At The Teacher's Desk

Mr. McClung explains his first year of teaching. Through self-reflection, he became a better teacher. He was so worried about his assessment that he forgot about his audience, the students. He would beat himself up over failed lesson plans. He stresses the importance of communication between you and fellow instructors. What I appreciated more was instructors setting the bar too high for students and then getting upset and punishing the students for not meeting those goals. Mr. McClung stated that technology is not a monster. It should be taken advantage of in the classroom. I also appreciated him emphasizing that instructors should listen to the students. It is important for instructors to know about the students in the classroom and if you shut them up all of the time you will never know who they are. Although you hold a bachelor's degree, you never stop learning as an instructor. You learn from professional workshops, from co-workers and students. Yes your students can teach you a thing or two especially about technology!

I am terrified about being a first time instructor once I graduate. I think, as Mr. McClung mentioned, that I will be so worried about impressing the principal and other superiors that I will lose sight of being a more effective instructor to my students. Trying to keep up with the No Child Left Behind guidelines and rules is another concern of mine. After speaking to teachers and other students who have spoken to teachers, the paperwork is very stressful. I do not want to be stressed out; I want to enjoy my first year of teaching stress free! Adding to the pressure is not being tenured and possibly losing my job. So if I do not live up to the standards of someone else or if I do not fit in, then I can lose my job. The lack of job security frightens me.

I believe communication is very important in the world period. Effective communication with faculty, parents and students is most important to be a better teacher. Drama at the work place happens but when your work place involves children then you have to be even more careful. Children are very impressionable and if they see their teachers arguing, then they will use that and run with it. The same is true for parents and students alike. I think the best thing is to remain calm.

Wikipedia Is Scandalous!!!

I am shocked to hear and read this information. I have been using Wikipedia for some research and now I question what I have found. It is very ironic that I noticed today, for the first time, that on Wikipedia it says that you can add information to the site. I was baffled because why would "an encyclopedia" allow you to add information to it? I would not think that an encyclopedia would be accurate if users were allowed to make additions so as I closed that tab I thought about it. Then I decided to do my blog entries for class and, low and behold, Wikipedia is the subject!

I read the NPR blog first. That is when I had my initial shock reaction. If you cannot trust Wikipedia then why is it the first site to come up when you Google a topic? So I was a bit apprehensive because I did not want it to be true because, like I stated previously, I have being using Wikipedia for research information. There is a small reference to Virgil Griffith and the Wikipedia Scanner so I am like, "Who is this guy?" The next thing I do is read the NPR article on Wikipedia which goes into a little more detail about Vigil Griffith and listen to the podcast which are on the same site. Now I feel my world crumbling down. It was not until the Wired story that I accepted it.

I do not believe that any information on Wikipedia can be trusted at all. If someone does choose to use this information, I would hope that he or she would have other sources to either corroborate or negate the information retrieved from Wikipedia. Maybe if you searched the definition of a circle or some other known definition then maybe you can accept it but who knows! I know now to NEVER use Wikipedia as a resource. I wondered why the pages were so long too. I guess they would be if someone was doctoring everything up. In my opinion, Wikipedia cannot be trusted. Thanks to Virgil Griffith, a lot of people are now aware of what is going on and his brilliance has exposed so many people that I hope they think twice before doing any editing of any sort.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

When I first read that this would be over an hour long video, I was disappointed. I did not really want to sit and hear someone lecture for over an hour about teaching. Well I quickly took my foot out of my mouth after I listened and watched this video. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was astounding. His presentation was organized and far from boring. I can appreciate his drive and determination to develop a curriculum and have it being used arounf the country. Also, he took it a step further with is computer program, Alice. He made me realize that experimenting can lead to great things and achieving your childhood dream is even better.

Mr. Pausch had many dreams as a child and he was able to live out one of them as an imagineer. He took what he lesrned and asked himself, "How can I anable the childhood dreams of others?" Soon after he asked himself this question, he was approached by a student named Tommy who said that it was his childhood dream to work on the next Star Wars movie. Mr. Pausch created a course called Building Virtual Worlds. Initially, 50 students were selected from different departments at the university. The students were randomly put into teams of 4 which changed per project. There were a total of 15 projects per semester.

Randy Pausch allowed his students to do their first project on whatever because it was new to him too.

