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

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/

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

so what's the deal with standardized assessments?

TOWARD A NEW VISION FOR OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR SCHOOLS: I HAVE A DREAM...  

Where time spent engaged in inquiry, reading, making art, writing, interviewing, dancing, problem solving, dramatizing is more highly prized than time spent filling in bubbles, choosing the right answer to someone else’s questions or logging on to prove you  read...

 Lester Laminack

Every time that I am reminded of it, I am daunted by it. "It" being standardized assessments. How are the stresses and the pressures going to effect my teaching? Better yet, how is it going to effect my will to stay in the profession and to keep on teaching?

This entire fear or doubt in my future as an educator was set in motion last year when one of my first TE professors gave the class a bit of a reality check. After talking about standardized testing and how a lot of teachers quit because of strict curriculum and having to follow every detail, he fed us a statistic. He said that out of the twenty people in our class, one out of five of us will leave the profession after at least five years. Surprisingly, I have to admit that the first thought that came into my head was that I would, most likely, be one of those people. I have to explain, though, that I definitely do not want to be that person. I decided to change my major to Teacher Education because of the obvious: I love children, I want to do whatever I can to help them develop into sophisticated human beings, and to make a difference (among other things). So, all of this seemed impossible to attain after our discussion on the reality of a teacher's job. Nevertheless, we will all just have to "cross that bridge when we get to it" and hopefully be able to find some balance.

The reason I bring this topic up is because of a certain blog I follow and recommend any Language Arts major to read: Two Writing Teachers. One of the writers blogged about a recent conversation she had about standardized testing with her second grade daughter. It consisted of the daughter, H., asking if her mother was impressed by her test scores. Her mother said, "Not really," and of course the seven-year-old was upset. What her mother tried to get across to her was that she should not value what others think about how she did on some "silly" test; she should always try her best as a student and be proud of herself for that reason alone A test like that won't show who a person is, how creative a person is, etc. The problem that the mother was trying to fix was preventing her daughter from labeling herself, her worth, and her abilities as a student.

^^^ This is great and as people commented on her blog they gave some really positive feedback, but not without a "BUT" or "HOWEVER"...

To do list: Bank after play time

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

Two weeks ago, when I was at my TE301 placement, while the children ate breakfast the teacher asks if anyone brought in money to go to the bank. Whoever brought in some money got a money deposit bag. At that time I was clueless as to what was happening. After my CT was done taking care of this, she explained to me that once every month the students go to the bank in the gym, where actual bankers come and have them become familiar with the process. The bank made an agreement with the school and if a student collects at least $10 by the end of the school year, they'll be rewarded and will go to Barnes and Noble, where they'll be able to buy their own books. 

The first graders all seem very excited about it. Also, not only are they learning what the value of a dollar is and how the bank process works, but they also do a lot more good deeds at home. To earn the money they bring in the children told us that they cleaned their rooms, washed the dishes, helped their grandparents, read to their younger brothers or sisters, etc. 

Many schools seem to have found this activity to be extremely beneficial to students. NPR actually did a story about this called, Cafeteria Credit Unions Teach Students Money Skills. The article starts off by saying, 

The recession has highlighted just how little some Americans understand personal finance, presenting an opportunity to start changing the way the young learn about money.

Some schools have their own credit unions run by students. A student actually said that he learned to save his money from his experiences the credit union. This is a basic life skill and if its taught from a early age it could benefit the students' lives dramatically when they grow up and start earning their own income. 

So, even though the recession has made it evident just how much American citizens don't understand about their personal finances, but it's also made school budgets extremely tight. 

Funding the programs may be unrealistic at a time when school budgets are so tight, Wheat says. But she says the more young people can learn about money in school, the better their chances of avoiding the financial pitfalls so many adults are facing today.

What do you think? Should schools put these school credit unions high up on their "To do" lists, especially since we are in the biggest recession since the Great Depression? 

Entertaining Education

I've been catching up on reading blogs in my Google Reader and a few blogs have caught my eye; especially, after checking out Google Earth.

One of the features of Google Earth was that you could create your own virtual tour. If you don't want to do that, there are already websites out there that have done just that and would be great additions to a lesson plan.

