Class Reflection

Okay so its been 25 years since I've been in a classroom and had no idea what to expect from a grad level class and absolutely no clue about what an on-line class might entail.  I was very nervous to even show up for the first class.  It wasnt at all like i expected.   I loved the pacing and the ability to do things when I could do them.  Doc Luongo was right on top of us all semester with little reminders like, "module 6 is to be complete by tomorrow night at midnight."  It was her way of saying if you havent done your work yet...get your act together and do it.  

I learned an unbelievable amount about what was out there in the world to bring interesting ideas and activities to the classroom rather than just a chalkboard and an overhead projector.  I will definitely have a web page for my classes when i start teaching.  what a fantastic way to communicate with parents and let them know what is going on in the classroom.  This is a great way for kids to keep up on homework if they miss school or forget to write down an assignment--and parents for that matter to know what the kid should be working on.  

Technology in the classroom is a must and i know that now that i have been through this class.  I will always be looking for a way to integrate technology into a lesson plan and look for interesting ways to improve learning.

and Doc--you are very inspiring!  from the notes that you sent after we submitted assignments, to your energy and enthusiasm in the classroom--and your passion for the subject was contagious!  thank you for doing such a great job and I'm looking forward to the reading-hybrid course this summer!

not impressed with the CLRN

i dont see the big deal about the CLRN site.  maybe ten years ago, but i tried using the site to search lesson plans for ideas, and the information that came back was very limited and disorganized.  It was hard to find and sort it.  i had better success when i searched for lesson plans using google.  i get the whole concept of the site as being a one stop shop for all your resource needs, but the internal search engine was slow and ineffective.  

When I found out what a web information link was, i went on the link to check some out.  When I got there, there was a link giving a tutorial on the WIL's.  All right already can you give me some kind of information I can use and enough with the bells and whistles.

I will not be visiting the site again.

lesson plan

okay so i know i'm back in all these grad school classes as the oldest one in the room, but it really hit me when i had to do a technology enhanced lesson plan.  I can't even say I'm old school as a teacher, because I'm not teaching yet.  But this assignment was just what I needed.  It forced me into thinking about all the possibilities and potential for bringing interesting and innovative ideas into the classroom.  

Visiting some of the sites and reading the articles was a great introduction to all the possibilities. The page from the Library of Congress was very interesting to me.  Just laying out all the ideas about using primary sources -- selecting sources, organizing instruction, and activities for the instruction cycle laid out things for me very well.  I'm glad people who know what they're doing have thought all this through so I don't have to think about any of this and use all their expertise to do my lessons!

facebook

These kids have no idea what they are doing. I have kids that have written things, posted pictures, and it is disturbing! They dont realize that all their friends can see the pictures and they can give passwords to other friends so that they can view them too. There have already been other issues about kids posting things that have caused trouble among friends as well. As simple and short as these videos were, they were to the point and very effective. Are they shown in schools?

the book

I loved "the book" video.  When i first saw the title i thought it was a way to introduce a new text book to a classroom!  ( I was way off there!)  it was a great example of how we take things for granted and assume that people can do them and understand them with out instruction.  Simple things like flipping a page, starting from the right side of the book, and not worrying about losing data when the page is flipped are illustrative of things that are common sense to us, but because they were new to the guy in the video he had no idea how to react.  

This was also very poignant as new technology is introduced into the classroom.  Old school teachers don't have the technical training, desire, or savvy in most cases to implement new technology to their classes.  The only people that suffer in these cases are the students.  

With all the different topics we've been introduced to in this class, it is a shame that students aren't all able to enjoy these technological advancements.

aggravation, then success

Okay, so I thought I was almost done with my web page when I left class last week--big misconception there!  I spent a lot of time figuring out the quirkiness of the software involved.  I wound up with a bunch of lost pages, i put a lot of information in the wrong places, and things i put in the right places didn't show up where they were supposed to be.  Then there were several items that I put on the page, saved on the page, went back to and saw on the page, only to find them disappear at a later date!  Extremely aggravating!  So I think I finally finished it and have everything in place and then comes the concept of actually turning in the assignment.  Good luck with that one!  Despite help from the good Dr. Luongo, I'm still not even sure that she has what she needs.  I copied the "parent letter form" and pasted it in an email to her.  I will keep you posted on the outcome and good luck with the Scholastic Site!

Scholastic Web Page

I couldn't believe how easy the Scholastic site made it to create your own class room website.  The way Mrs. Conrad had her schedule set up, there is no way for anybody to say they weren't ready, or didn't know about, or nobody told them about assignments or what was happening in the class.  This is something that parents must really appreciate.  I know that my high school daughters have not always been "forthright" in their reporting of their status and standing in their classes. (you know, cuz they don't want to lose texting or facebook privileges).  I would love to be able to go on the site and see what they got on tests and what they were doing on homework assignments.  This is a way of communicating with parents and students that was never before possible.  Think about even 5 years ago...you had to wait for parent/teacher conferences or you had to call the school, and wait for a return call back, then schedule a meeting, then meet the teacher.  You want to know why your kid got a "C" its all right there in black and white!

Publish your webquest

Everybody was concerned at last night's class about losing their webquest because their limited enrollment time is about to expire, but you don't have to lose it.  Just sign on to questgarden using your temporary ID and then proceed like you are going to edit your webquest.

At the very bottom of the editing menu is a section called "Tools".  If you click on the link for "Publish" under tools, your webquest will become part of the questgarden domain and always remain available to you and your students.  There are a couple of boxes that you need to check that give permission for them to make it available to the public.  Check those and hit the "Publish" button and your webquest will be saved.  Good luck!

