Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Final PLN Report
I've also found many teacher tools on my own, simply by Googling for things. When we had to come up with our own assignments that Doctor Strange might assign, I came across a lovely cache of tools, which included things like Animoto, but also had sites such as Evernote and LiveBinders.
I'll continue to add to my PLN, long after this class is over. There are so many great sites and people I can go to for idea to help my students, and I hope my network will become even more effective for me as a teacher.
C4T #4
For these final few weeks I was assigned Dean Shareski's blog Ideas and Thoughts to comment on. In the first post I commented on, Best Day, he posted a video about a little boy, Caine, who had built his own cardboard arcade in front of his dad's auto shop. He had all kinds of games that he made himself, even a cardboard crane game. You could buy passes, win tickets, and cash in your tickets for prizes. But no one ever stopped to play his arcade, until the man who made the film did. He was Caine's first customer, and he was so impressed by the kid's imagination and ingenuity, he started a flash mob, using the internet and Facebook to get people to mob the kid's arcade on a specified day, as a surprise for the kid. When it was over, Caine described it as the best day of his life. Shareski commented that there were many lessons to be learned from Caine's creativity and "we should be able to create more "best days" for the people in our lives."
I commented about how cool I thought the kid was for his imagination in making a cardboard arcade, and how amazing it was that the filmmaker's visit turned into the making of the best day of Caine's life. It's really neat that he used the internet to bring all these people together. It even made the front page of Reddit. In the past, he might not have been able to accomplish it without the use of the internet. I'd like to make someone's day the best of their life.
In the second of Shareski's posts I commented on, The Importance and Seriousness of Silly, he talked about presenting at a learning summit for more than 30 teachers. It was about "silly." (Not being silly, or about silliness--"silly".) The presentation he used was in the post. Unfortunately, I don't know what his presentation meant, as, without his comments or lecture, it was largely just slides he probably used to guide himself during his presentation, so I can only guess.
I said in my comment that I agreed that it was important to be silly sometimes, cause otherwise we might explode from being serious all the time. I also congratulated him on being a presenter at the teacher's summit, and I would have been nervous if I was in his position. I also said that I wish I could have heard his lecture, as, without context, the slides don't mean much to me.
Blog Post 13
My E-Media Fast was, altogether, not too difficult, even though I failed it once. I began my fast on Saturday, at eight in the morning. I got up, showered, made a sandwich, and immediately failed. Usually, I turn on the TV when I make and eat breakfast, because I don't like to read while I eat. I did it without thinking, and it was only after I had finished eating that I realized what I'd just done.
After that, I was very careful about making sure everything I did was well within the rules. I did make an exception, though. Our house has no land line so I use my cellphone to talk to people. Therefore I made the exception that I could use my cellphone, but only for calls, no text messages. Luckily, over the course of the day, I didn't have to call anyone and no one called me, and I received no texts, so I may as well not have made the exception at all. This was not difficult in the least, as you can tell. I hardly use my cell phone anyways. It's a simple phone, that doesn't do the internet and doesn't have games to play (Pictured right: my actual phone and all its options). Like a more modern Nokia.
I filled my day with activities so I wouldn't be tempted. I went to a book sale at the library in the morning with a friend, finished a book and started another, and went to work almost all day. I got off work at about 9 o'clock, and that's when it became difficult to resist the call of my computer.
I usually get on the computer after work, and I wanted to get on it even more to check my email because I was expecting a reply from a group-mate for Project 15. Instead I hung out with my aforementioned friend. The only problem was he was tempting me with technology. We've been watching the series Game of Thrones on his computer, and we both really wanted to watch more, but of course I couldn't. That didn't stop him from doing his best to tempt me, saying things like, "Come on, thirteen hours is long enough, don't you think?" Thankfully, I resisted, and instead we just hung out and I read a little until he left, after which I went to sleep, thus ending the fast.
It was a little difficult, and would have been worse if I had planned to do this on a day when I had nothing to do. I rely on technology a bit more than I thought, since my friend and I often just watch movies or shows or play games when we hang out. It's expensive to go out and actually do things, and cheaper to stay in and entertain yourself with what you have on hand--which is often technology.
I'm addicted to technology, I know, but not as bad as some people, like my little brother, who plays Xbox if he's not eating, sleeping, or at school. I suppose people like my brother are the kind of students I'll have--kids who feel like they can't go a day without some kind of electronic device on hand to provide some entertainment. I have an advantage, since when I was a kid computers weren't as important--I actually went outside and played with other children. But as technology has advanced, I've become more dependent. I can only hope I can turn my student's inevitable fascination to my advantage in the future.
After that, I was very careful about making sure everything I did was well within the rules. I did make an exception, though. Our house has no land line so I use my cellphone to talk to people. Therefore I made the exception that I could use my cellphone, but only for calls, no text messages. Luckily, over the course of the day, I didn't have to call anyone and no one called me, and I received no texts, so I may as well not have made the exception at all. This was not difficult in the least, as you can tell. I hardly use my cell phone anyways. It's a simple phone, that doesn't do the internet and doesn't have games to play (Pictured right: my actual phone and all its options). Like a more modern Nokia.
I filled my day with activities so I wouldn't be tempted. I went to a book sale at the library in the morning with a friend, finished a book and started another, and went to work almost all day. I got off work at about 9 o'clock, and that's when it became difficult to resist the call of my computer.
