Week 8 - My Aha's

Week 8 - My Aha's

It has been a really fast 8 weeks.  I have learned loads about what is available to me in the internet, as well as how to do stuff I never imagined doing.  The biggest impact was learning what's available and then realizing that only a fraction of it is actually being used in the classroom.  The second biggest impact was that I've realized how grossly unprepared I am right now to teach a class.  I truly have a long way to go!  I will continue to explore all the things we did and I will continue to create things, especially concept maps.  They are very useful and fun.  I can see a concept map wall forming in my office right now. 

I will probably still use my blog, but I think I will keep it for educational purposes for now.  In the future, I may start incorporating more personal and family posts.  

Week 7 - The Lesson

I created a Weebly webstie and a Jing video podcast all about how to serve a tennis ball.  It's called The Effective Tennis Serve and is located here:  http://theeffectivetennisserve.weebly.com/
 I'm not completely sure how to incorporate these things into a high school classsroom, but I will figure it out.

The videos posted for us to watch were slightly sad.  They were really about two different subjects.  One centered on how college curriculum doesn't really fit into real life and the other was the lack of  the use of progressive technology in schools.  I have lived the 1st video in that I have a college degree that really isn't very useful.  As far as the second video, the reality of it is that in the US, education is not as highly prized as in other countries like China.  There's a documentary called 2 Million Minutes that illustrates this point and the differences between an American high school student and a Chinese high school student.

How can we improve student learning?
1.  Allocate more money to schools
2.  Get rid of the notion that ALL kids need/will/want to go to college
3.  Focus on life skills rather than unnecessary instruction
    a. how to balance a checkbook
    b. how to negotiate in buying a car/house
    c. how to pick out insurance, what's a deductible?
    d. how to file a tax return
4.  Take the government out of the education system
5. Make college more like a trade school, as in not offer degrees that do not come with a skill or certification.  (Two of our daughters have Psychology degrees, one is a stay at home mom, the other works at REI and travels around the world, they both had extensive scholarships and paid for their own education)

Another interesting observation about college:  I have a friend who sent their daughter to Baylor.  They sold their large house with a swimming pool to fund her education.  I have another friend whose daughter drove back and forth to A&M Commerce.  They still live in the same house this daughter grew up in.  Both kids have a teaching degree.  Both now work here in Sulphur Springs for the same salary.  Do you know how much a Baylor teaching degree cost compared to an A&M Commerce teaching degree?  Does any of this even make sense?  Those girls resemble the difference between the US and China when it comes to a college degree.  One is after a job, the other is after the 'college experience' and if they end up with a job in the end then that's just extra.

Week 6 - Can you hear me now?

I was petrified by the thought of having to make a podcast!  I knew I'd get nervous, talk to fast, stumble over my words, and plus I hate the sound of my own voice on a recording, so this was one thing I did not look forward to.  Not to mention, I was a complete blank for 3 days trying to figure out what to podcast about.  So I skipped that problem of not having a subject and went on to investigating the suggested programs.  I first tried Cinch and decided that I would talk about what is needed for climbing Kilimanjaro and how to plan the trip.  But, after listening to it I trashed it because it was long and boring and I couldn't figure out how to make the talk exciting.  Then I checked out Jing.  Now that's a cool program!  I fell in love.  I found I could talk AND add pictures!  Love, love, love!  So I went through my photos and decided I wanted to explain how to make sopapillas!  I already had the photos because my daughter had to make them for a class.  Had we met Jing sooner, she could have made a podcast!  I will definitely use this in my teaching.  It's free and easy to use, almost no learning curve at all.  Just watch a couple tutorials and read some instructions and you're up and running. 

Week 5 - There's a Velcro crop?

For the purposes of this exercise I chose the site called "California's Velcro Crop Shortage."  I thought it to be funny from the start.  More about that in a minute.  First, the literacy quiz revealed that I actually knew very little.  To be specific, I knew questions 2,3, most of 7, and 13 - that's all!  Shocking because I thought I was pretty literate!  The upside is that I know bogus when I hear/see it.  As it turns out the Velcro shortage website dates back to 2001 and further checking reveals it's a parody (no kidding?), and even further checking reveals that it comes from the website of a consulting, research and publishing company.  There were links to the 'real' company found in the Velcro shortage page.  At the location of the 'real' person behind the purported velcro shortage article, there is an ample list of accurate and news worthy articles with references as well as satire such as the above.  Did anyone really think that velcro grows in fields?  In the end, even though I did poorly on the quiz, I do possess a fair amount of discernment.

