Friday's class was amazing. Not only did we listen to four former MACers, but they were all so technologically advanced. Even Andrea (who was not the head tech person at her school) was using online resources like MOODLE on a regular basis. At first I was scared, I have always been able to find my way around technology, but I had never heard of the resources they were discussing. I became very afraid that I would not be able to handle educational technology in the classroom.
Then after the discussion I went up and talked to Microsoft Mouse Mischief guy, and he alleviated a lot of worries. He explained his view on technology in the class - technological literacy is just as important as our traditional content literacy. He said in my spare time look up new resources and ask around then spend about 10-15 minutes in a class teaching the students how to CORRECTLY use the media the way that we want - build on their prior knowledge to develop correct procedural knowledge. The emphasis on technology is part of what it means to be a professional.
On the whole, this class has been far more valuable then I would have thought. I was skeptical about this class when I came into: what technology do they have to teach that I don't already know how to use, can technology be taught without being a distraction? While I still have some reservations, I think for me the answer is definitely yes.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
The readings for this week highlight one important fact 21st century teachers need to know: the 21st century student is unlike any other. He or she has a world of literacy that most of us are still trying to develop, but they have grown up immersed in social media that technology is nothing new to them. Furthermore, this immersion in social media has created new, more flexible boundaries concerning privacy. The articles talk about this being a tough situation for educators and adults to handle, but I think this makes teaching easier. Students are willingly looking up information on their own and effectively educating themselves. This isn't a problem! This is what we can hope for as educators. Now the trick becomes finding a way point students in the direction of an effective education, but I think we also need to be careful. If students willingly enter an educative atmosphere on their own, it would be criminal to deter them from this path (like it was for me to climb aboard the Pequod).
However, the other article speaks to the problems that can arise from allowing students so much leniency: they become mindless typers who read without purpose. But, I think he gives 21st century students too little credit. That is not to say students don't waste time on the internet or are occasionally disengaged when doing research, but students are going to type something into google, bing, or facebook unless they are at least curious about a topic. Therefore, as educators we need to learn from students' search histories what their interests are and develop techniques to harness this interest in a focused manner.
The ship is approaching the end of its voyage. I have dealt with Fedallah, the Doubloon, and have seen the white whale (only at a glance). Normally these things strike fear in the heart of a sailor, but this sailor welcomes the challenge because when used effectively what is Fedallah but another crewman? What more is the doubloon than currency? And, is the white whale anything more than beauteous animal?
However, the other article speaks to the problems that can arise from allowing students so much leniency: they become mindless typers who read without purpose. But, I think he gives 21st century students too little credit. That is not to say students don't waste time on the internet or are occasionally disengaged when doing research, but students are going to type something into google, bing, or facebook unless they are at least curious about a topic. Therefore, as educators we need to learn from students' search histories what their interests are and develop techniques to harness this interest in a focused manner.
The ship is approaching the end of its voyage. I have dealt with Fedallah, the Doubloon, and have seen the white whale (only at a glance). Normally these things strike fear in the heart of a sailor, but this sailor welcomes the challenge because when used effectively what is Fedallah but another crewman? What more is the doubloon than currency? And, is the white whale anything more than beauteous animal?
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Heads or Tails
Today's class was very interesting. For one, it was my first experience with podcasting. At first, I didn't really see its application in the classroom. All I saw was a distraction. Kids would be more interested in creating effects with their voices, intros, and exits. However, as I went through the process, I began to see the positive effects it could have in a classroom. One, students writing scripts can practice their writing skills. More importantly, writing skills that are focused on speech. This type of writing has two effects: it develops student's public speaking methods and improves students' writing voice because they are writing for speech. Also, regardless of discipline, students are working on their public speaking skills. Chances are students are going to have to present something to their employers in the virtue, and, if they can become comfortable with public speaking at a younger age, they have a greater chance for success.Really, podcasting may be a cost effective way to successfully incorporate technology into the classroom.
The second portion of class today was spent talking about classroom construction. When I say classroom construction, I mean how we construct the learning in our classrooms. We began by decoding various symbols into English to tell a story about two men on an airplane. Then we went on to discuss how video games are constructed and how that works in the classroom (I expound this idea extensively in my previous blog). Our professors a very simple, important question: "how will we incorporate these ideas about literacy and lesson construction into our classrooms?" I only have a couple of ideas, so what better place to test them then this blog? First, I was thinking about possibly having a vast amount of quizzes and essays prompts for numbers and numbers of books so that students could read almost whatever they wanted - tailoring the class to individual students (however, this seems almost impossible for teaching a class). I also thought about trying to start lunch groups where students read the same book, magazine, short story, what have you and discuss it at lunch. By allowing students to read whatever they want and discuss it in a "non-academic" atmosphere could maybe foster an enviroment similar to playing video games together?