I usually get on the computer after work, and I wanted to get on it even more to check my email because I was expecting a reply from a group-mate for Project 15. Instead I hung out with my aforementioned friend. The only problem was he was tempting me with technology. We've been watching the series Game of Thrones on his computer, and we both really wanted to watch more, but of course I couldn't. That didn't stop him from doing his best to tempt me, saying things like, "Come on, thirteen hours is long enough, don't you think?" Thankfully, I resisted, and instead we just hung out and I read a little until he left, after which I went to sleep, thus ending the fast.
It was a little difficult, and would have been worse if I had planned to do this on a day when I had nothing to do. I rely on technology a bit more than I thought, since my friend and I often just watch movies or shows or play games when we hang out. It's expensive to go out and actually do things, and cheaper to stay in and entertain yourself with what you have on hand--which is often technology.
I'm addicted to technology, I know, but not as bad as some people, like my little brother, who plays Xbox if he's not eating, sleeping, or at school. I suppose people like my brother are the kind of students I'll have--kids who feel like they can't go a day without some kind of electronic device on hand to provide some entertainment. I have an advantage, since when I was a kid computers weren't as important--I actually went outside and played with other children. But as technology has advanced, I've become more dependent. I can only hope I can turn my student's inevitable fascination to my advantage in the future.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts - Special Post #12A
We've been posed several questions about creativity and curiosity in schools. The premise is the curiosity begets creativity--so to stimulate a student's curiosity will make them more curious, more willing to learn. But are schools in the United States, the place where we most want students to be curious, actually abattoirs of curiosity? It depends, of course, on a number of variables. Teachers, the school system in that area, the mindset of the people.
Nothing is ever straight up black and white, and that goes also for whether schools are destroying curiosity and creativity, not just morality. I also wouldn't say that schools are doing it on purpose, because what purpose does that serve, to inhibit a kid's willingness to learn and create? But it does happen, and I believe it is because schools have become places where kids merely memorize information and repeat it back for a grade. It's easy on the teachers, to be able to grade something by saying, "You got this question wrong because it was A not C." It's harder to put a grade on a student's creativity, though. But that's not fair to the student, who isn't being pushed to their fullest potential. But it might not wholly be on the teacher's shoulders, because they could just be trying to cram their students full of the right information so they may pass quarterly tests, so that there's no time for anything else. Not matter whose fault it is, though, something needs to be done.
One answer might be to develop a curriculum that increases the curiosity and creativity of students. But you can't just make a lesson that's specifically aimed toward stimulating such a personal experience. I don't think it's possible to make a curriculum like that. Modifying our own curriculum to actually engages students in learning, in trying out new things and seeing for themselves how the world works, would improve their curiosity and creativity quite a bit. We should change from straight up Q&A to letting them take the chalk for a while, and see how it feels to be learning on their own.
And you, as a teacher, definitely affect a student's creativity and curiosity. You have more impact than you know. Students look to others for approval, and if you approve their curiosity, it will definitely boost their willingness to ask questions. You should let a student know straight off that it's okay--or encouraged to ask questions. A student's biggest fear is that they're the only one who doesn't understand something, and that if they ask questions they'll seem like a fool (well, maybe not their biggest fear, but it certainly was one of mine in school, which led me to sitting quietly in a corner, hands firmly on the desk). So it would be wise to let your students know that if they don't understand something, no matter how simple, they shouldn't be afraid to ask.
Something else a teacher could do to increase a student's creativity--redefine failure. We know, of course, that we're supposed to take failure as a learning experience, but that's hard to believe when the idea is never reinforced. Reinforcing that idea with students could make them a little more fearless about trying new things. If they get something wrong or fail in their task, help them back up and tell them why they failed, but don't scold them for it. Scolding them will make them less likely to try harder, so that should they fail again, they can say, "Well, I wasn't giving it my all, that's why I failed."
These are the kinds of things that would inspire my own curiosity and creativity. If I had teachers who did more than stand in front of a classroom and lecture, I might actually learn something. I understand that can be hard in a college course when a class can be 100 students, but it would be nice if they would at least make the effort. I also appreciate it when teachers make the effort to relate what we're learning to everyday happenings. Like my geology teacher comparing the formation of land folds to putting your hands down on a tablecloth and pushing--not just one, but several wrinkles will form, and it's the same with land, though it certainly doesn't seem like land should be able to fold as easily as a tablecloth. These are the kinds of things that make me curious and inspire my creativity.
Nothing is ever straight up black and white, and that goes also for whether schools are destroying curiosity and creativity, not just morality. I also wouldn't say that schools are doing it on purpose, because what purpose does that serve, to inhibit a kid's willingness to learn and create? But it does happen, and I believe it is because schools have become places where kids merely memorize information and repeat it back for a grade. It's easy on the teachers, to be able to grade something by saying, "You got this question wrong because it was A not C." It's harder to put a grade on a student's creativity, though. But that's not fair to the student, who isn't being pushed to their fullest potential. But it might not wholly be on the teacher's shoulders, because they could just be trying to cram their students full of the right information so they may pass quarterly tests, so that there's no time for anything else. Not matter whose fault it is, though, something needs to be done.
One answer might be to develop a curriculum that increases the curiosity and creativity of students. But you can't just make a lesson that's specifically aimed toward stimulating such a personal experience. I don't think it's possible to make a curriculum like that. Modifying our own curriculum to actually engages students in learning, in trying out new things and seeing for themselves how the world works, would improve their curiosity and creativity quite a bit. We should change from straight up Q&A to letting them take the chalk for a while, and see how it feels to be learning on their own.