Blogging then and now

Im digging the blogging thing.  While i am learning that blogging can be used as an unbelievable resource for learning and sharing about different educational topics, so far it looks like most of us in the class are only using it to be vocal about assignments and projects in class.  This has to be great feed back to Doc Luongo as she goes through our blogs and sees what students like and dislike.  

I did like edublogger world.  if you think about how powerful of a connection you are able to make as a teacher--that you can chat and get feedback from teachers all around the world--what an incredible resource.  This has to improve education overall, and has to improve your ability to reach your students.  

One thing I dont like about blogging is the fact that we have to blog about certain topics.  I guess it does force us to blog, but i am much more into the blogs that i type when i have something that i am angry about and want to rant on.  It allows me to be more entertaining and free to express myself, than to be forced to formulate an opinion and fumble through it.

Chapter 3 and 4? what am I 11?

Okay that was a little on the ridiculous side!  I read the chapters for this week and actually i can say that i skimmed through them as the information included was at about a 3rd grade level for computer knowledge and understanding.  These chapters were way out of place in a grad school text book.  Do they really need to explain what a mouse and keyboard do when using a computer? Please!  and then it gets a little more advanced in chapter 4 as they tell you what a scanner does. Im here to learn!  ucchhh! 

Kidspiration a little basic

I reviewed all the videos and info for this week on kidspiration and i guess my main question is...what level is this directed to?  I'm sure this would be good for a third grade class sitting on the floor in front of Ms Stubbs and moving proper and normal nouns around on a projected screen, but what can we do for the older kids?  Are there other kidspiration type software packages that a 10th grader would like to play with and learn from?  It seems that even as advanced as this software may be in getting away from the old style school classroom, by using computers and technology, it still seems like it is lacking from an entertainment standpoint.  And that is what we are really trying to do right?  Entertain them while we teach.  It cant just be chalk and slate anymore, but i think these are going the way of the VCR.  they were good until dvd came along, and then obsolete when blue ray stepped in.  I would like to see a fast moving product with a techno/rap music background--something that kids will listen to and pay attention to--Entertain them!

webquests driving me crazy

Is it just me?  I am totally frustrated about the webquest topics.  I go to the examples and say oh that is terrific.  That looks like a nice, fun project for the kids to do, then I go to another and say wow that's very creative.  Then I sit and stare at the computer hoping that something hits me that will be as creative as the examples provided.  I am not teaching right now, and I think that if i were teaching, i might be able to come up with something in my current lesson plans that would be applicable.  I know Doc said we could use one of the ones from the examples, but I'm not sure what that means without being plagiaristic.  

I do like the idea of the webquest.  It seems like something that the kids would really get into and offers a different avenue for teaching and learning.  It is also something that can be used at all levels of education and would hold a students interest-way more than reading out of a book and answering questions.  

My quest for the perfect quest continues!

Internet Safety

This is a very important topic to me since i have three daughters, and its a toss up whether they spend more time in the bathroom or on the computer. I watched the two videos in the syllabus for internet safety.  The first was geared toward middle and high school ages while the second was more basic and elementary.  My gut feeling watching both of these videos is that I dont think they go far enough as far as demonstrating the final end game of internet predators.  the one for the older kids does state in one slide that kids can get raped, kidnapped, and murdered, but it is only one flash slide.  that is the most important thing and they should have hammered it home more.  Im not sure i like the medium in which it was presented either.  the idea of just flashing slides up to music from Rocky 2 was not engaging to me and it is doubtful that it would hold the attention of today's teenagers.  

the video for younger children simply was not threatening enough.  There was a nice calm soothing voice telling children to beware, but I would rather have seen it way more threatening.  If a stranger came to your door, would you let him in?  If a stranger called and said to meet him some place, would you go?  those parallels needed to be drawn to better illustrate the danger and finality of a decision made on the net.

It is hard to police and one thing that is not discussed at all in the videos in parent responsibility: Know what your kid is doing on the internet, know who they are talking to, and know what sites they visit.  There are imbedded programs you can by that monitors IM conversations and while some might say its spying, others will say it is just good parenting.

Jukes article was a bore!

okay here's what you do.  when you hit the Jukes article fast forward to page 8 and start reading then.  Jukes could use a better editor, or maybe even an editor period, to cut down his 22 page article to maybe 3 summary pages.  He didn't have to go through all his exhausting information to tell us that the way we grew up was different than the way kids have it today. 

He could have simply started out by stating that instead of talking about how previous generations used the etch-a-sketch for technology.  Was he going for humor?  Because i wasn't laughing at all.  i was actually getting angry and wanted to punch him for being so verbose and unfunny and wasting my afternoon.  Can you come up with a few more cliche' hack references?  what is this open mike night at the Internet Cafe?  Awful!

One of the biggest revelations in his article is that kids retain less (5%) from a lecture and more (90%) from actually doing and demonstrating what they've learned after they learn something.  Really?  Again can you point out anything a little more obvious to even the casual observer?  And if you make it to page 19, you will receive insight like "we have to make learning more fun" and "use more pictures instead of text" Ucccch!  How did this even get published?  and keep the hack coming by closing with a quote from Einstein! 

i give it .5 out of 10 for essential reading!

School technology/internet safety

The worst thing i discovered after looking at the NJCCCS site was that i am only computer literate at the 8th grade level according to their standards.   I was able to squeak under the wire with a few of the 12th grade, but wasn't confident that I could pass all of them.  Does anybody know who determines and sets those standards?   Is it a bunch of retired teachers with nothing to do--or is it somebody's job to set, write, and maintain them?  I have to give them credit because it seems awfully boring and tedious.  They were very thorough and i dont want that job either way.

  

I also watched some of the videos on internet safety and while the information seems pretty straight forward to us as adults, are the actually showing this footage or videos like this during school to hammer home these points?  If they are not, they should be--pretty good stuff!

practice post

GE 555 this will really improve my typing skills as we move on.