So here I sit upon the Mast-Head contemplating the future of my classroom when I make that transition from bystander to educator. Each and every day it becomes clearer and clearer that not every teacher is successful. Ahab was unable to pilot the Pequod to safety, yet Ishmael's tale remains unfinished. What will be his fate?
The second portion of class today was spent talking about classroom construction. When I say classroom construction, I mean how we construct the learning in our classrooms. We began by decoding various symbols into English to tell a story about two men on an airplane. Then we went on to discuss how video games are constructed and how that works in the classroom (I expound this idea extensively in my previous blog). Our professors a very simple, important question: "how will we incorporate these ideas about literacy and lesson construction into our classrooms?" I only have a couple of ideas, so what better place to test them then this blog? First, I was thinking about possibly having a vast amount of quizzes and essays prompts for numbers and numbers of books so that students could read almost whatever they wanted - tailoring the class to individual students (however, this seems almost impossible for teaching a class). I also thought about trying to start lunch groups where students read the same book, magazine, short story, what have you and discuss it at lunch. By allowing students to read whatever they want and discuss it in a "non-academic" atmosphere could maybe foster an enviroment similar to playing video games together?
So here I sit upon the Mast-Head contemplating the future of my classroom when I make that transition from bystander to educator. Each and every day it becomes clearer and clearer that not every teacher is successful. Ahab was unable to pilot the Pequod to safety, yet Ishmael's tale remains unfinished. What will be his fate?
Thursday, July 21, 2011
The Doubloon
Unlike most of the technology we have dealt with in this class for the past couple of weeks (wikis, twitter, hootsuite, blogs, etc.), I have a familiarity with video games. I have played many sports games as well as games like Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and others. However, I have never played World of Warcraft or other games mentioned in these articles. Therefore, I'm not sure my comments on Video Games are relevant because the gaming industry has greatly changed in the last 22 years. When I was a kid, duck hunt was the game. The graphics were terrible, the ducks predictable, and the gun was orange and grey. Now, some of these first person shooters are so realistic when I see a bullet coming to the screen I duck for cover!
Maybe even more important than this change over time in games is the reaction of different players to games. For me, GoldenEye for Nintendo 64 was the greatest game ever, but some players disagree. I believed it was the greatest game ever because of the problem solving, style of shooting, and access to Oddjob in multiple player mode. Other people from my generation argue for other guys because of their enhanced graphics, player accessibility, or story plot. What I think we begin to see here is the different personalities of people of different interests. Like literature, different people connect with different games. This seems redundant, but, if we look at the popularity of video games compared to the popularity of school, there is a great divide between which is more popular (I'll let you guess). Why is this? I speculate this is because video game designers research their consumers, have their consumers test their games, and adequately serve their intended audience. Education doesn't.
That is a strong claim to make about education, but when we look at the numbers is hard to deny? An estimate 22% of students from public schools need remedial courses when they arrive on college campuses, and another 13% of students need remedial courses (http://www3.northern.edu/rc/pages/Reading_Clinic/highschool_graduation.pdf). If students are able to do the remedial work and succeed in college than clearly we are not talking about student's cognitive abilities. Instead, as teachers we need to place the focus on ourselves: how do we interest students in their education like video games interest them in a virtual world? For one, I think we need to develop lessons aimed at individual lessons. No class should be wasted as a whole, and no single student should feel the time in their classroom is wasted. Obviously this puts enormous pressure on teachers to satisfy the needs of 25 or more students in a given class, but, as workers for the public good, should that really concern us?
Like a Spanish Doubloon, education should mean something different to everyone else. For some, it may the bridge to better economic status. For others, it may be the acquisition of skills to perform their life's dream. Whatever the reason, students come to school, and, if as teachers we can provide exiciting, individualized lessons, our students may see an exponential growth paralleled to the problem solving growth offered by video games. Hey, maybe the Pequod won't sink. Maybe we could catch the white whale?