And you, as a teacher, definitely affect a student's creativity and curiosity. You have more impact than you know. Students look to others for approval, and if you approve their curiosity, it will definitely boost their willingness to ask questions. You should let a student know straight off that it's okay--or encouraged to ask questions. A student's biggest fear is that they're the only one who doesn't understand something, and that if they ask questions they'll seem like a fool (well, maybe not their biggest fear, but it certainly was one of mine in school, which led me to sitting quietly in a corner, hands firmly on the desk). So it would be wise to let your students know that if they don't understand something, no matter how simple, they shouldn't be afraid to ask.
Something else a teacher could do to increase a student's creativity--redefine failure. We know, of course, that we're supposed to take failure as a learning experience, but that's hard to believe when the idea is never reinforced. Reinforcing that idea with students could make them a little more fearless about trying new things. If they get something wrong or fail in their task, help them back up and tell them why they failed, but don't scold them for it. Scolding them will make them less likely to try harder, so that should they fail again, they can say, "Well, I wasn't giving it my all, that's why I failed."
These are the kinds of things that would inspire my own curiosity and creativity. If I had teachers who did more than stand in front of a classroom and lecture, I might actually learn something. I understand that can be hard in a college course when a class can be 100 students, but it would be nice if they would at least make the effort. I also appreciate it when teachers make the effort to relate what we're learning to everyday happenings. Like my geology teacher comparing the formation of land folds to putting your hands down on a tablecloth and pushing--not just one, but several wrinkles will form, and it's the same with land, though it certainly doesn't seem like land should be able to fold as easily as a tablecloth. These are the kinds of things that make me curious and inspire my creativity.
Blog Post 12
For this assignment, we're required to come up with something Doctor Strange might assign, in our area of specialty, and then do it. My "area of specialty" is English/Language Arts. So naturally, I wanted to do something with books.
The assignment is to go to Facebook and create an account for a fictional character. Using posts on their wall, detail from their point of view an event that happens in the story of their lives.
I chose to use one of my favorite books, The Count of Monte Cristo, and made an account for the character Edmond Dantès. On his wall he chronicles the events in the beginning of the book, when he is wrongfully arrested and sent to prison, and the events leading up to him breaking out of prison. I thought this would be a good stopping point, because after this he is no longer Edmond Dantès--he is the Count.
The assignment is to go to Facebook and create an account for a fictional character. Using posts on their wall, detail from their point of view an event that happens in the story of their lives.
I chose to use one of my favorite books, The Count of Monte Cristo, and made an account for the character Edmond Dantès. On his wall he chronicles the events in the beginning of the book, when he is wrongfully arrested and sent to prison, and the events leading up to him breaking out of prison. I thought this would be a good stopping point, because after this he is no longer Edmond Dantès--he is the Count.
C4K Summary for April
C4K #8
Laura didn't have a new post for me to comment on, so I went to the second most recent post. The title-less post from October 19, 2011 had simply a link to a flickr picture of a cat climbing a tree, and a picture of three brown and white puppies leaning on each other tiredly. I said hello, and that I'm usually a cat person, but sometimes cute dogs just get to me in all the right ways. I asked if she was a cat or dog person, or maybe a hamster person, since she'd mentioned in her last post about her family that they'd owned two hamsters before one of them died. I also said that I was disappointed there was no new post, and that she must be busy. But now that I look at the date of the posts on her blog, I doubt there will be another new post anytime soon. I said that I would keep coming back and commenting, though, and of course I will.
C4K #9
Once more, there wasn't a new post by Laura, so I went even further back and found her post My Digital Citizenship :D. She was talking about how you have to be careful of the information you put on the internet, and how you shouldn't give out personal information especially, because even if you delete it, it still exists somewhere. She only gives her information to the websites she signs up for, like Facebook.
She's right, of course. But beyond that, you even have to be careful about mentioning landmarks near you, which could help total strangers figure out where you live. I told her I was glad she knew not to give out her information, and that you also have to watch out for mean people on the internet. Not everyone is kind, thought they should be, and if she ever talked to a mean person, I told her to ignore them or only answer nicely. I told her I had been hoping she would have another post--but as I mentioned I don't think another will be forthcoming--and that I hoped there would be a new one by my next visit, even though that was the last post we had to comment on for the Blogging Challenge.
C4K #10
Our Visit to Butterfly Creek by Room 6 at Pt England School was a video slideshow of photos of the classes' trip to Butterfly Creek, where they played in a butterfly garden. The kids in the photos were all smiling or looking at the butterflies that landed on them in wonder. They all looked like they were having a good time, which I said in my comment. I said that I had been to a butterfly garden once, at the Festival of Flowers they hold around here, but none of them had landed on me. I'm scared of bugs, though, so that's probably a good thing. I asked if they learned a lot about different types of butterflies and if they had any favorites. I'd like to take my students on a trip like that--one that brings such big smiles on their faces and that look of wonder in their eyes.