Teachers never stop learning and it may surprise some of you but teachers learn from their students as Mr. Pausch did. What his students produced amazed him mostly because the equipment was poor. Since his students made something out of nothing he did not know what to do. He was told to not set a bar because this will allow their imaginations to run wild. I liked this concept because when you praise your students so much as if they did the best they could, there is a chance that they could be hindered because they believe they did the best they could. Not setting a standard or a bar is a positive. However, I can see where this could be a bad idea also because some students may not produce the very best they can. It all depends on the students in my opinion.

I was blown away by the Hello World project. I think it was very creative and looked fun. His classes presented their work to the public. They were able to get other people excited about the projects. Parent participation in college?!!! It takes a pretty good professor to make that happen. In my opinion, if you get the students excited enough about what they are learning and what they are doing, then they will get their parents or guardians more excited and involved. You have parent participation and you also have the participation of the audience. I never knew there was technology out there that allowed the audience to be involved at a movie theater. That is awesome! He made a very good point about the class being a bonding experience. The face that you have to work with different people every two weeks gets even the shyest person to brighten up. Same should be done in public schools. Teachers should have activities where students bond with each other. They will not even know what is going on and by the time they figure it out, they will have made more friends than they would have on their own.

His course was project-based only. He did not find the need in having students purchase books because he felt they had read enough in their undergrad. I do not believe it is possible to go without books in elementary and secondary schools but it is possible to have more projects, mostly group projects, in the classroom. This teaches students how to work with other people because whether the y will want to or not, they will have to work with other people in the future at their job. I appreciated how he had students rate each other's "easiness to work with" individually in the group. People found out if they were a jerk to work with or a pleasure to work with. It helped his students "to become self-reflective." Those who cared, realized that they may need to change how the talk to other people.

"Kids having fun while learning something hard." This was his legacy and I can respect that. If we as instructors and future instructors can present the information to our students in a way that while they are learning, they are not bothered by the difficulty of the material because they are having fun. If they are having fun while doing the work, then they will hunger for more. Come on my fellow educators out there. We have to make the material more fun in order to keep our students focused and engaged in the classrooms.

Since then, Tommy, our student whose childhood dream was to work on the set of the next Star Wars, has worked on all three of the Star Wars films.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

This video says it all!!! I have not had a class with over 100 students in a while, but when I had those classes I was lost in the crowd. The teacher cannot focus on you because, not only does he or she have your 100+ class, he or she also has two or three other classes the same size. The same can be said about elementary and secondary schools. A few of my classes in high school had so many students, that we had to borrow desks from neighboring classrooms. In high school, almost all of the teachers knew my name but that was on a smaller scale compared to college. At Auburn, none of my teachers knew my name except when I began taking my methods classes because I saw the same teachers for two years!!! Those classes were not large so it was easier to remember our names.

I have had plenty of classes where a classmate has been on roll the entire semester but never showed up; not for tests, mandatory classes or anything!!! That is money wasted because the student never showed up to class. That is one less student the teacher has to worry about and one less student hindering the teacher from remembering my name. Now for those who do show up, you have the few who have their laptops with them. Nine times out of ten, what is on the screen of their laptop is not related to what we are doing in class. The most famous thing to do when in class and you have your laptop is to search FACEBOOK!!! Just this past Saturday in my Health class, one of my fellow classmates spent his time on facebook while the professor was going over a chapter.

The section that really spoke to me was how a day in the life of a college student is spent and how many hours our day consists of. I am lucky if I get 7 hours of sleep each night because I have a 3 month old at home:) Things have not really peaked here at USA for me but when I was at Auburn I really thought that I had invented my own perception of time. There were not enough hours in the day for what I had to do. The icing on the cake is that when I graduate, with huge bags under my eyes, I am going to be in debt!!! I worked my tail off to be in debt. Really?!

Now to make this video really capture my overall college experience, I would add a Black student surrounded by White students but with empty seats around the Black student. Racism still exists and I have been treated like I was not even in the classroom by classmates. This is a major issue I faced in two or three classes while in college. I chose to go to a school with students who did not resemble me for a reason. I had gone to high school and middle school with Black students and thought that by going to a college with a low number of Black students compared to White students I would have a broader experience. But in doing so, I was treated like I did not exist.

