Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Blog Assignment #10

I’m a Papermate. I’m a Ticonderoga.
“Oh, get that one instead! It’s cheaper and it’s the same as the name brand!” Every day we hear people say this generic statement. Sometimes the cheapest brand is not always the best or the “same as” the expensive brand, as in the case of these two brands of pencils.
This cartoon is not just about two types of pencils. It goes deeper than that. This cartoon can be applied to our education system. Pencils, paper, and textbooks are cheaper than iPads, SMARTboards, MacBooks, and other PCs; however, they do not deliver the same education opportunities and preparation for our students. In a sense, the paper, pencils, and textbooks are the Papermate pencil and the iPads, laptops, and other technology are the Ticonderoga pencil.
However, after further reading, I believe this comic goes even deeper than technology versus basic school supplies. Papermate and Ticonderoga are both pencils and both can be used beyond busy work, worksheets, and unsubstantial writing. One may be more expensive and better than the other, yet we can use either one to open the doors to our students. We must be creative and not factory-like for this to effective.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?
Mr. Spencer’s story on how the principal of the school dislikes games and interactive “games” between students. Applying games to learning is too sketchy. The principal does not care if these students are engaged in learning and if they are learning. He focuses more on preparing them for a single test.
Mr. Spencer brings to light a very upsetting truth about our education system. Our education system is not always held back because of lack of training, money, and resources. It can be held back by the people who run the school. Although they mean well and focus on test scores, these authoritative figures can enforce views that hinder our students learning and opportunities. Instead of focusing on our students want to learn, ability to teach themselves, and future success on their own, they focus on test scores. I personally believe our society is reinforcing this view by constant wanting numbers and scores to show their level of achievement. It is concrete and less abstract than rating a teacher/school based on how much their students love to learn or apply what they learned.

When A Child Hates Pencils?
This post is about a child who hates pencils. He does not specifically hate the pencils, but the writing that comes with them. He hates writing because he always had to write unsubstantial assignments, received F-A-I-L in large stamped letter, and grew tired of the “peppy praise”, “colorful stamps”, and bribes. As a punishment he had to write words from the dictionary or write sentences over and over and over again.
On the second day of class, Mr. Spencer gives the student a pencil and told him to write whatever. He would receive no stamps or letters. Mr. Spencer would read them and leave comments, feedback, and corrections. This student produced a poem about flying and a origami dragon with a poem on its wings.
As future teachers, we need to keep in mind how we use writing in a negative and positive way. How do our students view writing? Does learning always have to be in assignment form and busy work? How can we execute effective head fakes in the classroom? Overall, we need to focus on our students more than teaching in a factory-like way.

The Meaning of “Adventures in Pencil Integration”
After exploring Mr. Spencer’s blog, I believe his title, “Adventures in Pencil Integration”, means to look past technology and look at the ways using a simple pencil can open doors for our students.
Papermate versus Ticinderoga


Scott McLeod- “Don’t Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?”
Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency 8 in Iowa. He is the founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). UCEA CASTLE is “the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators.” You can find more about him through his bio.
Dr. McLeod’s post makes a strong, sarcastic, yet clear point about our children with technology. Everything has ups and downs; however, we do not hide our kids indoors 24/7 because they might get kidnapped, nor do we take away pens and pencils because they are pointy and sharp. We must teach our child proper precautions with pencils, pens, strangers, and the internet! We cannot hinder our student’s and children’s success because we are not willing to teach proper use and precautions. I enjoyed this post. It made me think about how we avoid new advances and other things because of their possible dangers.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Blog Assignment #9

Mr. Joe McClung
What I've Learned This Year (2008-2009)
After his first year of teaching in Noel, Missouri, Mr. McClung reflects on the seven main subjects he learned throughout the year. These subjects are:
  • How to read the crowd;
  • Be flexible;
  • Communicate;
  • Be reasonable;
  • Don't be afraid of technology;
  • Listen to your students; and
  • Never stop learning.
There are many teachers I had in high school who should really read this blog.

How to Read the Crowd
Mr. McClung discusses how he became so focused on his superior's views of his lesson plan, he lost touch with his students and their comprehension of his lesson. My past teachers played out this issue in their classrooms. They had become so out-of-tune with there students and focus more on their superiors' views of their lesson and it's content, than on the students' view. We would sit in class, completely lostin the lesson, and the teacher either: 1) never noticed we were confused, or 2) they eventually noticed but could not figure out where we had gotten lost. As Mr. McClung states, they become less student-centered and "miss the most important spect of teaching, and that is checking for student comprehension." As a future teacher, I need to make my students the center of my lesson plans. I want my students to walk into class and never have to experience the feeling of helpless confusion.