Laura didn't have a new post for me to comment on, so I went to the second most recent post. The title-less post from October 19, 2011 had simply a link to a flickr picture of a cat climbing a tree, and a picture of three brown and white puppies leaning on each other tiredly. I said hello, and that I'm usually a cat person, but sometimes cute dogs just get to me in all the right ways. I asked if she was a cat or dog person, or maybe a hamster person, since she'd mentioned in her last post about her family that they'd owned two hamsters before one of them died. I also said that I was disappointed there was no new post, and that she must be busy. But now that I look at the date of the posts on her blog, I doubt there will be another new post anytime soon. I said that I would keep coming back and commenting, though, and of course I will.
C4K #9
Once more, there wasn't a new post by Laura, so I went even further back and found her post My Digital Citizenship :D. She was talking about how you have to be careful of the information you put on the internet, and how you shouldn't give out personal information especially, because even if you delete it, it still exists somewhere. She only gives her information to the websites she signs up for, like Facebook.
She's right, of course. But beyond that, you even have to be careful about mentioning landmarks near you, which could help total strangers figure out where you live. I told her I was glad she knew not to give out her information, and that you also have to watch out for mean people on the internet. Not everyone is kind, thought they should be, and if she ever talked to a mean person, I told her to ignore them or only answer nicely. I told her I had been hoping she would have another post--but as I mentioned I don't think another will be forthcoming--and that I hoped there would be a new one by my next visit, even though that was the last post we had to comment on for the Blogging Challenge.
C4K #10
Our Visit to Butterfly Creek by Room 6 at Pt England School was a video slideshow of photos of the classes' trip to Butterfly Creek, where they played in a butterfly garden. The kids in the photos were all smiling or looking at the butterflies that landed on them in wonder. They all looked like they were having a good time, which I said in my comment. I said that I had been to a butterfly garden once, at the Festival of Flowers they hold around here, but none of them had landed on me. I'm scared of bugs, though, so that's probably a good thing. I asked if they learned a lot about different types of butterflies and if they had any favorites. I'd like to take my students on a trip like that--one that brings such big smiles on their faces and that look of wonder in their eyes.
Progress Report on Final Project
Our group, The Grey Wardens, are just getting started on our project. We've been communicating mostly through email and Skype text chat, since not everyone in the group has a webcam to use. We've also used Delicious, the a bookmarking website, to share information with each other that we find on the internet about our topic.
We've also used Goggles, an app that you simply drag to your bookmarks bar. When you click it, you can write on the page, and anyone else who has the Goggles app will be able to click it and see the writing other people have left for them. So we've used Goggles to point out interesting stuff on the websites we share with each other.
We've also used Goggles, an app that you simply drag to your bookmarks bar. When you click it, you can write on the page, and anyone else who has the Goggles app will be able to click it and see the writing other people have left for them. So we've used Goggles to point out interesting stuff on the websites we share with each other.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Blog Post 11
Skype Interview with Kathy Cassidy by Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange's skype interview with Canadian first grade teacher Kathy Cassidy focuses on how she used technology with her students, and it was interesting. Doctor Strange and a few of his students asked her about how she got started using technology in the classroom, how to protect students, and the advantages of using it, among other questions. Ms. Cassidy uses it quite a lot with her students, as she demonstrates in her video Little Kids...Big Potential. They use everything from computers to Nintendo DS, which you don't see often, if ever.
First, I think it's cool that she started teaching her kids about technology of her own initiative. When five computers were put into her classroom, instead of letting them sit in a corner, unused except to let kids play games, she found a way to incorporate them into the children's education. In most of the classes I've had, from elementary to high school, the computers in any of my classes had always gone unused or been a treat to play on if you had completed an assignment early. If you have a resource, technology or not, you should ask yourself how it can be used to help your students.
In the interview, Ms. Cassidy described one of the advantages of students having a blog; it gives them an audience. I can see how this would be good, since it might drive the students to improve, to do better, for their audience to see their progress. If I did this with high school students, I can see them just copying each other's work, so they don't have to do it themselves. I wouldn't want to have to make personalized assignments, so maybe I could pick a single student once or twice a week to do a blog assignment.
Something Ms. Cassidy pointed out in the interview really made me pause. "Word processors and spreadsheets are no longer technology, that's technology 20 years ago." (I'm paraphrasing, I think.) That really is twenty years ago! And look at how much technology has advanced in such a short time. Just think about what was considered technology hundreds of years ago. Once, gunpowder was considered technology. Plows (the cattle driven kind) were considered technology at some time. So years ago, when classrooms started getting computers, people were thinking, "We'll never use this, what can we do with a word processor? Kids have pens, paper, typewriters. We don't need this." We use word processors a lot now. And while it's not obsolete, there is a whole lot more we could be using than just a computer's basic function.
Here's a question posed by Doctor Strange: where should people start with technology? Ms. Cassidy's answer: go with what you're interested in. It could be video, photography, writing, anything. That would be a good way to get students who aren't interested to give technology a second chance--giving them open assignments that let them explore technology on their own grounds. Of course, it would have to be educational in nature, and their assignments would need to reflect them learning something, but it would hopefully get them interested.
Finally, a topic addressed twice in the interview--protecting your students from others and keeping students from finding questionable content on the internet. Ms. Cassidy taught her students to never use their last names on the internet, never post photos of themselves, and when she posts photos of her students she never puts names to faces. Her answer to keeping students from finding things they shouldn't was to have her blog as a hub with links to everything they needed to get to on it, and instructions to never click on the shiny banners on pages.
