Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

Joshua Bloom

I have been teaching altogether six years, and I became an education major because I love working with children. I get immense satisfaction when I "teach" a concept, and my students understand and internalize it. It is truly a great feeling. I don't think any other occupation besisdes teaching has that. You really can see the benefits of your job on a daily basis, and the rewards are numerous. 

To teach or educate? That is the question. Joshua Bloom's video certainly made "teaching" seem like a bad word. "Educate" explains much better what we as teachers are required to do. Some of the words he used to describe the work of educators were "illuminate, enlighten, inspire, and empower." These are very strong words, and they require a strong teacher to perform these actions. I know I am up for the challenge. Not only do my students see me as the teacher who teaches literature, but also as a role model to follow as a positive example. I am there when the students need to talk or need advice, and I am also there to guide them and show them the way when they seem lost. A teacher cannot get by with just teaching his or her subject matter. There are so many other ways you are needed, and I see that on a daily basis. I love being there for my students, and I know that I have chosen the right career for me. 

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

By John Spencer

John Spencer uses his metaphoric blog post to compare pencils with computers or technology. In Spencer's story, an administrator accuses this teacher of not being concerned with standardized tests scores. The standardized test scores of these low income kids are even lower for the ones who take home "pencils." The administrator seems to think that the "pencils" are only being used for entertainment and that they have no purpose or value. That seems to be how many teachers and administrators seem to feel about computers and the internet. Many educators don't seem to recognize the great value these technological tools have to offer our students. 

The administrator goes on to say that the parents of these students aren't comfortable using "pencils" themselves, but the teacher says that they can hold classes for the parents so they can learn the same skills as the students. The teacher is then asked how he will hold his students accountable. The administrator is worried that the students will waste valuable time playing Hang Man. That part really made me chuckle. Then the teacher tells Gertrude that the students might even join pen "pal networks" which are obviously social networking sites, and if they do these other activities, there is sure to be some learning taking place that we don't actually see. This is all a metaphor for teaching our students technology, and maybe administration isn't convinced that this kind of learning will improve these ridicules standardized test scores. But this kind of learning is definitely our students' future, and if we want them prepared for the job market and society, we better rethink our approach to technology and education. 

Summary Post #3 for C4T

For my last two C4T assignments, I had a blog called Jenny's Learning Journey. This blog was created by a primary school teacher from Auckland, New Zealand named Jenny She. She loves teaching, blogging, and everything technology has to offer. The first blog post I read was Would Google+ Be Useful in the Classroom?. Ms. She had become interested in Google+ because she is real advocate of social networking sites. She became a member of Google+ and immediately saw the benefits this site had to offer teachers as well as students. She observed students in a "hang out" session which is where friends, family, colleagues, or classmates can "hang" together and talk back and forth. These particular students were having a study session. Ms. She thought this was an excellent idea. Students don't have to meet for these kinds of sessions anymore. They can all be together without leaving the comforts of their own home. She also had recently read an article that gave ten different ways Google+ could be used in a classroom. However, there was a professor who commented on this blog and reminded everyone that Google+ requires its members to be 18+, so maybe this could work for students at the university level. I told Ms. She that I had never heard about Google+, but I am a member of Facebook and it does sound very interesting. I checked her Profile page on Google+, and I also told her that I thought these "hang outs" would be great for study sessions as well as working on group projects.
The second blog post I read was entitled My First Experience with Google+. This post was all about Ms. She becoming a member of the new networking site Google+ and absolutely loving it. She immediately became a fan of its unique privacy settings. You can form "circles" with different groups of people, so every thing you post is only read by those in a particular "circle". You can talk about professional topics with your fellow teachers and talk about family topics with your family. Every friend you have doesn't read the same posts. I told Ms. She I thought that sounded like a great idea, and I was going to have to check out Google+ for myself. I thanked Ms. She for sharing this interesting information about this new social networking site.