I created a Delicious account for my bookmarks.  This was slightly frustrating in that I had a small panic attack when I realized that I had just made ALL my bookmarks public.  I don't really care for the world to see where I do banking and other related things, but I did find where I could delete all of them or make them private.  I do use a program called xmarks which will sync my bookmarks between my desk top and lap top.  I also use programs called Evernote and Dropbox so that certain notes or items can be shared between my two computers.

After looking over the other links provided, my final opinion is that stumble + delicious = a pretty good combination.  Who knew?

Here's my Delicious link:   http://www.delicious.com/3goodhorses

Week 4 - eportfolio week

I most related to the tenet that an assessment for learning should be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact.  The reason why, is that an assessment, in a classroom for the most part, should tell the teacher “what needs to be done next.”  As a matter of fact, that is what I used the test results for when I home schooled my daughter.  My thoughts are still the same.  When I have a classroom, I will test, and then use those results constructively so that I can gauge where each student is within my class.

The portfolio assessment may be helpful to the teacher, but it also fulfills the self-assessment tenet.  I think it will be an excellent tool for us as students to be able to not only self-assess, but to also recognize our achievements.  Another aspect a portfolio has is that of a scrapbook.  When all of our work is together in one place for a class, we will (hopefully) easily see the positive results of all our hard work and time spent.

Week 3 - Wiki week

I had two ideas right from the start about creating a wiki.  My first thought was a wiki that was all things tennis.  Then I googled to find that there are many tennis wiki’s already in existence.  I also decided that I may be the only one to ever participate in that one.  My next thought was a Camp Mitchell wiki.  We have affectionately named or place here in east Texas Camp Mitchell.  It is the central meeting place for all the family for the holidays and in between.  We have family in North Carolina, NYC, South Texas, the Dallas, 3 in Afghanistan with the military.  For the holidays we send out emails to make plans and by the time they’ve been forwarded all over, the comments are lost, details go un-noticed, and it’s just been a big mess.  I think a wiki might just fix that problem.  I’ve created the wiki but have yet to invite the family to contribute.

Prior to this assignment, I didn’t really know what a wiki was!  I’ve heard the term but had never investigated its meaning.  The advantages I see are mainly for coordinating efforts among a group.  I’m not yet aware of any disadvantages.  When properly used, I doubt it has many at all.  As far as our digital natives are concerned, those that I asked didn’t know what a wiki was either!  However, when they catch on to the concept, I see it being useful in their circles. 

I have yet to investigate all the tools.  I found a few in addition to those listed in the course materials.  There is also a small (sarcasm) learning curve that applies to the use of some of these tools.  I took one tutorial about how to create animations.  I’m bad at drawing.  I look forward to exploring what else is available.  I have another project to do for another class and found something called Weebly for creating a free website.  I’ll let you know how that turns out.

here's the link to my new wiki:   http://campmitchell.pbworks.com

Week 2 - Digital Concept Mapping (my 1st attempt!)

I found a site called Edvation.  It was founded by a group of teachers for the purpose of advancing technology in the classroom.  Here’s a link to their history, mission, and vision: 

http://www.edvation.com/mission-vision-history/

It is there goal to provide students with real world skills applicable to their environment.  They have a program called tech steps that integrates technology and teaching through exercises in core subjects.   They also have a program called pd21 that educates the teachers and provides meaningful instruction for integrating technology in the classroom that is as captivating as it is educational.    What’s even more interesting is that they provide case studies performed in real schools rather than just more theory. 

Another site I found was called Teach-nology,  and is found at:

http://www.teach-nology.com/

It’s actually an online collection of teacher resources.    Their vision is to advance teaching with technology and can be found under the ‘about us’ tab.  Their mission and history is there as well.  I was especially interested on the ‘tools’ tab where I found many technology application (links to other website) for teacher use in the classroom.  This is a website that had both printed material like worksheets as well as computer applications. 

The basis of my philosophy was to provide my student with real world applications for the things we did and learned in class.  Both these website, as well as many more, are aligned with that purpose.  Here’s where I’ll get a little lofty – when I was homeschooling my daughter and she started writing papers, she didn’t really get what I was after until I told not to tell me about the particular story, BUT SHOW ME!  Use all the words you like to use to make it come alive.  It seems grandiose, but I would really like the material that I’m required to teach by the state to really come alive in the classroom.