Be Flexible
Mr. McClung felt like he was being too controling and would let imperfections, that occured when "performing" his lesson plans, bother him immensly. Students AND teachers are not perfect. As a future teacher, I must be flexible. Every day is different. Every student is different. A cookie-cutter, "perfect" lesson plan will not be plausible. Mishaps will happen and I must be able to roll with it.

Communication
Mr. McClung covers the most obvious, yet most difficult topic. Communication is necessary in the work place. It can resolve drama and build teacher rapport. I will keep in touch with my fellow teachers because they can be a great source of ideas and problem solvers.

Be Reasonable
Teachers tend to have expectations for their students. Sometimes these expectations are so high, it is difficult for a student to meet them. When the student fails to meet the expectation, we become upset instead of encouraging. I believe having certain expectations for my students is good. It encourages them to succeed. However, I must pay attention to how high or low my expectations are. If majority of my students meet my expectations, I know it is a good level and I can possible increase it much later. For those who struggle, I will not give up, I will encourage them to keep striving to meet the expectation.

Don't Be Afraid of Technology
"Technology is our friend and is essential to living in our microwave society of today." Current teachers are afraid of the advances in technology. Future teachers need to embrace it now and being more open to learning new software, new technology, new anything. As a future teacher, I need to be open to technology.

Listen To Your Students
Students tend to feel like no one is listening to them. They feel like their teachers, parents, older adults, and sometimes their peers ignore what they say or deem their opinions as inadequate. I must listen to my students. If I listen to them, they are more likely to listen to me.

Never Stop Learning
"It's never too late to change your way of thinking, learning, or style." This statement should be absorbed and followed by everyone, future educator or not. As a future teacher, I must keep learning, keep adapting, and keep changing. My students year after year will change. This will be due to the changes in society, social interactions, and technology.

I believe once I start teaching, I will most likely confront similar problems Mr. McClung faced. However, I have the ability to keep learning from other teacher's experiences to help adjust to my first-year students.

What I've Learned This Year- Volume 4(2011-2012)
After his fourth year of teaching-third year in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Mr. Joe McClung reflected on two parts of his teaching. These are: You Gotta Dance With Who You Came To The Dance With and Challenge Yourself.

You Gotta Dance With Who You Came To The Dance With
Surprisingly, the first topic he covers in this post is kind of similar to the first topic he covered in his first year of teaching. Instead of worrying about what his superiors thought of him, he worried about what his peers thought of him as an educator. He stated, "It took me most of the school year before I was ever able to cope with need that I felt to please my peers." He allowed this to bother him most of the year. At the end of the year, he stated, "Upon further reflection I have decided that I can’t try to change who I am as a teacher based on the perception of my peers and that I need to stay true to what has gotten me this far." What had gotten him this far was his focus on "making sure that [his] students are taken care of and enjoying class".
I believe my (future) students should be my primary focus. They should be the focus in my lesson plans and in my lecture.

Challenge Yourself
Mr. McClung reflected on his past year and realized he was starting to get into a routine. "I began to depend on old lesson plans and my creativity started to slowly vanish." He learned, when a teacher gets comfortable with their lesson, they "get lazy and ultimately [their] lessons will start to suck", and their students stop enjoying class. Thankfully, he will be teaching a new subject area the upcoming year. As for other teachers, and myself as a future teacher, we must constantly challenge ourselves. We must keep ourselves from getting into a rut, a routine. We must keep our students' interest.
Lessons Learned

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Blog Assignment #8

This Is How We Dream: Part 1 and 2
Richard Miller's video was almost foreign to me. I could understand the potential of writing with multimedia. I can see the importance and it's place in our upcoming future. However, I felt like I have been living under a rock for the past few years. My experience with technology, outside of Facebook, email, web searches using Google, and Microsoft Word/Excel, has been minimal. I did not realize how minimal until after I began this class and watched this video.
Writing with Multimedia is our future. As future teachers, we should know how to use technology to our best ability and we should learn how to write with multimedia. We need to know this to prepare and teach our students. Students can prepare papers with videos and never have to worry about the library's hours of operation! Videos can increase the spread of an idea because it can convey a message better than written text. I believe our students will be more successful learning how to write with multimedia because they can use the ways and skills they used to learn this and adapt it to other future technology.
Am I prepared to write with multimedia? Yes and no. Yes, because I understand the importance of learning to write with multimedia and the importance of learning as much as possible about using technology. No, because I am nervous and feel slightly intimidated by such new learning and teaching options.
Will my students be able to do this?. Without a doubt, my students will be able to write with multimedia. They will understand the importance of multimedia and how to use it to convey their understanding of school subjects. I think my students will be well-rounded, be able to think critically, and be able to use technology to learn on their own. They will because I want the dream of writing with multimedia to become a norm- something students will do daily.