Maybe even more important than this change over time in games is the reaction of different players to games. For me, GoldenEye for Nintendo 64 was the greatest game ever, but some players disagree. I believed it was the greatest game ever because of the problem solving, style of shooting, and access to Oddjob in multiple player mode. Other people from my generation argue for other guys because of their enhanced graphics, player accessibility, or story plot. What I think we begin to see here is the different personalities of people of different interests. Like literature, different people connect with different games. This seems redundant, but, if we look at the popularity of video games compared to the popularity of school, there is a great divide between which is more popular (I'll let you guess). Why is this? I speculate this is because video game designers research their consumers, have their consumers test their games, and adequately serve their intended audience. Education doesn't.
That is a strong claim to make about education, but when we look at the numbers is hard to deny? An estimate 22% of students from public schools need remedial courses when they arrive on college campuses, and another 13% of students need remedial courses (http://www3.northern.edu/rc/pages/Reading_Clinic/highschool_graduation.pdf). If students are able to do the remedial work and succeed in college than clearly we are not talking about student's cognitive abilities. Instead, as teachers we need to place the focus on ourselves: how do we interest students in their education like video games interest them in a virtual world? For one, I think we need to develop lessons aimed at individual lessons. No class should be wasted as a whole, and no single student should feel the time in their classroom is wasted. Obviously this puts enormous pressure on teachers to satisfy the needs of 25 or more students in a given class, but, as workers for the public good, should that really concern us?
Like a Spanish Doubloon, education should mean something different to everyone else. For some, it may the bridge to better economic status. For others, it may be the acquisition of skills to perform their life's dream. Whatever the reason, students come to school, and, if as teachers we can provide exiciting, individualized lessons, our students may see an exponential growth paralleled to the problem solving growth offered by video games. Hey, maybe the Pequod won't sink. Maybe we could catch the white whale?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Monkey Rope
Monday's class was a wonderful session because it was an insight into what librarians can offer teachers. For one, it seems that quite a few of them have teaching experience and knowledge of vast amount of resources that are high school appropriate. Having been in college the last four years, the search engines that I have used have been upgraded to more "college-level" articles, so I couldn't remember how to search for articles more suitable for high school students. Monday's class was the weekly reminder that secondary education is not about what I know; it's what the students know.
Monday's class was also an experiment in collaborative planning for teachers. Queequeg and I worked together in order to construct a lesson plan around the tsunami that hit Japan this past March. In the beginning we were both unsure about what we wanted to do and how to do it. However, as the session progressed we ran the gamut on Bloom's Taxonomy - that's right we went meta-cognitive. We designed a lesson plan that would span a couple of classes where students would read both news articles and personal memoirs (memoirs of those in Japan during the tsunami) of the tsunami. From there, the students would identify the characteristics of both expository and narrative styles in order to better understand these forms of writings as well as learning about the tragedy. Then, we would ask the students to construct an essay comparing the different styles of writing - concluding their analytical essay with how these different mediums affected them and shaped their interpretation of the event. While this is a very watered down version of what we talked about, by the end, our lesson was geared toward teaching students how to use databases to find resources, practice reading, learning different writing styles, working on their own writing, learning about natural disasters and their effects, as well as self knowledge regarding what kind of writing they gravitate toward to. All of this was constructed in only an hour and a half. Although, we didn't finish the resources provided by Queequeeg an the librarians were more than I could ever ask for.
In my previous blog, I mentioned that this was my first 'real' step towards becoming a teacher, and I have to say I think it was successful. I felt truly like a professional. Even though the librarians filled in gaps like how much time something might take or what resources to use, I realized that in the past four weeks that I have learned a ton about education, and I have a fair of knowledge about lesson planning. A lot of smack has been talk about how intensive the SMAC program is, but I can see why, and I think it's not only preparing us as educators but as professionals.
Monday's class was also an experiment in collaborative planning for teachers. Queequeg and I worked together in order to construct a lesson plan around the tsunami that hit Japan this past March. In the beginning we were both unsure about what we wanted to do and how to do it. However, as the session progressed we ran the gamut on Bloom's Taxonomy - that's right we went meta-cognitive. We designed a lesson plan that would span a couple of classes where students would read both news articles and personal memoirs (memoirs of those in Japan during the tsunami) of the tsunami. From there, the students would identify the characteristics of both expository and narrative styles in order to better understand these forms of writings as well as learning about the tragedy. Then, we would ask the students to construct an essay comparing the different styles of writing - concluding their analytical essay with how these different mediums affected them and shaped their interpretation of the event. While this is a very watered down version of what we talked about, by the end, our lesson was geared toward teaching students how to use databases to find resources, practice reading, learning different writing styles, working on their own writing, learning about natural disasters and their effects, as well as self knowledge regarding what kind of writing they gravitate toward to. All of this was constructed in only an hour and a half. Although, we didn't finish the resources provided by Queequeeg an the librarians were more than I could ever ask for.
