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.

Week 5: "Get Over It"

Today as I packed up my classroom for summer, one of my fellow teachers came in to tell me about a site she just found that ties language (which we both teach) and technology (we are now a 1:1 iPad school).  I was excited to say the least.  The site is called Langwitches and I'm now currently following their blog.  One of the articles "Get Over It" talks about teachers needing to get over the fear of technology and embrace it.  I am proud to be in a school that I can confidently say all of the staff embrace technology.  It makes the point to say that even if a teacher doesn't embrace technology, by no means does it mean that their students won't be able to learn, but rather the students will only be able to get to a certain point before the lack of technology starts to way in and become a problem - especially in the age of technology that we are in today!

Week 4: article Nine strategies for Reaching All Learners in English Language Arts

Today I read the article "Nine strategies for Reaching All Learners in English Language Arts."  I really enjoyed this article because I have a extreme challenge this coming fall. I have taught middle school language arts (and science) for years. For the most part my students have been relatively at the same point as far as their level.  Next year is the year of extremes.  In the class of 20 (parochial school) I will have four students who are at a high school level as far as their writing and reading skills go, I will have about five students who at slightly higher than grade level, a few that are at grade level and then two individuals that are at a third grade level.  We do not have a resource room for these students to go to, we can't hold them back because they are almost 15 and only going into 6th grade.  The parents actually pulled them from public schools and placed them with us simply because they do not want their child labeled.  Its a sad situation for both of the students. 

My goal for this summer is to stock pile any and all resources that I can get my hands onto that might help the students also looking for different ways to be able to keep ALL of the students challenged so that they continue advancing.  I liked the suggestion of "design product-driven reading and writing instruction" as well as the "immerse students in the genre".  I know that both of the students enjoy mythology and other science related topics so I actually think I might start off the classes with those types of this and slowly meander to other genres.

Week 4: chapter 8 Podcasting

Chapter 8 of our classroom text talked about podcasting. I can honestly say that even though I had used the audacity software in another one of my grad classes I didn't even have a clue what I could accomplish with the software until reading this chapter. For my previous class I remember having my school lap top sitting next to my husband's desktop computer all while holding my iPod, needless to say it was quite the circus act! I remember only doing two "takes" of my podcast and reading it straight from a piece of paper and called it good. Uploaded, submitted, done.

This time however I was planning my podcast throughout the week and looking back over my notes preparing myself as I fed my son his bottle. Luckily little Isaac was on the same page as me and did not fight his afternoon nap. I had so much fun creating this project and inserting all of the audio clips that I kept hoping that he would keep sleeping so that I could continue to "play". I had fun editing and redoing each clip until I was happy with it. Most likely I still have a lot to learn about everything that audacity has to offer but I definitely can see myself using this in my classroom this coming fall.

Week 3: Google +

I just read an article on CNN Tech titled "How Google+ is pushing its way into all Google products".  I am one of those people that abandoned my hotmail and yahoo accounts many years ago and upgraded to my first gmail account.  I remember when in order to get a gmail account you had to be invited by someone who already had account.  I had to laugh because in the article it talks about people not using Google+ for everything that it is capable of doing.  I am completely guilty.  Up until taking EDU 653 this semester I didn't even know what Google+ plus was all about, and truthfully its a work in progress to discover everything it can do.  Like the article talks about, some people have multiple gmail accounts and go back and forth between.  I am also guilty of this.  I have one account that has my maiden name in it (which is what this blogger has been tied to since before I got married) and one account with my married name in it.  Half of the time I go do something for class and I always seem to be in the "wrong account" but don't seem to realize it until much later and then I realize everything I was doing was for nothing.   The article was eye-opening to me and makes me want to discover more about Google+ so that I can use it for my benefit and hopefully become less frustrated with it!

Week 3: Free Apps.... Free is good!

I read an article from Edutopia today titled "Free iPad Apps to Teach Current Events" as a teacher in a parochial school I'm always looking for cost-effective means to bring lessons to my students.  Recently my 6th and 7th graders received their iPads making our whole entire school (140 students) a 1:1 iPad learning school.  I want to use these new classroom tools to the best of my ability but yet can't justify buying any Apps for this school year since we only have seven class days yet.  This article gave me several ideas to use, specifically the NBC Nightly News app as well as the SnagFilms app, inside my classroom.  I am always trying to give the students more opportunities to read science related articles that are up to date with information.  These two Apps are now installed on my school iPad as well as will be downloaded first thing on Monday morning so that my students can read content related articles that can help them beome more aware of the world that is going on all around them!

Week 2: They have to fail in order to succeed

They have to fail in order to succeed

I am following one of the blogs that was mentioned in chapter 2 of our book (Bill Chamberlain).  One of is blogs struck a cord with me because my students do this all of the time.  Any time that we are in the science lab on experiment day I always have a handful of students that are so eager to begin their experiment that it seems all of the directions that I gave them ahead of time has flown out the window.  Like Chamberlain mentions, it seems that some of the students minds start going full steam ahead at the word "experiment" that they forget to pay attention to the directions.  This could end very badly especially if we are working with fire, gas, or chemicals that day.  I don't want to squash their excitment, but the end result for not following the directions during a lab is an automatic 0.  This has caught the eye of a few of my eager students over the past year and has seemed to help curb their eagerness to an extent (at least until AFTER the directions are given!)

Week 2: article - Staying "connected" through twitter

It made me laugh when I watched the video clip on Twitter this week.  It pointed out that most of our everyday lives are hidden from the people that we care about.  At the same time these little things that we do don't warrant a email being sent because they really don't "need" to know about these things but yet that is what Twitters main use is: allowing anyone and everyone who subscribes to your account to find out about these "finer details" of our everyday life. 

Many people (my middle school students included) spend a decent amount of time each day finding about the aspects in everyone elses lives.  I feel that its gotten to a point that sometimes it borders on stalking but yet those that have a twitter account are basically putting their lives out there for everyone to see and stalk.  So because of this it is more acceptable.

I do however like the idea of using twitter as a way of getting feedback after a class or conference.  It allows the feedback to be front and center (and save trees in the process).  It is a quick way to recap since it is so readily available on multiple devices.