Kelly Hines: "It's Not About the Technology"

In Mrs. Hines' post, the importance of technology in the classroom was discussed. Her opinion on how much emphasis should be placed on technology in the classroom is one that I share. I believe technology is important in the classroom but I am one who is eager to learn more about the software and websites that are readily available to me as a future mathematics teacher. I also believe that there is no use in a school system paying for expensive equipment and software when the teacher is not willing to learn more about it. I do think, however, that a teacher would do her class an injustice if he or she did not take the time to learn to be a better teacher. I am not saying that technology should be a sole means to teaching in the classroom but I do think that it is an added bonus.

Mrs. Hines also lists what a successful teacher is. I have listed a couple already but to elaborate on it I will say that a teacher has to be effective and successful before technology is introduced into the classroom. I can appreciate her saying that no matter how long you have been teaching a certain way and no matter how many students got it previously, if there is one student who is not learning, then your plan is ineffective and you have to do what is necessary to make sure that student and everyone else is learning what you are teaching. Just because you are the teacher does not mean you stop learning. The classroom teaches you everyday how to become a better teacher. Basically, technology cannot be implemented until you are able to reach your students without it.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

As a Secondary Mathematics major I can relate on how it seems to be more socially acceptable to NOT know mathematics but NOT socially accepted to NOT know how to read. One is not better than the other; they are equally important. This really stuck out to me and I just had to elaborate on it. Technology can be incorporated in just about every subject taught at schools, including both reading and math. It takes a motivated educator to do what is necessary to learn the information and share it with his or her classroom. If the teachers do not know and the parents do know, then how can expect our children to know about technology?! Kids learn quickly. As soon as iPods, iPhones, cell phones, etc., became popular, they basically taught themselves and each other how to use them. I can recall, as a kid, having to put together and setup every electronic device in our house because my mom did not know what to do. I figured it out and showed her what I did. The same continues today; I have to show her how to do things on her laptop but she has made efforts to learn things on her own and she has pretty much mastered emailing:) Our world is becoming a technological pool and we have to keep up and produce future educators, engineers, architects, doctors, and lawyers who can also keep up. Something new is always readily available to replace the new gadget of yesterday, literally!

I took a similar class to this one at Auburn University and I enjoyed learning new things and reviewing what I already knew. Mathematics is everywhere but our students have not yet grasped that concept. I have learned how to make mathematics more enjoyable through the use of technology. Even something as simple as Microsoft Excel can be exciting to students who have had no exposure. Technology is not the answer to all of our problems as educators, but the rewards for our students to have exposure to it is exponential! As a product of the public school system, I can honestly say that there was a lack of technology in the classroom. We had a few computers in the classroom but they were more for recreational purposes than anything else. Had we explored software, such as Geometer's Sketchpad, I may have had a better understanding for geometry for example (I really missed out in Geometry because the educator became pregnant and left the beginning of the year and we were stuck with substitute after substitute). My senior math educator had been teaching for about 25-30 years which meant technology was unheard of to her. Educators must be held responsible and, as Mr. Fisch said, so should the schools, school systems, etc.

Plagiarism and copyright regulations

Plagiarism is not hard to do and at the same time it is simple to avoid. When I was in elementary and middle school, plagiarism was not heard of in the classroom. I can remember copying, word for word, out of the encyclopedia whenever I had a report due during Black History Month! I was not told that it was wrong and I did not have a teacher who said anything about it. I did not get hip about the "P" word until high school and that is when everything changed. It forced me to expand my vocabulary and read for understanding. Since I had not put things in my own words previously, the transition was a bit daunting but I quickly got over it. It was easy for me but for some it was not happening quick enough or not happening at all! Plagiarism is something that should be explained early on in a students' educational career :) How can you penalize them for doing it when they have been doing it for so long? I am not saying I am for plagiarism at all but all I am saying is that teachers should be held accountable for stressing he in's and out's of plagiarism in elementary and middle school.

In saying that, plagiarism is WRONG!!! Those who you copy from and give no credit to , worked hard to put together and publish their thoughts and it is immoral to write it as your own. As I said earlier, plagiarism is easy to do if you do not know the rules for citing someone's work. Simply changing a few words with your handy thesaurus is not good enough. By the same token, your work should not be one big quote either. Students in college get in serious trouble if they are caught plagiarizing. You risk getting kicked out of your program and not receiving credit for that class. It is not difficult to read something and formulate your own opinion about it. Simply said, if you are unsure about whether or not you are plagiarizing, give credit where it is due just to cover yourself.