Trans Siberian Railway, Russia

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

One that I found that was personally and particularly interesting to me was a virtual tour on the Trans Siberian Railway. I've been studying Russian for almost four years now and I'm going to study abroad in Russia this summer; unfortunately, I won't be traveling on this infamous railway. Nevertheless, I can still experience the train ride without leaving my apartment; even though watching it from my room is nothing compared to the real thing. This site can be used in history, geography, and literature classes when studying that part of the world. 

Another place students can explore from the classroom or at home is by the NOVA program's, Volcanoes Above the Clouds; students can watch climbers and scientists ascend Africa's Mount Kilimangaro. The website provides a lot of video, as well as teaching materials and guides for the classroom.

Besides these two websites, there's so much more out there that could make learning more fun for students, using technology. I'll definitely add on to this list and post links as I discover them. 

Other options

Today I read a the blog called Educational Technology Guy, in my newly discovered Google Reader, and found an interesting article that goes along with my previous post: "Should we force students to learn? or How can we change schools to engage students?"

In his posts he was talking about how there are so many students taking classes that don't interest them, therefore, they put their heads down, stare out the window, doodle in their notebooks; they do everything but pay attention. Many classes should be required because everyone needs, at the very least, a basic knowledge of English, math, science, history, etc. However, this blogger asks, if the students need to be left struggling in upper level classes? Schools should offer more vocational classes. Not every student wants to be an English major, mathematician, or historian. If more vocational classes were offered, it might make children actually want to go to school. Students would be learning about subjects they believed would benefit them and wouldn't feel like they were wasting their time.

My high school actually offered these types of classes. If I remember correctly, by junior year we had the choice to go join a CO-OP Program for the second half of the day. They offered cooking and restaurant management classes, car mechanics, flower arrangement, graphic design, etc. I, actually, wasn't a student that was particularly interested in the program's courses, but a lot of my peers jumped at the the chance to join.

It's Simple but it means Everthing

"This obsession our society is developing with test scores and standardization ignores the truth that it takes some kids more time to find out and act on their gifts." -- Jim Burke

Tonight, I stumbled upon a blog that really caught my eye. It's simple, but very creative. One post is called, "Our students are brilliant". Every teacher should believe this and never forget it. We all know how school was... everyone was different. Stereotypically, you had your jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, loners, etc. The diversity in students is apparent just by appearance so why would a teacher expect the same work ethic, motivation, personality, etc, from all of his/her students? This is obvious and I can't imagine any teacher does have the same expectations for every student.

The fact is that we all go through life experiencing different things and develop our personalities and ideas based on those experiences. Every student is not going to become a doctor, lawyer, CEO, etc, just like every student isn't going to be talkative, outgoing, confident, etc. Teachers need to remember that even though a student doesn't get straight A's or never participates, it doesn't mean that something is wrong with them or that they will never amount to anything. That student may be a painter, a singer, may play ten instruments, may be BLOGGING every night, but they just haven't showcased their talents yet. OR the student may not have any clue as to what they may be talented in! Teachers should inspire and encourage each and every student to want to find out.

My Technological Background...

Before coming to class, I read the syllabus online and saw that we would be required to blog this semester. I was not thrilled just because I'm a person that never really was that motivated to blog. I didn't feel I had anything too special to discuss. I'm definitely familiar with it because I had to write blogs for a course I took last year. I also combined forces with two good friends of mine just to write about ridiculous things to make people laugh, but I've strayed away from that. I'm also familiar with twitter.com. One friend, in particular (same one that I share a blog with), tweets about anything and everything that's going on in his life. It's hilarious and I love reading his tweets, but I realized it's not my thing after I set up an account prior to this class. Besides being familiar with blogging and tweeting, my technology background consists of myspace.com, facebook.com, e-mail, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, simple photo programs, music and video programs. I'm no computer genius, but I was fortunate to grow up in a generation where a computer is the norm; where using a computer is a part of everyday life. I try to stay in tune with technology as much as I can and to the extent that is significant to my present needs.

What I am looking forward to learning about is the new world this class has opened my eyes to. I never thought of using blogging and twitter.com as professional tools, or anything else for that matter, besides e-mail. That's just because I always looked at the internet so casually; it was always just a connection to friends. So, I'm pretty excited to go start exploring the internet in a more professional sense. Here I go...