But high school students are a lot less easily led around--soon as they get on a computer, I imagine they'll be a lot less interested in the assignment and more interested in doing what they want to do (I'm the same way, after all). Schools around here have a censor that block certain websites, but I think that's more a hindrance to education than anything. In the end, unless you're standing over their shoulder monitoring them the entire time, there's no guarantee they won't wander into something they shouldn't. The best answer, I think, is to have a little faith in them and a clear deadline for their assignment. So they know if they goof off, they may not have time to turn it in on time.
Doctor Strange's skype interview with Canadian first grade teacher Kathy Cassidy focuses on how she used technology with her students, and it was interesting. Doctor Strange and a few of his students asked her about how she got started using technology in the classroom, how to protect students, and the advantages of using it, among other questions. Ms. Cassidy uses it quite a lot with her students, as she demonstrates in her video Little Kids...Big Potential. They use everything from computers to Nintendo DS, which you don't see often, if ever.
First, I think it's cool that she started teaching her kids about technology of her own initiative. When five computers were put into her classroom, instead of letting them sit in a corner, unused except to let kids play games, she found a way to incorporate them into the children's education. In most of the classes I've had, from elementary to high school, the computers in any of my classes had always gone unused or been a treat to play on if you had completed an assignment early. If you have a resource, technology or not, you should ask yourself how it can be used to help your students.
In the interview, Ms. Cassidy described one of the advantages of students having a blog; it gives them an audience. I can see how this would be good, since it might drive the students to improve, to do better, for their audience to see their progress. If I did this with high school students, I can see them just copying each other's work, so they don't have to do it themselves. I wouldn't want to have to make personalized assignments, so maybe I could pick a single student once or twice a week to do a blog assignment.
Something Ms. Cassidy pointed out in the interview really made me pause. "Word processors and spreadsheets are no longer technology, that's technology 20 years ago." (I'm paraphrasing, I think.) That really is twenty years ago! And look at how much technology has advanced in such a short time. Just think about what was considered technology hundreds of years ago. Once, gunpowder was considered technology. Plows (the cattle driven kind) were considered technology at some time. So years ago, when classrooms started getting computers, people were thinking, "We'll never use this, what can we do with a word processor? Kids have pens, paper, typewriters. We don't need this." We use word processors a lot now. And while it's not obsolete, there is a whole lot more we could be using than just a computer's basic function.
Here's a question posed by Doctor Strange: where should people start with technology? Ms. Cassidy's answer: go with what you're interested in. It could be video, photography, writing, anything. That would be a good way to get students who aren't interested to give technology a second chance--giving them open assignments that let them explore technology on their own grounds. Of course, it would have to be educational in nature, and their assignments would need to reflect them learning something, but it would hopefully get them interested.
Finally, a topic addressed twice in the interview--protecting your students from others and keeping students from finding questionable content on the internet. Ms. Cassidy taught her students to never use their last names on the internet, never post photos of themselves, and when she posts photos of her students she never puts names to faces. Her answer to keeping students from finding things they shouldn't was to have her blog as a hub with links to everything they needed to get to on it, and instructions to never click on the shiny banners on pages.
But high school students are a lot less easily led around--soon as they get on a computer, I imagine they'll be a lot less interested in the assignment and more interested in doing what they want to do (I'm the same way, after all). Schools around here have a censor that block certain websites, but I think that's more a hindrance to education than anything. In the end, unless you're standing over their shoulder monitoring them the entire time, there's no guarantee they won't wander into something they shouldn't. The best answer, I think, is to have a little faith in them and a clear deadline for their assignment. So they know if they goof off, they may not have time to turn it in on time.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Blog Post 10
Do You Teach or Do You Educate?
This video is about the difference between merely teaching, and educating. And just to be sure the creator, "pierre722," had all his facts straight, I looked up the definition of each in The Oxford Encyclopedic Dictionary--yes, they really do mean two different things. As the video states, teaching is giving students facts, showing them how to do stuff, informing them about things, making them understand something, etc. Basically, it's what most people think teaching is. Educating (which is how I've always thought about teaching, even if most of my past teachers have not lived up to the meaning in my eyes) is about inspiring and empowering students with their knowledge. A mentor who guides and opens knew doors for you. That's how I've always seen teachers, perhaps in no small part because of the movie Dead Poets Society.
Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home
This video is about the difference between merely teaching, and educating. And just to be sure the creator, "pierre722," had all his facts straight, I looked up the definition of each in The Oxford Encyclopedic Dictionary--yes, they really do mean two different things. As the video states, teaching is giving students facts, showing them how to do stuff, informing them about things, making them understand something, etc. Basically, it's what most people think teaching is. Educating (which is how I've always thought about teaching, even if most of my past teachers have not lived up to the meaning in my eyes) is about inspiring and empowering students with their knowledge. A mentor who guides and opens knew doors for you. That's how I've always seen teachers, perhaps in no small part because of the movie Dead Poets Society.
John Keating, of the movie, is the kind of teacher I would like to be--hopefully without the tragedy involved. I don't want to just talk to my students about writers, and read stories, and test them on the contents of those stories, and make them write essays about those stories. I want to inspire in my students a love for literature. I want to show them how writers of the past have affected society, that the written word is important. I want them to understand that their opinions are important, too. And I want to open that door to them, to let them know there is always a possibility that they can change the world, and that writing can be a vehicle for that change. Actually, scratch all that "want" crap. Those are all the things I will do. I will be that kind of teacher, I will.