Blog Post #9

"What I've Learned This Year (2008-2009)"

By Joe McClung

Joe McClung is a teacher who has just finished his third year of teaching, and he blogs regularly on his blog site called "The Teacher's Desk." At the end of each school year, McClung does a special blog post reflecting on his previous school year. I chose to start this assignment by reading his first year's post. It seemed McClung had learned some very good lessons that first year of teaching. First he said he had learned to read a crowd. He made a very good point about teachers being so caught up with our own approach to teaching a lesson that we sometimes forget the most important thing which McClung says is checking for student comprehension. Teachers can sometimes get too involved with their lessons when they really need to let their students guide the lessons. He also learned to be flexible. As a teacher who has completed her sixth year of teaching, I can emphatically agree with that. So many situations present themselves on a daily basis in the classroom. Teachers are always having to change gears and go in different directions, and McClung says to do so with a smile on your face. I agree that a positive attitude always helps a teacher. Things don't always go the way you planned, but staying positive under pressure is always the best way to handle those unexpected things. McClung also says that communication is the best way to resolve any issue, and teachers should always be reasonable. I liked McClung's quote, "Pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again." That should be posted in every teacher's lounge. That should be our motto as teachers! He also learned to listen to and get to know his students better, and not to be afraid of technology. He said teaching is our job, but so many of us don't keep learning ourselves. We as teachers should always be ready to learn, grow, and improve ourselves. There is always room for improvement. All of these were great lessons to learn as a first year teacher, and I think McClung must have had a pretty successful first year. 

"What I Learned This Year (2010-2011)"

By Joe McClung

Now Joe McClung has completed three years of teaching and he is still reflecting on what he has learned. First he has learned to know your boss. He says sometimes teachers are jumping through hoops to impress administration or do things for other teachers, but we should always remember that our students are the ones who deserve our undivided attention. Keep your eyes on the prize! They are the reason we are doing this job anyway. He also learned to not expect other teachers to be as excited about change as he was. And this also goes along with what he learned about not letting yourself get comfortable. This is unfortunately very true. Some teachers just seem to be burned out. Maybe they have been doing this so long, they are tired, or maybe teaching just was never their true calling. I have seen it come from both directions, and either way it's sad. McClung says, "We cannot afford to be passive in education. We need to be the "movers" and the "shakers" and advocates of change in our schools." I took a class at South where the professor told us to recognize these kinds of teachers and stay away from them. They just bring everyone down. I myself have seen it so many times. It is very important that new teachers learn this lesson early. McClung also learned not to touch the keyboard which means we must let our students do the work themselves. We should not interfere with the learning process by jumping in too soon and helping the students. We should make them self-sufficient learners. McClung ends his post with this quote, "The teaching profession needs individuals that are passionate and willing to exceed the demands of the traditional 8-3 teaching format...is this not an achievable goal?" I not only agree with Mr. McClung but also believe that it is an achievable goal. I think we have lots of great inspiring teachers out there. We just need more of them, and I believe with universities better preparing these teachers, we will hopefully start seeing more of them. McClung seems to be one of those great teachers.

Project #13 - SMART Board Instruction Part 1

Blog Post #8

“This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2” - by Richard Miller

Dr. Richard Miller is a professor in the Humanities Department at Rutgers University. He prepared this video because he believes that educators must change the way we teach writing because of the vast changes in society due to the fast-paced ever changing advancements of technology. Miller states that the future of printed materials, such as books, magazines, and newspapers, is in jeopardy. Libraries will eventually become a thing of the past. All the materials that students need for research will be found on the web. Paper and pencil will also become unnecessary. Writing documents with word processing programs will be replaced with documents that not only include text but also audio and video. Teachers will have to teach writing in a totally different way. Their approach to teaching writing will have to involve multimedia. They will be teaching students how to compose digitally in this age of technology.
Dr. Miller proves his point when he discusses the success of this video. His video received over 9,000 hits, was embedded in numerous blogs, and became a source of discussion for many interested viewers. He explained if he had only posted his views in text format, it would have taken years to receive as much attention, but because he used audio and video, people were naturally more responsive. Writing is headed in a direction where simple text documents will not be enough. People in the future will acquire their information by not only reading but also listening and watching. So the future of writing will inevitably change, and teachers need to be ready for this change.
Writing is very dear to my heart because I teach it to middle school students. I do understand that I will have to change my way of teaching it, and I am looking forward to the challenge. Using multimedia in our future writing projects is very exciting to me. Unfortunately, at this time, my school doesn’t have the resources to do this kind of teaching. We have a computer lab and the students go once a week, but to do this kind of teaching properly, each student needs a computer to use in each class. I can, however, still assign writing projects that include audio and video, but they will have to be done on the students’ home computers. The future of writing is going to be very interesting indeed.

