Say Cheese

So one thing that I really enjoy doing, anytime I get a chance to, is take pictures. Photography has always interested me, even before I took a photography class in high school (in which I hardly learned anything because the teacher wasn't so great).

Anyway, it's something that I definitely see myself trying to incorporate into my classroom in the future. Learning doesn't always have to be about books and art is something that isn't stressed in school. In recent years, I remembering hearing about schools taking out music and art programs out of their schools.

I remember taking art classes in middle school, but I was never very good at drawing, painting, and sculpting. Although it was fun and definitely cheaper than offering photography classes, I would have loved it if I had other choices when it came to learning about art.

Here is a link to a website that I found with all sorts of ideas for using a digitial camera in the classroom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sashamd/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Wikis, Websties, Blogs

Photo from flickr.com by bjmcdonald

What are they good for? Lots of things. Discovering these technologies has expanded my teaching mind. They have opened new doors to creative and new ways for collaboration and lesson planning, as well as new ways of marketing myself for when I go job hunting.

In this course I've actually switched from using Weebly for my midterm, to Google Sites for my final. I don't really have a great reason why though. Weebly is so much more appealing to the eye and it's really easy to use. I gave up on Google Sites earlier in the semester because I couldn't figure it out. Nevertheless, I continued to work on it and decided to switch over. I use google for everything anyway. I use it for blogging, e-mail, Google Docs, Reader, so it just made sense to me to keep organized and to keep everything in one place. Google Sites has a lot more options for editing and inserting things like presentations, spreadsheets, pdf documents, etc, without having to use other websites like scribd.com.

As for using websites, blogs, and wikis with other educators, they provide you with so many more opportunities to learn from others, people that you don't actually ever have to meet. We can just do searches for these and find so many new ways of teaching. We may not have to ever meet, face-to-face, the authors of the wikis, websites, and blogs, but we can comment and collaborate that way. I actually follow a blog that has two authors and they don't even live in the same state.

As for the classroom and lesson planning, these technologies provide teachers with so many creative options. We can stray away from traditional ways of teaching somewhat and motivate the students by making lessons more fun with these technologies.

MeMoves

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

I've been meaning to and needing to explore another technology. So I finally chose to look into MeMoves because I heard of it, but I had no idea what it was exactly.  

This program was developed by a mother that was concerned for her child that has special needs. She couldn't accept that her daughter would never be able to learn, that she would always be "different". She did lots of research to find a way to help her and eventually she found connections through her research in the relationships between mind, body, movement, and music. She started to do a dance every morning and every night with her daughter and soon she was able to remember letters and sounds, when she always forget before. 

It's so simple, but it's so creative. MeMoves is meant to help to calm the minds of children so that they can relax and make connections. 

School is so stressful, especially for kids that are having trouble keeping up. This program actually works and would be a very positive thing to incorporate into the classroom.

Simply checking out the website has even calmed me down :)

Here is a link to the MeMoves blog.

Alternative Paths to Getting a Teaching Certificate

Today, in the education section of nytimes.com I read an pretty interesting article called Alternative Education for Teachers Gains Ground. It goes along with my wiki actually, talking about other opportunities people have that want to become teachers.

Apparently the teaching profession used to be pretty strict.

They dictated how and when people became teachers by offering coursework, arranging apprenticeships and granting master’s degrees.

However, now the most prominent and prestigious schools of education in the country are being harshly criticized, saying that they focus way too much on theory and not nearly enough on good teaching methods through experience.

Once we graduate we're going to have to compete with people that have joined alternative programs, like Teach for America. These programs take any person that has a bachelor's degree, gives them teaching jobs, and they don't even have any prior experience teaching or learning about teaching.

Now, maybe these programs will be able to certify their own teachers.

I'm kind of on the fence about all of this though. On the one hand, this upsets me because, personally, I've been going to MSU, paying the tuition, studying hard, having to take a lot of classes I didn't feel benefited me very much, to finally get a bachelor's degree in education. I agree with the some of criticism education programs have had to endure. I haven't had much experience actually teaching, learning first-hand what to do. Most of the knowledge I have gained so far has been from books, coursework, and hearing about other teachers' experiences.

Nevertheless, I still have another year before I get my degree and I have no idea what my courses will require me to do. Also, even though I feel like a lot of the courses I've taken weren't of much benefit to me at the time, maybe I just wasn't seeing the big picture. All of the theory will probably come in handy in the future when I'm in situations that would help me understand how to solve certain problems.

Photo from a wordpress.com blog - playthink

What do you think about alternative programs? Do you think they're preparing their teachers in a better way? Are we, MSU education majors, wasting our time here? The teachers in the alternative programs have bachelors in a specific field and know it very well, but does that mean they're qualified to go and teach?

iClickers

A new technology I decided on looking more into is iClickers. I had to buy a few for classes at MSU, during my first and second years here and I was never a big fan. I thought that they were pretty pointless-- mostly because I had to waste my money on something I used maybe ten times within the entire semester.