I had no idea what to expect when I read the title of this post by Tom Johnson. I was even more confused when I started reading, because he and someone else were politely arguing over whether allowing students to take pencils home was a good thing or not. Of course, I finally understood that it was a metaphor for personal computers, especially after looking around his blog and realizing that every post is like that. His characters are teachers in the 1800s, who are slowly integrating pencils (computers) into their school.
In this post, the main character, Tom, is confronted by another, Gertrude, about allowing students to take home their pencils, because a study has shown that students who take home their pencils have lower test grades. This post is based on another post by Larry Ferlazzo, who talked about the real life version of that study, which "proved" that students from low income families who have personal computers are likelier to have lower grades. This is due to parents in low income families not having much contact with computers in any environment other than one meant for entertainment, so they view computers as entertainment, passing that mentality on to their children. Tom makes the argument to Gertrude that instead of not allowing students to take their pencils home, they change the way people think about computers--I mean, pencils. He even has a plan already worked out and in action to do that, but Gertrude refuses to see his side.
I enjoyed the way he presents his arguments--not just the one in this post, but in other posts, too--as a metaphor enacted by 19th century teachers. It's exactly the kind of mentality I've always had about computers. To me, they're entertainment. But I wouldn't really restrict this mentality to low-income families--whatever my family's income, my mom used computers a lot as a teacher, and yet I still have this mentality. I don't think it really has to do with income, but with the mentality of our society. Computers are marketed as entertainment, and are hardly ever used as educational tools outside of an actual classroom. But it's a whole lot harder to change the mentality of a society as opposed to the mentality of a few parents. So what can we do about it? Educate the parents, then, one at a time, if that's what it takes.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
C4T #3
Post 1
Miguel Guhlin wrote in his blog post, The Lure of Glamornormous Projects - 5 Tips, about enormous projects schools undertake that are glamorous, usually involving expensive technology, and disregards the price-tag and common sense. Such as replacing textbooks with ipads. To help discriminate between "Glamornormous" projects and projects that aren't, he created a guideline of five questions to be answered about the projects to determine which category it falls under. He also had five tips handy, to help overcome the sensation for these "Glamornormous" projects (adapted from five tips for dealing with "buck fever" funnily enough).
Reading Guhlin's post reminded me greatly of a video we've had to watch for a previous blog post--The iSchool Initiative. I made sure to mention this in my comments. In case you forgot, The iSchool Initiative was a video arguing in favor of using an iTouch as a basis for education, replacing textbooks, calculators, paper, pencil, and what have you. I asked if he thought it was Glamornormous, because I thought it fit the bill. Though it's argued in the video that it will save money on buying textbooks, those costs will be immediately replaced by maintenance/repair costs and replacements costs for broken, lost, and stolen ones.
Post 2
The next post, Desktop Virtualization - One CTO's Response, was actually a letter from Don Hindsley (a technology director at a Texas school) in response to the question, "We're ready to try our hand at desktop virtualization and would appreciate your advice on how to achieve the greatest results with minimum expense. VMWare?" He explained about the Virtual Desktop system his own school system installed in 2006. It worked well for a few years, and the total cost was $136,406.14. When the user-limit was reached and started slowing the system down, they decided to add another system in 2011. The total cost of that ended up being $255,872.24. The two systems work well, but they like VMware the best. He ends his letter with some advice on not to skimp when buying hardware.
I'd never heard of Desktop Virtualization before I read this, but it's basically a virtual desktop that you can access from any computer, and pick up from right where you left off. I didn't understand a lot of the technical stuff he mention (and I skipped over in my summary of his letter), but I thought it was interesting to read his account of the advance in technology over the years they had this system. I asked Mr. Guhlin if he thought that the advantages of the Desktop Virtualization made up for the expenses of buying and upgrading them, since I have no idea if those numbers up there are considered exorbitant or not, or how much schools are allotted to spend on certain things.
Miguel Guhlin wrote in his blog post, The Lure of Glamornormous Projects - 5 Tips, about enormous projects schools undertake that are glamorous, usually involving expensive technology, and disregards the price-tag and common sense. Such as replacing textbooks with ipads. To help discriminate between "Glamornormous" projects and projects that aren't, he created a guideline of five questions to be answered about the projects to determine which category it falls under. He also had five tips handy, to help overcome the sensation for these "Glamornormous" projects (adapted from five tips for dealing with "buck fever" funnily enough).
Reading Guhlin's post reminded me greatly of a video we've had to watch for a previous blog post--The iSchool Initiative. I made sure to mention this in my comments. In case you forgot, The iSchool Initiative was a video arguing in favor of using an iTouch as a basis for education, replacing textbooks, calculators, paper, pencil, and what have you. I asked if he thought it was Glamornormous, because I thought it fit the bill. Though it's argued in the video that it will save money on buying textbooks, those costs will be immediately replaced by maintenance/repair costs and replacements costs for broken, lost, and stolen ones.
Post 2
The next post, Desktop Virtualization - One CTO's Response, was actually a letter from Don Hindsley (a technology director at a Texas school) in response to the question, "We're ready to try our hand at desktop virtualization and would appreciate your advice on how to achieve the greatest results with minimum expense. VMWare?" He explained about the Virtual Desktop system his own school system installed in 2006. It worked well for a few years, and the total cost was $136,406.14. When the user-limit was reached and started slowing the system down, they decided to add another system in 2011. The total cost of that ended up being $255,872.24. The two systems work well, but they like VMware the best. He ends his letter with some advice on not to skimp when buying hardware.