“Blog Post #12” - by Carly Pugh

Carly Pugh’s EDM Blog Post #12 was very interesting. She obviously put a lot of time and effort into this post. Her blog post assignment required students to “create a You Tube playlist of ten videos that describe your teaching philosophy and relate to things you have learned in this class.” Then she also wanted students to respond to the question, “What could you do with them in your teaching environment?”.
Carly Pugh, like a good teacher who teaches by example, prepared her own blog post using these instructions. She included links to several short videos that helped describe her teaching philosophy. Some were inspirational, like “Disability Means Possibility” and “The Schools Children Deserve”. Others were focused on encouraging creativity, like “Think Different” and “Creativity to the Rescue”. Then there were some that were humorous, like “The Teacher’s Rap” and “Leave Your Mark”. I do think her blog post would have impressed Dr. Miller. This is what he was referring to concerning the future of writing. Including video and audio with text makes for a more interesting “read”. This is the kind of information that people are searching for. I think Carly Pugh did a great job with her assignment.

“The Chipper Series” and “EDM 310 for Dummies”

“The Chipper Series” and “EDM 310 for Dummies” were two creative videos that highlight some of the main points we as students in EDM 310 encounter. “The Chipper Series” was a sarcastic video that demonstrates how serious you have to be to succeed in EDM 310. Poor Chipper could never seem to ever get things right, and Dr. Strange had an immense amount of patience for this poor student. Procrastination, constant excuses, and lack of time management skills are all examples of elements that will only hinder your performance in EDM 310 or life in general. “EDM 310 for Dummies” is another humorous video showing us that there is no easy way out of EDM 310. This magic book does not exist, so students in this class will have to do the research required themselves to figure out the different software and programs needed to be successful in this class. There is no easy fix. You have to be an independent learner and teach yourself sometimes.
I am sure there have been some really great videos made for the EDM 310. I would like to create a video using some of my students using technology in the classroom in response to Mr. Winkle Wakes. I think I could show that times are changing in the classroom, and though the change may not be as drastic as it should be, technology is being used in schools. You could also do a humorous video called “EDM 310 Intervention”. This video could have university students going into public school classrooms and teaching the teachers some of this technology we have learned. We could take away their paper and pencils and force them to use the various forms of technology to teach their students. I think that would be entertaining.

"Learn to Change, Change to Learn"

This video begins with some very disturbing information. In a survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, our nation’s schools ranked 55th out of a total of 55 industries when rated by level of technology intensiveness. Schools came in last place in this study. The industry of coalmining was ahead of schools when it came to technology. That seems very scary to me. We need to change our way of looking at education.
Education must join the rest of world when it comes to technology. We are not giving our students what they need to succeed in life. Technology has changed the world, and we must become globally connected to order to teach what we need to teach. Technology has created a whole new environment, and it doesn’t help that most schools are scared to let it in. I particularly liked the comment about standardized testing. One educator on the video said that we are preparing our students for testing, but the future jobs that technology has invented do not require the “right answer vending machine approach”. Our students need to be creative thinkers, and all the preparation for testing that our schools are doing is not preparing our students for life after school. It seems that is process is taking too long. I know many people are scared of change, but the time has come. We cannot pretend that this technology does not exist or that it will just go away. It is here to stay and it needs to be embraced. We have to allow it into schools and prepare our students for the future.

Project #11 Short Movie ("Falling for Rapunzel")

Project #12 Book Trailer ("Bedtime for Frances")

Project #10 - Personal Learning Network (PLN or PLE)

Check out Symbaloo.

    I chose Symbaloo as the progam to create my PLN or Personal Learning Network. I am currently using the top row for all of my personal sites including Gmail, Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook. Entertainment is on the left including movies and music, and all of my educational sites are on the right. There was an option when I started my account with Symbaloo to view an already formed site with different educational sites. It were called EDU. I did get some ideas for my professional sites for my own PLN from there. I also chose sites I use in my classroom regularly such as Scholastic, PBS Teachers, and Discovery Education. I also included Glogster and Google Scholar. I want to incorporate these sites into my lessons very soon. Of course, I am just getting started. My PLN is just a work in progress, but I do think this will be a useful tool having all of these valuable resources complied together in one organized location.

Project 9b (Instructional) Timetoast Timeline

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-life-of-edgar-allan-poe--2

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Watch Randy's Video.

      Randy Paush was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He gave an inspiring lecture at his university that he entitled, "My Childhood Dreams, Enabling the Dreams of Others, and Lessons Learned."This university lecture series was called "The Last Lecture," meaning speakers would give a lecture like it was to be their last. Unfortunately  for Mr. Paush, it really was. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and at the time of the lecture was only give three to six months to live. However, Mr. Paush did not want sympathy for his condition. He wanted everyone to understand that he was going to enjoy every day of life that was left to him. He had such a wonderful spirit about him. He had a beautiful way of thinking about his situation, and I think many people admire him for that. 

