Week 8: the end of EDU 653

Another valuable class that can easily be applied within the classroom walls draws to an end.  I can honestly say that in the beginning of this class I was a little skeptical of how much of this class I would really take into my classroom.  From the class essays that we created on the class wiki to podcasts and digital story telling, to the weekly blogs; there are pieces that I am going to try to incorporate into my classroom next fall.

 

I even enjoyed those class essays towards the end (not so much in the beginning) of the class.  Although I often found myself on the opposite side of the stance that I agreed with.  I just took that as a challenge.  I challenged myself, being the professional that I am, to find valuable pieces to incorporate into our arguments.  I even found myself seeing the “other” sides’ viewpoint and started to lean that way.  It was a very eye opening experience.

Week 8: Classroom Management App

One of my personal goals for this summer was to invest time in finding awesome Apps to use next year with our classroom iPads. I found a great one for classroom management through edutopia.org. I've never really had an issue with classroom management overall, what I have been finding myself struggling lately with is when it comes time to doing report cards ever quarter. For each one of our classes we have to assign a letter grade for behavior. In the grand scheme of things that doesn't seem too bad because typically one would only have a student in one class maybe two. This past year I had a class of sixth graders that I had for three different classes, therefore I needed to assign them three different behavior grades. Like most middle schoolers, not all of them behave the same way for one class compared to another. It all depends on a variety of factors such as subject matter, time of class, what class it follows, who they sit by, etc. I wish I would have came across the ClassDojo app during the school year.

On this app you add your classes and students, every time that they negative point every time that they are talking out of turn, off task or unprepared for class. You can also reward them positively for being on task, working hard, participating in class discussions, etc. I think this would work great because it is a running tally (I'm horrible with writing things down on a post it and then losing it)rather than just trying to recall the past quarter on the night before grades are due , while my 7 month old crys because his gums hurt from teething. Another handy aspect of this app is that the teacher can email parents about their childs behavior at any time.

Awesome find and I can't wait to share it with my fellow staff members.

Week 7: 7 Things you should know about collaborative editing

I truely wish that I would have read this article in the beginning of this course.  I don't know about anyone else but the weekly group research assignment made my stomach want to do flips in the beginning.  I dislike group work. I have very seldomly been "on the good end" - I typically was the one that was making sure everything was the best product it could be when placed in groups during school.  I'm not one to stress out, but do when it comes to group assignments.  I remember back to the first week when I repeatedly kept checking the wiki to see if someone started, to see if I could get a grasp of how this was going to work considering that none of us had ever met and most likely never would.

Overall I like the concept that multiple people can edit one paper/assignment whenever it is convienent for them, or when they have something constructive to say.  I think it is something that I could see myself using in a classroom with the idea that the students could discuss their ideas with their peers and then go to work on the assignment. 

Week 7: Virtual Schooling

As the school year winded down I continued to explore some options for next year.  As much as I love my school, faculty, and students/families I feel that there is more out there for me to do, more avenues to explore, more students for me to teach.  One of the avenues that I am considering is online (virtual) schooling, so when I came across the article Virtual Schooling: Where Are We Now? Where Are We Headed? it sparked my interest. 

This article has tons of facts about virtual schooling and lists the pros and cons along with several of the reasons why it seems to be picking up steam and not looking back.  Up until reading this article I did not realize that Michigan was the first state to require online learning for high school graduation.

I also found the following statitistics to be interesting, especially since this is the path I chose to study for my masters program: 65% of today's grade school kids will end up at jobs that haven't invented yet, according to US department of Labor.  By 2020, 50% of high school courses will be delivered online.  By 2050 virtual services will be the basis for many jobs. (Miller)

Week 6: Ning

Until I read this weeks article "7 Things You Should Know About Ning" I had no idea what it was.  After reading the article I went to the site to learn more or to see it in action.  Unfortunately I would have to sign up to see it and I don't want to get hooked in as of today.  I think the concept behind it - creating a social network that is contained and watched by the teacher for purposes of sharing ideas- is good.  My students are used to using social networking sites (even though the vast majority are under the minimum age limit that has been established by these sites) and that's the type of interactions that they like and thrive on.  Why not use this to our advantage to get/keep the students attention in the classroom.

Week 6: Schools in the red

As I spent my first week of summer vacation looking at the possibility of changing schools this fall for a variety of reasons (shorter commute, more pay, new experiences, etc.) I came across the article on edweek.org Michigan says 55 school districts have deficits which makes me second guess things.  This year a record amount of schools districts in Michigan are operating with less money then what is needed to function.  In Saginaw there were schools that closed down for two weeks because they couldn't afford to pay their teachers.  There is another district that is not going to have a high school next year in order to help cut district costs. 

As a parent, this makes me wonder how things got so bad in these districts without anyone saying anything (getting assistance from the state) until it was too late.  Where did those students go for two weeks?  Were parents forced to stay home to take care of their kids during this time?  How would that affect the parents ability to pay their household bills that month? 

As a teacher, this makes me worry because in todays economy this could happen in any district.  Currently I work in a school that is funded by tuition.  If we don't have enough kids come in as we graduate the previous year, we lose a teacher.  Simple as that.  This also weighs on my decision to look elsewhere.  But is the grass greener on the other side?

Week 5: What Do Parents Think About Mobile Learning

Mobile devices in schools could be a great thing.  For schools that are finding their belts as tight as  they can go, mobile devices would be able to be used in math class (as a calculator), in a current events class to read various types of newspapers from all around the world, and in pretty much any other class to look up facts about a topic (in the moment type of learning).  I found this article fascinating What Do Parents Think About Mobile Learning because of the statistics of parents that are on board with  this type of learning tool.  As far as an educator and a parent standpoint I think it would be an excellent opportunity (with boundaries maintained) because if the mobile device was already bought, why not use it for good?  Why as a parent would I buy my student a phone so that I could keep tabs on him and then turn around and want to spend more money on calculators for the classroom that have the same functions that could be used on the phone.