I'd never heard of Desktop Virtualization before I read this, but it's basically a virtual desktop that you can access from any computer, and pick up from right where you left off. I didn't understand a lot of the technical stuff he mention (and I skipped over in my summary of his letter), but I thought it was interesting to read his account of the advance in technology over the years they had this system. I asked Mr. Guhlin if he thought that the advantages of the Desktop Virtualization made up for the expenses of buying and upgrading them, since I have no idea if those numbers up there are considered exorbitant or not, or how much schools are allotted to spend on certain things.
C4K Summary for March
C4K #5
Neglected to do on time.
C4K #6
In his post "Horse Riding by Georgie", Georgie talked about going horse riding. He said he used to, but he had to stop when his swimming lessons were scheduled on the same day as the horse riding. It was too tiring to go swimming, then get ready for horse riding, so he decided to wait until swimming lessons were over. But he hasn't had much time, and he was worried that by the time he could go again, he would have to start over on an earlier stage.
I said I was sorry he had to stop going horse riding, but at least it was replaced by something else he enjoyed. The only horses I've ridden on have been lead around by other people, and I can only dog paddle in the water. I hope he doesn't have to start over again when he goes back to horse riding. He just has to try and remember what he knew. I wished him luck, and hope that he gets to go horse riding again.
C4K #7
In Laura's blog post "My Family <3" she talked about (what else?) her family. She has six members in her family, and that's not including the pets! Her mother, father, three older sisters, and herself! She also has seven pets (one recently died, her hamster "Cheeky"): one hamster, four dogs, and two cats. Her dad fixes computers, a career borne from his childhood hobby of taking things apart and putting them back together, while her mother is the director of a nursing home. Her sisters sometimes help out around corner stores, and Laura herself said she might be getting a job as a babysitter soon.
I was surprised at how big her family was, and asked if she ever got tired of having so many people around. I get irritated with my family a lot, and I only live with two of them. I thought it was cool that her parents were passionate about their work, and since I'd read in the assignment that she was interested in reading, I asked about that. I told her I love to read, and want to be a librarian eventually. I wished her luck with her babysitting job, and mentioned how un-fun my own job at a clothing store is.
Neglected to do on time.
C4K #6
I said I was sorry he had to stop going horse riding, but at least it was replaced by something else he enjoyed. The only horses I've ridden on have been lead around by other people, and I can only dog paddle in the water. I hope he doesn't have to start over again when he goes back to horse riding. He just has to try and remember what he knew. I wished him luck, and hope that he gets to go horse riding again.
C4K #7
In Laura's blog post "My Family <3" she talked about (what else?) her family. She has six members in her family, and that's not including the pets! Her mother, father, three older sisters, and herself! She also has seven pets (one recently died, her hamster "Cheeky"): one hamster, four dogs, and two cats. Her dad fixes computers, a career borne from his childhood hobby of taking things apart and putting them back together, while her mother is the director of a nursing home. Her sisters sometimes help out around corner stores, and Laura herself said she might be getting a job as a babysitter soon.
I was surprised at how big her family was, and asked if she ever got tired of having so many people around. I get irritated with my family a lot, and I only live with two of them. I thought it was cool that her parents were passionate about their work, and since I'd read in the assignment that she was interested in reading, I asked about that. I told her I love to read, and want to be a librarian eventually. I wished her luck with her babysitting job, and mentioned how un-fun my own job at a clothing store is.
Blog Post 9
What I've Learned This Year (2008-2009) by Joe McClung
Even as a teacher, your learning experience will probably never end. At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, 6th grade teacher Joe McClung decided to document some of the lessons he learned from his first year of teaching in his blog. How to read a crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology, listen to your students, and never stop learning. These are valuable lessons to learn, and I'm lucky to be able to read the lesson plan beforehand without life needing to teach these to me the hard way. I found these to be the most valuable for me.
1. "How to read a crowd." Don't let the lessons be all about you, the teacher, and your delivery of the lessons. You can't focus on how your superiors are judging you, you need to focus on whether the students are understanding the content. I worry about what others think way too much. While it's good to be self-aware, you shouldn't let it affect your teaching unless it's how the students are reacting to your teaching style. Be receptive to their feedback.
2. "Communicate." As it says on the tin, communicate with others. I'm a pretty shy individual, and get nervous when talking to people I don't know, even if I hide it. But according to Mr. McClung, it's the best cure for workplace drama and builds a good relationship with your colleagues and students, and that's more important than silly insecurities. Communication isn't just about talking--it's listening, too, and listening to your students and taking an interest in their lives can gain you their respect (another lesson McClung learned). So, I'll need to step it up in the communication department from here on out.
3. "Be reasonable." Have reasonable expectations of your students--you're doing them a disservice by expecting perfection the first time, because it's setting them up for failure and disappointment when you get onto them about it. You're the teacher, you're supposed to be helping them learn. I get pretty impatient when people don't understand something the first time I explain (example: trying to teach my younger brother anything), so, while I don't need to lower my expectations of them, I don't need to take it out on them if they don't make it. I just need to keep encouraging them and show them the way.