In my previous blog, I mentioned that this was my first 'real' step towards becoming a teacher, and I have to say I think it was successful. I felt truly like a professional. Even though the librarians filled in gaps like how much time something might take or what resources to use, I realized that in the past four weeks that I have learned a ton about education, and I have a fair of knowledge about lesson planning. A lot of smack has been talk about how intensive the SMAC program is, but I can see why, and I think it's not only preparing us as educators but as professionals.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The White Whale
The readings for this morning's class is the white whale of education. How do teachers get students excited? How do they educate their students, so that the students can create connections on their own and exemplify them in speech and writing? Is this not the goal of education?
Tomorrow, in my Ed Tech class, we will plan our first lesson as pre-service teachers. Don't get me wrong, I have experience in teaching. I have been a tutor and a quarterback coach for the last four years, but these were always controlled environments. My expectations were simple. I had one, maybe two or three, students who I was supposed to educate. Therefore, my educational practices were always tailored to individual students. My instruction methods were always individual-based. I never had to worry about varying methods for many different students in one classroom. And, I had never been in charge of assessment. In a way, my teaching was not "traditional" education. But, tomorrow that changes. Tomorrow, I take my first legitimate step into the PROFESSION of teaching.
For the last few weeks, we have spent time talking about national educational reform, teaching with technology, and other global issues. Now, as I prepare for my first 'real' teaching exercise, all these progressive forms of education and changes seem overwhelming. It's almost as if my only concern is having a plan and seeing that plan through, but I have been in enough classes to know that classes never always go as planned. I guess tomorrow begins my hunt for the white whale. I hope that a year from now when I write the epilogue from my crazy teacher, I am still afloat.
Tomorrow, in my Ed Tech class, we will plan our first lesson as pre-service teachers. Don't get me wrong, I have experience in teaching. I have been a tutor and a quarterback coach for the last four years, but these were always controlled environments. My expectations were simple. I had one, maybe two or three, students who I was supposed to educate. Therefore, my educational practices were always tailored to individual students. My instruction methods were always individual-based. I never had to worry about varying methods for many different students in one classroom. And, I had never been in charge of assessment. In a way, my teaching was not "traditional" education. But, tomorrow that changes. Tomorrow, I take my first legitimate step into the PROFESSION of teaching.
For the last few weeks, we have spent time talking about national educational reform, teaching with technology, and other global issues. Now, as I prepare for my first 'real' teaching exercise, all these progressive forms of education and changes seem overwhelming. It's almost as if my only concern is having a plan and seeing that plan through, but I have been in enough classes to know that classes never always go as planned. I guess tomorrow begins my hunt for the white whale. I hope that a year from now when I write the epilogue from my crazy teacher, I am still afloat.
Fedallah
After class on Friday, there is something new and elusive about Twitter. I had always saw Twitter as the ultimate sign of narcissim and pretensiousness, but after listening to Antonia I can't deny the networking possibilities it offers. I honestly believe that I can never tweet and use Twitter to better myself as a teacher. Yet, i still have reservations. How reliable is the information? How do I know who to follow? How much time do I spend on Twitter?
So where do I go from here? I think the effectiveness lies in the next two weeks. For the next two weeks, ED 504 will force me to adapt to the social networking nuances of twitter including tweeting. I have begun to follow Diane Ravitch and two secondary English educators. Although the tweets come too fast and the articles are numerous, I think once I learn to navigate the cyber resources Twitter will become a reservior of information that I can easily access and understand like wikipedia. However, at this point in time, I still do not see myself using Twitter in the classroom because of my limited Twitter knowledge and its Ahab-like ability to cause mania and Pequodic destruction.
So where do I go from here? I think the effectiveness lies in the next two weeks. For the next two weeks, ED 504 will force me to adapt to the social networking nuances of twitter including tweeting. I have begun to follow Diane Ravitch and two secondary English educators. Although the tweets come too fast and the articles are numerous, I think once I learn to navigate the cyber resources Twitter will become a reservior of information that I can easily access and understand like wikipedia. However, at this point in time, I still do not see myself using Twitter in the classroom because of my limited Twitter knowledge and its Ahab-like ability to cause mania and Pequodic destruction.
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