Sunday, November 30, 2014

Blog post #5 Part II

My personal learning network has increased over the course of the semester. I have found a lot of new teacher blogs to follow thanks to our C4T assignments. I have also met a lot more people face to face doing tutoring time to meet requirements for other classes. I much prefer blogger to twitter or anything else when it comes to expanding my PLN. This may change as time goes on and I find myself needing specific information. For now, Blogger is my main tool for expanding my PLN and my knowledge.

C4T #4

For the Love of Teaching talked about the potential that every human/student has inside to be a learner. I commented:

Hey! I am in EDM310 at South Alabama! I love this post so much! I was once told that you should always treat people like they are as great as they can be which I firmly believe. People can tell when you believe in them and usually feel about their own abilities how their teachers/parents/friends feel about them. Thank you so much for sharing!

William Chamberlain talked very briefly about his students needing a large audience for their class blog. I commented:

Hey! I am in EDM310 at South Alabama! I totally agree! It benefits the students infinitely to have their ideas heard and critiqued by a large audience!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Blog Post #14

In this article Joel Klein talks about three changes he wishes he could "wave a wand" and make to our education system. I will discuss my opinion on each problem presented.
1. Pick from the Best
2. Seniority Distraction
3. Radical Change

1.Pick from the Best
In this portion of the interview Joel states some rather contradicting opinions. Joel believes that teaching could be made better if teachers were chosen from the top of their class, just like doctors and lawyers. Then he turns right around and says that teachers' performance in the classroom is enormously different from teacher to teacher. This would imply that while you may pick three people with a 4.0 GPA they would not perform at the same level. That being stated, should the GPA be the deciding factor or classroom performance? Mr. Klein never really answers this question. I personally believe it is more-so about classroom performance.

Joel also says that we need to change the way we reward teachers. The current system is to give any teacher who has made it a certain amount of time without being fired seniority. That leaves teachers with nothing to work toward after that. Once you have run/won the marathon, you tend to stop training. I do agree with this. Teachers should have the oportunity to advance once they are brought in. Goal oriented work places tend to reach higher standards than were originally set.

2.Seniority Distraction
Joel goes on to talk about how job security is too easily accessable in the teaching field. The way things are set up makes it hard to remove teachers who are no longer beneficial to keep around. He believes teachers should be tested often, just like doctors. This is certianly an idea to consider but you must also ask yourself who will administer these tests, what will they ask and who will grade them? What grade is too low? Will you test each teacher differently according to their subject or grade or will it be a standard across the board test? In my opinion, the way we teach is moving away from standardized testing so the way we choose teachers must move with it. That way of testing knowledge is becoming outdated so why would we update with an outdated method? This suggestion leaves me with more questions than answers.

3.Radical Change
Here Mr. Klein wraps it up with a talk about running schools more like businesses. Allowing the population to choose where they want to go to school, so that they are able to choose the best schooling. In the first paragraph he stated that "poor students" get stuck with "not always very effective, teachers" as opposed to the middle and upper class. He did not provide any data to back that up or give me any reason to believe what he is saying is true. From my personal experience with people in poverty, they go to the school that has a bus stop outside of their house. I do not believe that if the regulations were lifted that would change. Poverty is much more complex than that.

In conclusion it would be lovely if things were as simple as Mr. Klein makes them out to be but, alas, they are not. He seems rather inconsistant with his opinions. The only thing I can find in this article that even accredits him to have a worthy opinion on the matter is the fact that he has, "...run New York City's public school system for eight years..." and according to him the amount of time you have been working is irrelevant when it comes to your performance. I have only this post to evaluate the quality of his opinion. Therefore, the very few "solutions" he gave to the very broad "problems" he presented just aren't enough to convince me that in the event there was a magic wand to wave and make things change that he should be allowed to touch it.

This photo was brought to you by Pintrest.

C4K November

Tyler wrote a summary of how he made a print in art class. This was interesting because we had just done the same thing! I omplimented him on his print and his thorough instructions!

Wonga wrote about his science experiment, Energizer. He talked about how the experiment was supposed to go and how it actually went and we both agreed that Science is unpredicatable and unplannable!

Tyler also made a print but he used a different color and design. I told him that I think it kind of looks like Saturn and that I made one of a tree!

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Blog Post #13

Watch A Letter to Me

Watch What a Teacher Makes

What is your biggest fear about teaching? What is your biggest hope about teaching?

My biggest fear about teaching is that I will make a child hate school. What will I do if I have I don't know how to help a student? What if I respond the wrong way and they hate coming to my class and they hate learning my subject and I give them a bad taste in their mouth for learning in general. They say if a child has three bad teachers in a row the damage that is done can never be undone. I don't want to be one of those three. It's a huge responsibility to mold the minds of young children. I want to live up to the greatest.

My biggest hope about teaching is that no student will ever leave my grade level without feeling more intelligent and loved. I would like to meet those two major needs for my students. I believe everyone can be better and happier no matter what stage of life they are in and I hope to help them always be moving forward.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Project #10




This video was intended to last 7 minutes. It is slighty longer but a very interesting insight into the classroom of a 5th grade Math teacher!

Blog Post #12

Assistive Technologies

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Project 14

Project 14

Blog Post #11

Brian Crosby, Back to the Future:
In Mr. Crosby's elementary class in Sparks Nevada every student has a laptop. With that kind of kid to computer ratio it would be crazy not to utilize that tool as much as possible! So, he does. One of the biggest advantages he has seen from this is the growth of the class blog's audience and their personal learning network! He set up a project so that it would included learning in Science and in English. His students released a balloon and watched it ascend on the computer! As it ascended they were asking to write their blog as if they were the balloon! This blog was viewed world-wide and the students were able to converse about class strategies and results! How amazing! So Mr. Crosby has taught us that Project based learning expands PLNs far beyond our expectations!

Paul Anderson, Blended Learning Cycle:
Paul talked about the five E's and QUIVERS

Five E's-engage, explore, expand, explain, and evaluate! These E's will help to make sure your class is intrigued with their learning. He also uses the fun acronym QUIVERS.

QU-questions; start by asking a question
I-investigate/inquiry; look for answers/further questions
V-video; present a video of yourself discussing the subject matter
E-elaborate; the video is just an intro to build from
R-reviews; make sure the students have enough of an understanding about the subject to discuss it or test on it

Mark Church, Making Thinking Visible:
Mr. Church's students were put into small groups. Each group was asked to express their topic(early human beginnings) with a headline that captures the essence of the puzzle. This challenges students to really think about and understand what they are trying to find answers to. They must sum up their entire discussion in one phrase. After some more studying they will update their phrase and look back at where their learning began.


Sam Pane, Building Comics:
Mr. Payne spends time making sure students know how to be safe, respectful and responsible on the internet. This is blatantly important. While kids may know a lot about navigating technology they don't always know how to do so in a safe way. Mr Payne Helped his students build a comic strip and write a narrative to go with it. Once it is finished they can post their's and view others' in the "gallery".

Dean Shareski, Project Based Learning:
Mr. Shareski reiterates how powerful project based learning is. He teaches us to always ask for feedback about your projects with questions like, "How could we make this better?" Project based learning is the most effective form of teaching. Students retain so much more information when they can connect what they learn with technology.

Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program.
This video shows us how to use PBL to improve public speaking skills. It gives kids a chance to chose how and what they learn. This sharpens their life skills such as cooperative learning, communication and creativity. It teaches us as teacher as well by allowing us to differentiate between the learning styles of our students and integrate it into our curriculum.