Nevertheless, even though I don't think they're really necessary, I guess they could be positive. They could be a way to make sure every student is paying attention and it's a good way to have every student participate.

But really, there's more bad than good. Is the data that teachers gain from the iClickers valid? Most students aren't exactly motivated to listen just because of iClickers. All they have to do is press a button, so it's actually not a very good way to make sure they're paying attention and retaining the information. It could just be a lucky guess.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/waiferx/ / CC BY 2.0

LIteracy Reference Project

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40836723@N08/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

So I just recently started doing my Literacy Reference project for TE 301. A lot of people seemed really stressed out about it. I wasn't so worried just because I hadn't even read the rubric for it. I'm glad, though, that I didn't start sooner because my professor announced to us, just recently, that we could don't have to necessarily make a binder of references; we could make a WEBSITE.

CEP 416 is a life saver. Before taking this class, the idea of making a website would have never crossed my mind and I would probably have been deathly afraid of even attempting to make one.

Most of my peers, that I've talked to, have vigorously been working on a binder for weeks and I just sat down one day and I'm already half way done.

Anyway, what led me to write about this is a blog called Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day. For our projects we have to include references that talk about how to teach special education students as well as SLL's. On Larry's blog he shared a great resource for teaching English language learners; it's a 62-page document, but that doesn't matter if you're working with a website :) Here's the link if you don't follow his blog.

Fell for an April Fools Joke on April 14

So I was catching up on reading blogs on my Google Reader and I was fooled. Haha.

I was reading the blog Free Technology For Teachers about a new program called Magic Grade. A program that would give teachers their nights and weekends back! Students could write their essays and the Magic Grade program could whip out an answer instantly. It was too great to be true though and I can't believe that I fell for it, even for a second. I was ready to criticize it to the max because there's no technology out there that will ever be able to do that.

It was, simply, a blog I didn't realize was written April 1.

Photo courtesy of wiseacre photo on flickr.com

Wiki

This week we had to start our own wiki page. I actually really enjoy the idea of it. If you're interested in a certain topic then it's a good tool to post and discuss information because anyone that's invited to share/edit can write and save the information; the wiki is therefore always there to refer back to and to add to whenever. Everyone can't know everything and it's always good to reach out for help and to hear other people's viewpoints and knowledge on countless topics.

I decided to set up my wiki by talking about different opportunities and options available to us as teachers after we complete the TE program. The first time I even started thinking about this part of my future, which seems so far away, is when I found out that some old friends of mine decided that they would go abroad to teach. I was completely fascinated and decided instantly that I was going to do that. I'm pretty set on that goal still, but I wanted to learn more about teaching abroad, as well as, other possible opportunities. Hence, my wiki. I just need to organize it better and I hope to get more input/discussion going on it.

In the case of using wikis with students, I think that they could really benefit from it. I don't see why they wouldn't. A teacher could post and update any information on it quickly and easily; the students would have easy access to the information, ask questions, get them answered by the teacher or other students, etc. As long as the wikis are being used appropriately and the students are goofing around and changing important things, then I don't see any way that they wouldn't benefit from using them.

Krakow, Poland - I want to be teaching here already.

Photo Credit from flickr.com by mykrak

The Internet is great and all but...

Mickey G. Ottawa photostream - flickr.com

I came across an article today from nytimes.com bringing attention to the recent suicide of a freshman girl at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. The suicide was a result of constant bullying over the Internet. It's sad that something like this had to happen for states to realize they need to re-examine their laws on bullying.

Anyway, Kevin Jenkins, a fourth-grade teacher, decided that he would take things into his own hands and teach his students through Common Sense Media what's appropriate to post, what's not appropriate, to be cautious of what goes on the Internet and to be aware that they can get into trouble for whatever they post.

Besides the whole social aspect of the Internet (I think it's important that it was brought up in the article), students should learn about and be aware of cookies and viruses.

Anyone and everyone can see what you post, so think twice before you do.

R.I.P.

Today, Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president, as well as 96 other people, including some of the highest military and civilian leaders, died in a plane crash in Russia.

Here is a link to the full story.

Czarek Sokolowski/AP - NPR photo

Digital Storytelling

Getting to know your teacher on Prezi

For our digital storytelling assignment I decided to work with Prezi.com. It's a really fun, interactive, and creative website. It's so simple to use as well. You can insert pictures, write text, create a path for people to follow, make the pictures and text as small or as big as you want to. Ultimately, I really enjoyed working with it and because it's not extremely complicated, not that students wouldn't be able to handle something complicated, students would have a lot of fun using it. 

