blogging

Here is a jog the web with some great examples of how teachers use blogs in their classrooms!

http://boomingreflections.blogspot.com/2010/11/blogging-microteaching.html

exit 11/18

-technology is used and probably will be used later, students should be prepared at school to the most available extent
-jigsaw strategies for grouping students disscussion
-directions for an assignment before not during
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exit 11/11/10

-its up to educaters to use technology in the classroom
-"the best laid plans of mice and men" have a plan B
-give students an oppertunity to look at questions from another perspective
-good structure helps students focuse
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ch9. What does it all wean?

How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?

Technology is part of young peoples lives. we really aren't going in a direction were it is going to become a smaller part of students everyday life especially out side of class. Students spend more time texting, video gaming, Internet surfing and all the new stuff i don't even know about yet. As much as i would like things to be the way they were a hundred or more years ago it isn't possible and we should make the best of every generation. Teachers need to keep up with technology students use as a way of relating to and communicating with their students. teachers need to adapt to how students are using technology to learn and adjust their teaching accordingly.


What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

I never play video games, i sit with my son while he plays, he can go for hours if i didn't cut him off. I  try and play chess with him, but it doesn't hold his attention for more than 20-30 min at best. I will recognize that a lot of students are going home and solving problems in a virtual world on some computer type system. Kids are going to be really good at manipulating icons on a screen, and i will try and look at this as an advantage in their learning process rather than a waste of their time. if i can relate my instruction to the students personal interests i have a better chance of teaching them a given subject. If i can teach to their interests during the class day  then i can go home after a day of teaching take my rotary phone off the hook and put the A side of my favorite Gregory Isaacs record on.

ch8 how schools cope w/ new technologies

• How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?

I thought computer based assessment went as far as the state and nation standardized tests with the scan tron sheets. the system doesn't measure the individuals knowledge because the information gathered is to compare districts. the computer based assessment described in this book sounds a lot more involved w/ the students individual abilities. I saw this as the teachers domain using a wealth of different strategies, tests, and assignments to gauge a students ability. But if a computer can do it better then we should. I am not sure how i feel about students only taking classes that they need for a specific certification. Personally i like the old system a wide base of knowledge that all students have the opportunity to get. i didn't have a clue what i wanted to do in high school, in fact i didn't know what i wanted to be until my mid twenties and i don't expect high school students to be able to chose correctly, even w/ the help of a computer.

I had a couple of friends in middle school who dropped out and never got a diploma from high school, they got GED's. both of these gentlemen were very computer inclined but couldn't handle the stress of a traditional school environment. If they had the opportunity to take a few of their classes on-line and maybe show up half days to get in art class or something they may have stayed in school.

• What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

I like some of those ideas in the new curriculum design. If i am teaching in a poor district that cannot offer the exceptional students the classes they want or need a distance learning situation were students from one school can take the classes, AP Biology for example, they want via computer on-line.

i want students to stay in school and get the most they can from it. Kids are good at computers, my six year old can use a computer w/ assistance, an i pod, a digital camera, and video games. If students have a hard time being in a traditional class room all day long i am all for them using half the day getting computer based classes, whatever works.

exit nov.4

- things are starting to go back to the apprentice/journymen system of education
-distance learning is becouming more common place for all types of certification
-give ful directions before breaking up into smaller groups
-smaller groups better for meaningful disscussion
-student created content is king
-scratch powerful tool for kids