Carly Pugh
Carly's answer to the "design-an-assignment" blog post uses Youtube videos to create a playlist that expresses her philosophies as a teacher. I think this idea is as close to Mr. Miller's dream of writing with multimedia as currently possible. Instead of writing a paper on her philosophies about teaching, she conveys them through an organized collection of videos that adequately match her philosophies and ideas. I have never thought of using Youtube like this. I personally use Youtube to answer questions, learn new things, and to research topics. I definitely do not feel intimidated by the playlist idea. I love it! I plan to create my own playlist of videos that convey my beliefs, philosophies, and ideas. It will allow me to have an easy way to show other teachers, employees, and possibly students my ideas and what I believe.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies
These videos were humorous. They put a funny twist on realistic viewpoints in EDM310. Although, not everyone thinks like Chipper, many think similar to her. To be successful in EDM310, you cannot procrastinate and you must do your work on time before the deadline. The EDM310 for Dummies video expressed how most of us felt the first two-three weeks of this class. There were days when I was feed-up, angry, and stressed out because of this class. I no longer feel this way because I have learned how to learn. I taught myself how to use new websites, devices, and more through tutorials, websites, and other students. If this book was real, life for new EDM310 students would be less difficult.
I would like to create a video around the theme- increasing the Arts into STEM subjects. Although this is not a "help with EDM310" video idea, it is a video I would enjoy participating in and producing. After being assigned to Paige Vitulli's blog, I realized increasing the Arts in the school system was not a far-fetched idea. I have always wondered how I could increase right-brain based projects in my future math class. I felt this was odd of me. I no longer feel that way. I would like my video to bring to light the importance of the Arts in the education system and possibly introduce new EDM310 students to the stem to steAm idea.
For those who would like to learn more, follow this link to a stem to steAm video on Paige Vitulli's blog.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
For many hundreds of years, people would write their ideas and stories down on "homemade" paper, scroll, and stone. Only a select few could read and create these stories and ideas. After a few hundred years, along comes the printing press. Did we decide to ignore the new, advance technology and write books by hand? NO! This new invention made it possible to mass produce books and stories. It allowed more than a select few to learn to read. Now learning to read is something we do in Kindergarten and 1st grade because of the easy access to books, to written material. Our school system has always been slow to change. It almost reminds me of a brick wall with a few cracks here and there, which allows little slivers of change to seep in. On this brick wall is a stone door. EDM310 is preparing future educators to open this door and let the advances of technology, multimedia, and a network to all people, professions, and more flood into the schools. Change is good. If we did not change, then we would still be writing on scrolls, stones, and makeshift paper. Majority of the population would not be able to read either.
Students should be allowed to perform to the top of their ability. They should have the opportunities available outside of the classroom (without instruction), inside the classroom (with instruction), too. Social media networks, blogs, youtube, interactive papers, and more should not be looked down upon. These will be the portal to our future student's success.
How can our students be successful with these portals? As teachers, we need to teach our students how to use these opportunities, how to use the internet safely, how to find reliable sites, and so on. If we teach our teachers, then we teach our future.
Time for Change

Scavenger Hunt on WEB 2.0
Poll

Comic Strip Using MakeBeliefsComix
Comic Strip
PhotoPeach
PhotoPeach is a free site that allows you to upload pictures, make a powerpoint, and add sound to it. It makes powerpoints interactive through built in polls and quizzes. This site is also great for educators! A Premium Class Account can manage a large number of student accounts with adjustable privacy and allows sharing. This is great for class projects. Students can use it to make their powerpoint projects and teachers can use it to make powerpoints more interesting and engaging.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

C4T #2 Summary

Paige Vitulli
Paige Vitulli is a woman driven to bring the Arts into the classroom of all subjects! The first post I comment on contained a video titled, "stem to steAm". The video discussed how creativity leads to innovation, which is then increased by the other STEM areas. Some businesses are based on creativity and innovation and then built by chemistry, math, engineering. I commented on how I thought this video was inspirational and provided good reasoning why we should increase the importance of the Arts in all grades of school. There is a reason why students always ask, "When will I ever use this in the real world?" I don't use what I learned in Biology or Anatomy. Teachers have told me many times, we take such a diverse amount of courses in math, science, english, etc to become well-rounded students. How can we be well-rounded if we do not include the importance of the Arts? I definitely want to include more creative opportunities in my future math class.
My second post on Mrs. Vitulli's blog was on "Integrating Technology and the Arts in Reading and Math". This posted included a Google Slides Presentation that provides links to Interactive Arts sites for Integration, Mathematical Practices, and Common Core State Standards. The rest of the post included pictures of Radial Symmetry, Tessellations, and Notan Designs and a video on the Name Design and Radial Symmetry. The post included instructional videos to each project.I commented on how I did the Radial Name Design Project in Geometry class in tenth grade. Many of the projects I did in school were more memorable than the class lectures themselves. I continued to say how I agreed on how important hands-on activities are in school. I plan on using many of these projects in my future classroom.
STEM to STEAM