     Mr. Paush first focused on his childhood dreams. He talked about his happy childhood and loving parents. He showed that his strong will and determination, regardless of the constant "brick walls" put in front of him, had helped him accomplish all of his childhood dreams and then some. From his changing his occupation from professor to reporter in order to experience zero gravity, to winning huge stuffed animals from the fair, to working for Disney as an Imagineer, to learning some incredible things about himself from his coach on the football field, he never faltered in making his dreams a reality and learning from them. He had some great lessons from these experiences that he learned along the way. One in particular that I liked was, "If no one says anything anymore when you are still screwing up, then they have given up on you." Paush says to listen to your critics and take their advice because they obviously care enough to give their opinions. This is a great lesson to pass on to your students. I tell my own students when they are upset because I make them rewrite their essays or make corrections to their work, I constantly get, "Why are you making me do this?". I always tell them, " It's because I care." 

     The second part of Pausch's lecture was about enabling others' childhood dreams. Mr. Paush is obviously a great man who cared for others and truly wants to help people. He gave an example of helping one of his students obtain his dream of working on the Star Wars movies. However, he said he is all about efficiency, so he wanted to help more students than just one at a time. He then pioneered a course at his university called Building Virtual Worlds. It was a project-based course, and it was a huge success. This allowed fifty students a semester to live their dreams. Then he and another professor collaborated to create a two-year professional master's program called Dream Fulfillment Factory. This degree was so successful that they had companies such as EA Sports guaranteeing their graduates jobs. Mr. Paush also worked on numerous virtual reality projects but his "baby" was the Alice programs based on "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland" which taught students how to write software. He calls "Alice" his legacy, and he feels blessed to be able to see that his legacy will go on. He gives a reference to Moses. He himself has seen the promise land, but he will not be able to go there. However, he is comforted by the fact that "millions of kids will have fun while learning something hard," and that is what he wants everyone to remember about all of his hard work in computer science. Isn't that a wonderful reason to be remembered? If all teachers could teach their students something difficult, and they had fun while doing it, then we could be more successful in education. I think technology is going to help us all make that possible in the very near future.

     The last part of Pausch's lecture was the life lessons he had learned. He gave some invaluable advice about helping others, caring for people, and listening to feedback. He said that life was all about having fun, and that loyalty is a two-way street.  Pausch said to apologize when you make mistakes, and don't complain, just work harder. He also said it was very important to focus on others, and he proceeded to bring in a birthday cake for his wife and lead the crowd in singing to her. That was very emotional. Pausch ended his lecture with an explanation of what he refers to as a "head fake" which is what he calls indirect learning. The first "head fake" was that the lecture he had given was not truly about how to achieve your dreams, but how to live your life. The next "head fake" was that his lecture really wasn't for the audience, but for his own three children. This may have been what he intended, however, I feel that everyone in that lecture hall as well as everyone who has watched this video will take something important away from Mr. Pausch's lecture. I think Mr. Pausch was a wonderful human being, and he will be dearly missed. I think he must have been an excellent teacher and all of his students must have affected by him. We definitely need more Randy Pausch's in the field of education!

C4T # 2 Summary Post

     For my last two C4T posts, I had the pleasure of being assigned our very own Dr. Strange's blog, "Dr. John Strange's Strange Thoughts." I found both of his posts very interesting and thought provoking. The first post I commented on was "I'm Scared." This post was about all the people out there that do not think children should be exposed to the internet because of the unknown lurking dangers. Dr. Strange thinks this notion of "being scared" of the internet is simply not justified. He believes that as parents and educators we should not hide the internet from our children, but instead teach them how to use to properly and safely. I thought Dr. Strange made a good point. I used to be one of those concerned parents, but now I realize just how important the internet is to our children's future. If we want our children to have equal standing with the rest of the world, we must teach them to safely navigate the internet because this is their future.
     The second post I commented on was "Understand Sarcasm and Satire or You Might Be Dangerously Irrelevant as an Educator." This post was about a surprisingly large portion of our EDM 310 class, 35%, missing the sarcasm in a post we were assigned to read and comment on by Dr. Scott McLeod entitled, "Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please." The post was obviously sarcastic, but some of our fellow EDM 310 students could not recognize the literary elements of satire and sarcasm. Dr. Strange was very concerned by this fact, as well as Dr. McLeod who tweeted him about it. Dr. Strange voiced his concerns but treated it like a lesson. He defined the literary terms "sarcasm" and "satire" and reminded his students of the class motto, "I don't know. Let's find out." I had to agree with Dr. Strange. I was very surprised myself to see the number of students that missed the mark. I told Dr. Strange that I was currently teaching my middle school students those devices, and so I just knew my fellow university students had been exposed to them in either middle school and high school. I liked the way Dr. Strange handled things though. He brought it to their attention and then gave them the information they needed so they could learn from their mistake.