4. "Never stop learning." You can choose to; you can decide that what you're doing is fine, and to just keep on going the way you're going with no regards to whether there's a better, more fun, more effective way out there. But don't stop, because it's better for yourself and, more importantly, for your students, if you're willing to change the way you work. I'm learning even when I don't want to, because I know someday this information won't just be useless junk on my hard-drive--it will be something I'll come back to again and again; unless I learn of something better.
What I Learned This Year (2010-2011) by Joe McClung
Even three years on, Joe McClung is still able to make a blog post about the lessons he's learned throughout the 2010-2011 school year--this time as an 8th grade teacher. The lessons he learned this school year are: know who your boss is, don't expect others to be as excited about change as you are, don't be afraid to be an outsider, don't touch the keyboard, and don't get comfortable. Of course, I found some more valuable then others, so here we go.
1. "Don't be afraid to be an outsider." It's okay to stay true to yourself, especially if that means you'd rather focus on your students than seek approval from your colleagues. I have always been okay with being an outsider--communication, as I said, is not my forte, so I'm used to it. If I end up being an outsider among my fellow teachers for focusing on students? Well, as I said, I'm used to it. But this is definitely an important lesson, because many people are not used to disapproval, especially from those they consider colleagues or acquaintances.
2. "Don't touch the keyboard." This lesson Joe McClung learned from another teacher who he regularly went to for advice. If you're teaching something, don't take the keyboard into your own hands to show them how it's done. No matter how much they struggle, you should resist the urge to help them by doing it for them. If you do it for them, they won't fully understand the skills you're trying to teach. My brother and I do this to each other all the time. If one of us is playing a video game and the other asks to show them how to do something, whoever is teaching will often get frustrated with the player bumbling around under their directions and simply say, "Let me do it, it'll be faster." Of course, then we'll fight over it, because we both know if we don't do it ourselves, we won't really understand how to do it.
3. "Don't get comfortable." This, I think, goes hand-in-hand with "never stop learning." Don't let yourself get too used to the routines of each day. Shake it up a bit--volunteer for things you might not have considered being a part of before, challenge yourself with new tasks. I know every day, when I go to work, I dread the same, boring routine I follow every day. There's nothing challenging about it--I unpack boxes and pick up clothes all day around the store. I actually got excited about cleaning the back room, one day, because it was something different. So if you can, do something different, don't let the ease of established routines cause you to stagnate.
Even as a teacher, your learning experience will probably never end. At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, 6th grade teacher Joe McClung decided to document some of the lessons he learned from his first year of teaching in his blog. How to read a crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology, listen to your students, and never stop learning. These are valuable lessons to learn, and I'm lucky to be able to read the lesson plan beforehand without life needing to teach these to me the hard way. I found these to be the most valuable for me.
1. "How to read a crowd." Don't let the lessons be all about you, the teacher, and your delivery of the lessons. You can't focus on how your superiors are judging you, you need to focus on whether the students are understanding the content. I worry about what others think way too much. While it's good to be self-aware, you shouldn't let it affect your teaching unless it's how the students are reacting to your teaching style. Be receptive to their feedback.
2. "Communicate." As it says on the tin, communicate with others. I'm a pretty shy individual, and get nervous when talking to people I don't know, even if I hide it. But according to Mr. McClung, it's the best cure for workplace drama and builds a good relationship with your colleagues and students, and that's more important than silly insecurities. Communication isn't just about talking--it's listening, too, and listening to your students and taking an interest in their lives can gain you their respect (another lesson McClung learned). So, I'll need to step it up in the communication department from here on out.
4. "Never stop learning." You can choose to; you can decide that what you're doing is fine, and to just keep on going the way you're going with no regards to whether there's a better, more fun, more effective way out there. But don't stop, because it's better for yourself and, more importantly, for your students, if you're willing to change the way you work. I'm learning even when I don't want to, because I know someday this information won't just be useless junk on my hard-drive--it will be something I'll come back to again and again; unless I learn of something better.
What I Learned This Year (2010-2011) by Joe McClung
Even three years on, Joe McClung is still able to make a blog post about the lessons he's learned throughout the 2010-2011 school year--this time as an 8th grade teacher. The lessons he learned this school year are: know who your boss is, don't expect others to be as excited about change as you are, don't be afraid to be an outsider, don't touch the keyboard, and don't get comfortable. Of course, I found some more valuable then others, so here we go.
2. "Don't touch the keyboard." This lesson Joe McClung learned from another teacher who he regularly went to for advice. If you're teaching something, don't take the keyboard into your own hands to show them how it's done. No matter how much they struggle, you should resist the urge to help them by doing it for them. If you do it for them, they won't fully understand the skills you're trying to teach. My brother and I do this to each other all the time. If one of us is playing a video game and the other asks to show them how to do something, whoever is teaching will often get frustrated with the player bumbling around under their directions and simply say, "Let me do it, it'll be faster." Of course, then we'll fight over it, because we both know if we don't do it ourselves, we won't really understand how to do it.
3. "Don't get comfortable." This, I think, goes hand-in-hand with "never stop learning." Don't let yourself get too used to the routines of each day. Shake it up a bit--volunteer for things you might not have considered being a part of before, challenge yourself with new tasks. I know every day, when I go to work, I dread the same, boring routine I follow every day. There's nothing challenging about it--I unpack boxes and pick up clothes all day around the store. I actually got excited about cleaning the back room, one day, because it was something different. So if you can, do something different, don't let the ease of established routines cause you to stagnate.
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