Tools used for alternative web browsing

Mr. Sullivan's PowerPoint presentation was an eye opener. You hear so much about race related laws and racial discrimination that you forget about the laws that protect those who suffer from a disability. He lists several federal laws (The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, The American's With Disabilities Act and The Telecommunications Act of 1996) and guidelines (W3C, WAI, WCAG 1.0 and 2.0, ATAG, XAG and UAAG) which make web browsing easier and convenient for persons with disabilities. He also lists software that are used to assist blind, deaf and paralyzed citizens who access the Internet. From screen magnification software to voice recognition software, there is a product out there for everyone. There is also screen reader software too!

Screen magnification software makes text larger on the computer screen and it also reads text aloud. This is ideal for persons who are do not have adequate eyesight or suffer from learning disabilities. Screen reader software reads an entire screen and also navigates a site through speech. With this software, the keyboard is used to enter commands. This is ideal for persons who are blind. Voice recognition software performs commands by speaking into a microphone. This is ideal for persons who suffer from crebral palsy or any other disability which limits the use of hands. Although the second link that listed tools and software for the accessibility for all was not well maintained, I was able to view a couple of software programs that made things a bit easier for persons with disabilities. EMACSPEAK allows blind people to be independent computer users and HAL reads a screen to a blind person and also uses Braille.
This information can be found at Mr. Stephen Sullivan's blog.

Podcasting in the classroom

In this videocast, the benefits of podcasting were highlighted. It starts off describing what a podcast is. His definition was very accurate and easy to understand. Educators can record a lecture and upload it to iTunes where a sick child can have access to it, the class can review it and parents can be more involved in with what their children are learning. Also the ease of uploading the lectures to iTunes is ideal for teachers who are not as computer savvy as others. Here, the student can teach the class and teacher when he or she learns something new while playing around with podcasts and videocasts.

I was most impressed with the social studies teacher, Henry Dell, who used podcasts in ways that I had not even thought of mainly because I am a future math teacher. He found new ways to incorporate podcasts in the classroom. He began by doing the old fashion reading in class from the book. Then he took it a step further and read via podcasts. Next he had the students to read in character via podcasts. This makes learning more exciting. By participating, students remember more and are responsible for their learning.

Children who are born after 1980 are those who are more exposed to technology. Students are familiar with the technology involved in making a videocast and podcast. Therefore, this type of technology is more relevant to them more so than it is to someone who was born in the 60's. They can learn it but it will not come as easy to the newer generation. These days, we are so occupied with iPods that now students can not only listen to music but also listen to educational lectures and such. Again, parents can become more involve with student learning if the same iPod their child is listening to is now heard in the car by all while taking a road trip. This sparks conversation between parent and child which is lacking in some communities.

EDM 310 Podcasts

The fist thing I noticed when watching this videocast was that the speakers were not all facing the camera. Also when they introduced themselves no one looked at the camera and it looked as if Nicole, Dana and Megan all looked as if they were reading their introductions off of paper. The could have at least known their name and major! Megan, when she spoke, spoke quietly. I had to really listen to hear what she was saying. The camera seemed to be far away which made me focus on more of what was going on in the room. I noticed what appeared to be a trash bag tie on the table. Also, I found myself looking at the decor. I was not very engaged in the topic. The only people who did most of the talking were the graduate students and Dr. Strange. The lack of a script was very evident. The answers were not well put together. The script would have made that part of the videocast better. The wrap-up session was a flop also. The same people participated for the majority of this part of the videocast.

Seeing this videocast was very useful. When it comes time for me to produce one, I will have a better idea of what works and what does not work. I think the setting is very important. I want my audience to focus only on me or, if I am doing a group project, my group and me. So a nice and clean background with a table and microphone would suffice. I would make sure that everyone spoke up and eloquently. Keeping the conversation alive would not hurt either. A joke or a detailed and interesting story may liven things up a bit. Eye contact is very important. Not only are you speaking to one another but you are also speaking to an audience who happens to be anyone who views it.

