frantic teaching, always have... yes the very bottom at first feel anxious about the speed with which I teach, but the joy of coming to class overcomes their apprehension, the middle thrive because they realize they are smarter than they ever knew, and the top explodes with growth because they are being taught too (often for the very first time.) I feel like the process of doing this project has left me with a sense of power and dread... the power comes from the tools and I know as I learn to use them better there will be no limit to what I can bring into the room... the dread comes from the realization that I have to rethink everything. **
 * Reflection...** As I went through this process I was forced to think of my teaching practices in the classroom, you see I am by my nature an artist, cartooning is one of my favorite things to do. So often it is far quicker for me to sketch out a worksheet or flow chart the old fashion way rather than utilize a computer.