I decided that I would use it as a tool for students to get to know their teacher. Children are always so interested in their teachers lives outside of school. Some don't even realize that they do have lives outside of school. Most things definitely have to stay private, but a few interesting facts are good to let them know. Many teachers do it on the first day of class and I know that I'm always interested in hearing about their lives. It's a way to connect and to be able to relate to the person that will be educating you for the rest of the year. 

Teaching K-12 online... Who would have ever thought?

Last week the mentor of this course, CEP 416, came in to talk to us and had so many interesting things to say. He's a really cool guy.

Well, he was telling us about a time that he ran into a former student and she told him that she never believed that technology would become incorporated into teaching. Then she proceeded to ask him what he thought that she was doing with her life. He had no idea. She told him that she started teaching a fifth grade classroom completely online.

That was a shocker for me to even hear because I had no idea that was going on these days. I can't even imagine how an educator would go about doing that. I can't even really say that whether I agree with it or not because I have never seen it done, but I just feel that classroom, face-to-face teaching is so much more beneficial.

He did mention that the students that take those online classes are mostly those that are homebound by illness or children that are home-schooled. I wonder what parents think about this method and how many parents have taken their kids out of schools because they thought it was better. I'd definitely like to read up about it and check out if there are forums out there on the internet where parents discuss this.

Waste of Precious Time

Educational Technology Guy posted some random thoughts and I have one of my own to add.

• Teachers shouldn't willingly waste so much time in the morning eating breakfast, taking attendance, finding out what students will be having for lunch, etc;  (lists, lists, count students, lists, more lists)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/ / CC BY 2.0

I go to a first-grade classroom every Thursday morning for my TE 301 placement. I'm there from 8:00-11:30am; I realize it's not much time to be able to really criticize, but I feel like the mornings are routine by now. My CT usually comes in when the students do at 8:50am; she doesn't come in early to prepare anything. I feel that if she would come to the school at least twenty minutes early, she would have enough time to scavenge for the things she needs within the mess on the desk.

She actually is a pretty good teacher when the teaching finally starts, but the wasted time in the morning has been bothering me all semester. Not only is time wasted on things the principal or the lunch lady need, but lessons are always interrupted by the teacher's attempt to teach the children about manners and to improve behavior. I realize this is necessary, but constantly stopping the lesson to tell a child to stop picking his nose, sit on his bottom, get fingers out of his mouth, etc, is not. It takes away too much valuable time.

What grade levels have you had experience observing? How do the teachers handle their morning routine? How do they handle behavioral issues?

In National News...Health Care Reform

Combined two pictures from flickr.com 

March 21, 2010 -- Barack Obama's health care bill gained enough votes to be passed into law.
March 23, 2010 -- Our president has officially signed the health care bill into law.

I don't follow politics religiously, but I've been reading up about the bill and the U.S. population's reaction to it since Sunday. I'm going to stay neutral here because I don't enjoy arguing about these kinds of things... anymore. It's impossible to come to an agreement or compromise, especially with this bill. Reactions have proved to be polar opposites; people are either blissfully happy or absolutely infuriated.

I'm just interested in where my fellow classmates, as well as others that may be reading my blog out there, stand on this issue.

If you choose to comment, let's keep it classy people.

Articles and comments about the health care reform:

• NPR - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125058400 
• Foxs News - http://sitemirror.tpa.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/06/obama-turns-heat-health-overhaul/
• Digg - http://digg.com/comedy/NO_to_Socialism_Image 
• CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/23/health.care.timeline/index.html?hpt=T1
• Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=nf&gid=335426408861
• Michael Moore - http://michaelmoore.com/

Endless Possibilities of SKYPE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/malthe/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In getting more familiar with a new technology this week, I really wanted to look more into how teachers have used Skype (a software application that allows people to make free video and voice calls over the Internet) to liven up their lesson plans. Search results brought about my discovery of this blog. The blogger has listed "50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom".

Out of the fifty, here are a few of my favorite:

1. Use Skype to connect your language classroom to a classroom abroad

With Skype's newer feature of viewing video in full screen mode it makes it easier for classroom use. This video chatting creates a link for students to native speakers. The best way you can learn a language the way a native uses it is to, simply, learn it from the source - the native speaker. Using Skype in this way opens the door and, more so, tears down the classroom walls to a world foreign to the language learner.

2. Take your students on a field trip

Although, a field trip by live video, while sitting in an uncomfortable and stiff desk isn't exactly an ideal experience or opportunity for learning for students -- especially when compared to physically being somewhere, tasting, smelling, seeing, touching, and hearing things first-hand -- Skype makes a "field trip" possible when they can't physically go on one.