Podcasts

The first podcast that I listened to was the Connect Learning Episode 105 with Clarence Fisher. I was unable to pull up any other podcast but this one. I had no choice in the four that were in our assignment sheets. Honestly, this podcast was so hard to embrace due to the noise in the background. I found it very odd for this conversation to be taking place in a restaurant full of loud patrons. However, I did like what Clarence Fisher had to say.

I think it is very important for students to learn on their own and he does also. He is very insistent on not teaching software to students. He allows them to explore on their own for about 30 minutes or so. After 30 minutes, he has the class come back together and share what they have learned. This way the class is learning from each other as well as the teacher learning from his students. Students are held accountable for their own learning. He also is responsible for a reading and writing checklist for each of his students. Instead of doing the checklists himself, he allows the students to assess their own progress. This way the students see where they are and where they need to be as far as reading and writing are concerned. With this, he makes his students responsible for setting their own goals and responsible for learning. I am all about making students responsible for their learning.

Another point that he brings up is to allow students to bring laptops in the classroom. This is a great idea! We do it in college and it would have made a difference if they were introduced earlier on. The world is moving so fast and our students need to be prepared for the future.

**I found the required podcasts at the last minute so here it is short and sweet. I listened to Connect Learning Episode 90. I enjoyed to listening to the teachers come up with the different ways to use podcasts in the classroom. Students could use a classroom podcast and refer to it while doing homework.**

The second podcast I listened to was Smart Board Lessons. This podcast was clearer than the previous. I could hear the conversation between the two persons and there were no distractions. In this particular podcast, they talked about movies that incorporated math within them. I am a math major and no matter what I do, watch, hear, math is going through my head. Children watch movies but are not thinking about school when they look at the movies that were mentioned (Shrek, Alice in Wonderland, Father of the Bride, Jurassic Park and Mean Girls). There are TV shows I look at that get me thinking about combinations, algebra, logic, etc. The show Numb3rs is a great example. It is based on actual cases that involve using mathematics in order to solve crimes. Who would have thought that you could use mathematics in police work? Everyday y0u hear kids and adults say that they will never use math for this or for that but mathematics is all around us.

Joan Badger purchased 10 iPod touches....10!!!! I never would have seen the need for these in a classroom but according to her there are applications that are very useful in the classroom. I personally would never purchase iPod anything to use in the classroom (just my personal preference). It was compared to a laptop. I do not own one neither have I ever had the privilege to use one either but a laptop? That is a very powerful little device. I know it has Internet capabilities and, from what I heard on the podcast, it can be used as a recorder when a microphone is attached to it.

KidCast was, by far, my favorite. Dan Shmit presented his information in a clear and professional manner. His podcast was not as entertaing as the first two mainly because he was straightforward and did not waste my time with personal stories He gave me pros and cons for using either a video podcast or an audio podcast. The choice is really dependent on what you are doing. In his opinion the audio podcast was the best choice in more cases but if I had to choose between video and audio, I think I would choose video more often. With video podcasting, you are putting yourself out for public critique than with audio. Audio podcasting only requires you to concentrate on your voice and pronunciation. Video podcasting requires you to think about the set; clothing, props and lighting. If I was giving a demonstration on how to bake a cake, I would prefer to use a video podcast for my audience. As he stated, it is all preference. You have to find the media that fits what you are trying to convey.

The EdTechTalk podcast focused on voice thread in the library. I did not enjoy this particular podcast because it was very choppy. There were distractions in the background and, as each person spoke, their voice went in and out. The MacBreak Weekly started out like some of the others. I prefer it if the speakers would just get to the point and stick to it. I do not own a Mac nor do I understand "Mac language." This podcast really did not interest me. I enjoyed the This Week in Photography podcast. I have found a new passion for photography and I am very interested in learning more about cameras and ways to get more out of it. They got off subject at times but for the most part I enjoyed the podcast. They spoke clearly but I did not like the phone calls. It adds to my dislike for syndicated media. It makes me sleepy and reminds me of my grandmother's radio station!!!

This is my first time being introduced to podcasts and listening to them. I am a big fan of iTunes but I only used it for putting music on my iPod unfortunately. I am not a fan of syndicated media at all. But after listening to these educational podcasts, I think I could have a change of heart. These were some interesting audio podcasts with the exception of a few. I am ready to learn how to make my own podcasts and hopefully speak as well as these speakers did!!!