     

Visit Dr. Strange's Blog.

Blog Post #6

"The Networked Student" by Wendy Drexler

Watch Wendy Drexler's video.

     "The Networked Student" by Wendy Drexler shows us as educators the direction that education is headed. The 21st century classroom will be so different from the classrooms we have had in the past or even today. Drexler shows a high school student who only attends class three days a week and two days online. Instead of sitting in a typical classroom with a textbook and a teacher lecturing , he works on a computer and uses websites, blogs, social networking sites, skype, itunesu, and Google Scholar to gather the information he needs to pretty much teach himself. He learns through a process called Connectiveism. He uses all the these informational sites as well as information that others before him have found, and he compiles all of this together to learn what he needs to know for his class. It is a very interesting concept and I do believe this is the future of education.

     "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" This was the question asked toward the end of the video. I was very pleased to hear the answer. Teachers will still be valuable resources in the 21st century. Who will teach this student how to properly access all of this information? Who will teach this student how to make sure his resources are credible? Who will teach this student to write well and help him when he comes to a dead end? Teachers can do all of these things. Even though education will be very different in the near future, teachers will be necessary. However, it will take lots of hard work from the teachers to learn how to teach in this new educational environment.  I, myself, know that I have lots of work ahead of me in learning all of this new technology, and I feel becoming comfortable with all of it is the key to my future success. Taking EDM 310 has already opened my eyes to the future of education, and I think that is a first step in the right direction.  

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)

  Watch this video.

     What an impressive video! I guess the possibilities are truly limitless teaching with technology. This student uses a PLE in school to work on all of her science assignments. She uses a program called Symbaloo to organize all of her different sites. The top row consists of all her personal sites, and the rest is devoted to her school sites. This student is using skype, blogs, glogsters, Goggle Docs, and this great system of keeping and collecting notes called Evernotes, to enhance her learning of science. She says in her video that she comes to class and looks on the science page to find out what assignments need to be done. She really enjoys the freedom of this personal learning system. She can express herself creatively while still completing all of her science work. What a great way to learn! I was just very impressed by all of this. I plan to use Symbaloo is put my PLN together. I like the idea of separating the personal and professional sites. Of course, my PLN is just a work in progress, but I can definitely takes some hints from this 7th grader. The teacher of this progressive science class is Randy Hollinger. I plan to do some research on him and his 21st century science class. 

    

C4K Summary Post (covering September comments)

The first blog that I commented on for our C4K assignment was for a student from Pt. England School in Auckland, New Zealand named Stephanie. She had written a report on her school's "Silly Sports Day." This was a fun day that all the students enjoyed where they played silly outdoor games. She was very proud of her team for winning the sponge race which was a relay where she and her fellow students had to move water from one bucket to another using only a sponge. I told her that she did a good job on writing her report and congratulated her and her team on winning the sponge race. I told her that I was very impressed with her blog and that I was learning how to blog myself.
My second comment was also to Stephanie. She had created a Google Docs presentation about Canada and their rugby team. She was very excited about the Rugby World Cup being played in her country of New Zealand last month, and each child in her class had to do a presentation about a different team that was playing in the Rugby World Cup. I told her she had done an excellent job on her presentation, and that I was also working on a Google Docs presentation for my class. I also wished her favorite rugby team luck in the upcoming game.
My last blog comment for September was to a student at St. Elmo School. Her name was Kayleigh, and she was part of Andy Capps's St. Elmo Explorers Blog. The students in Kayleigh's PACE class had done an assignment about their differences and similarities. They painted pictures of themselves and shared how they felt they were all different and similar on a video on their blog. Kayleigh felt she was similar to others because she was respectful, and she was different from others because she was adorable. I told her that I loved the colors she used in her painting. I also told her that I thought it was great to be respectful and that she was certainly adorable. I told her and all the students at St. Elmo to keep up all the good work.

Project #8 Video Podcast by Mary LaCoste and Erica Savage