Understandably, in today's economy, a field trip just may not be possible because of budgetary constraints. Whether the students are actually at the zoo or taking a tour of it with Skype, they're still able to see and learn from a real-life experience; they're not just reading about animals from a textbook or a lecture from a teacher.

Something more exciting... taking a Skype field trip to a place outside of the state, the country, the continent!
I would go crazy with this if it was easy to do....
I could take my students to see an art museum in France, the Taj Mahal, tour of the swamp land in Florida, down under to Australia, the Andes Mountains in South America, Poland, Italy, Greece, Africa, Russia, Greenland, etc; I could go on and on. BUT this seems like wishful thinking; I wonder how extravagantly teachers have been able utilize a Skype for this type of "field trip".

3. Parent-teacher conferences via Skype
The reality is that there are parents that would really like to be able to find the time to meet with their children's teachers, but work or other obligations get in the way. Skype could make these meetings easier for parents to schedule into their busy days, without having to leave work and make the trip out to the school.

Besides these examples, the blog also provides links for tutorials of Skype and connections to other teachers using Skype around the world.

Ocean Beach, CA 2010

First time in California - Finally found a spot that is stereotypically (hippies, surfers, beach, etc.) "Californian" and I love it. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47203943@N06/ / CC BY 2.0

SoCal

For Spring Break this year I am in San Diego, CA, visiting my brother. It's my first time in California so I'm pretty psyched to be here.

My brother was catching up on his current events on yahoo.com and one of the top stories included "Teacher writes 'loser' on child's assignment". I couldn't believe it was true.

The teacher of the sixth grade classroom said he writes "loser" comments on students' homework because it a way that he can relate to them. One mother is completely disturbed by his method of teaching and believes her child is being bullied.

What's weird is that apparently many parents made it evident that they think his methods are effective when interviewed by reporters, but none of them went on camera to defend him.

That's all yahoo.com reported in their 1:10 online segment. I'll be sure to look more into this and see what happens, if anything at all.

Screen shot of video from yahoo.com

Development of my PLN

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobannon/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

So far, so good.

I feel that I'm getting more out of this class than any other course I've taken within the TE program. Let me show you what I've got and what I've learned about so far while developing my Personal Learning Network.

1. This blog
2. Twitter account (hardly used, but I've got it)
3. Learned about social bookmarking
4. Started developing a personal website
5. flickr.com and Creative Commons
6. TPACK
7. Google Docs
8. Google Reader
9. BBP
10. Slidecast...

I could list a lot more things, but I won't. There's too much I've come across through reading others' blogs, education articles, etc.

Each new task we come across in class comes with a various levels of difficulty, but this whole technology thing is getting easier. Checking in on my PLN has almost become a part of everyday life. I'm definitely more comfortable with it, but after this week's audio task I need a breather...

BBP Slideshow with AUDIO

Time To Rhyme

RELIEF!

That is what I feel at this point. After hours and hours of trying to figure out how to record, how to save as an mp3, how to edit the recording (complication after complication), ETC, it's finally complete. For my first time, I don't think it's half bad. It's not pristine, but practice makes perfect.

BBP Slideshow on Rhyming Words

           Presentation on rhyming words for first graders

This week for class we were assigned to make a PowerPoint presentation using the three tricks of a "Beyond Bullet Points" (BBP) presentation proposed by Cliff Atkinson. It's so obvious, so simple, so clear, so straight forward. I can't believe I didn't think of this. Haha.

The point in the BBP presentation is to keep things simple; include a title, visual, and you're set to speak.
Atkinson talks about how when people make presentations in the "old way", they try to cram information with bullet points, add semi-meaningful pictures just as a decoration, and then expect their audience to be able to retain all of that information and their vocal presentation at the same time.

It's definitely hard to focus and I, as well as everyone who has professors that use the "old way" of making PowerPoint presentations, struggle during lectures every other day. In my case, I am taking an Anthropology of Linguistics course this semester. The readings are long and it's hard to understand them, let alone pick out the main ideas out of them. I like to take notes on everything, just so that if I forget something, then I can always refer back to my notes for clarification. Well, this class requires a maximum amount of note-taking in my world. My professor uses PowerPoints every session and they clarify the readings' main points, but then again they can't stand alone. His explanations are also extremely important to note to be able to gain a full understanding. Every lecture I find myself trying to keep my attention on both, but it's impossible; I'm constantly tuning in and out.

Atkinson states that our working memory, "the part of your mind where your audience holds their attention", receives information through two channels: visual and verbal. With a BBP presentation, basically, all that you need to include on a slide is a headline that states your main point and a meaningful visual. The audience quickly digests the information on the slide and then they focus their attention back to, the most important part of a presentation, the presenter and what he or she is saying.

BBP presentations look very promising and I highly encourage anyone to refer to the link above next time you're preparing for a presenation.