The List!!!

We had to choose two important points from Doug Johnson's Seven Stupid Mistakes and Seven Brilliant Things Teachers Do With Technology and New Classroom Rules by Education Innovation.

From Seven Stupid Mistakes Teachers Make With Technology I chose Not backing up data. This is so very important and almost second nature. No matter what, I save files to my laptop, to my storage device and I email it to two of my accounts. I know what it feels like to work so hard on something and then lose it. From my first experience, I learned a valuable lesson. I will teach this to all of my students. It is such a headache trying to re-do something from memory. I also chose Ignoring the intrinsic interest of tech use in today's kids. Students love technology; they love computers. As I have said before, if we are not incorporating technology into the classroom, then we are doing a disservice to our students. There are benefits to using technology along with traditional styles f teaching. Times are changing and we should adapt to the new wave.

From Seven Brilliant Things Teachers Do With Technology I chose Creatively find and use resources. We all know that with budget cuts we may have to come out of pocket for many of our resources that we use in the classroom. But there are innovative and less expensive things we can do and also get our students involved in doing to have more in the classroom. For instance, as a mathematics instructor, my students and I can create our own sundials to use in trigonometry instead of buying ONE we can have one for ever student. There are things we can do to make instruction time more fun and interesting. I also chose Accept the role of co-learner. As educators, we never stop learning. Allowing our students to teach us and their peers, their self-esteem rises and they feel more appreciated. Educators should involve students more because we may prepping future educators.

From New Classroom Rules I chose Come to class everyday. It is so important to be present in class; whether it be online or in an actual building. It has been very hard for me to attend one class because I have an infant at home. I have missed so much but it is my responsibility to get notes from my classmates and stay in touch with my professor. Communication is key if you are not able to show up for every class meeting. Although I get notes from my classmates, it is nothing like having my own because I know what is and what is not important to me. I try to get everything that is told to me where someone else may be able to remember more and not write that down. I also chose Complete all assignments neatly and on time. This goes hand in hand with my service learning I have completed in another class this semester. I was at a private school and in a competitive honors class one student did not complete her homework. She went ballistic and became angry with the instructor. We should teach our students the importance of being on time and apply this to real world situations. The same is true for neat work. If students have a problem with handwriting, we should help them to correct this problem and also, if it is too severe, have them type all of their assignments. Technology...isn't it great!

At the Teachers Desk

The importance of having a collaborative blog such as the one found on At The Teacher's Desk is that, once again, it adds to our PLN and helps to give ideas to others and get us to thinking about different things.

In the post I read titled, Scary Statistics, I found a few surprises. The number of males who attend college and graduate with a bachelors and masters was significantly lower than I expected. It seems that I hear more about males who are the dominating force but women seem to be the ones who are excelling. Huh? As far as males bing suspended and expelled more, I can believe it. Not discriminating, but from experience in elementary and secondary school, more males were getting in trouble which resulted in either of the being the form of punishment. What intrigued me more was that more males were diagnosed with emotional disturbances than females. Females are more emotional than males. This blog ends with: What can we better do to help our boys succeed? Good question but how do you go about solving this problem? The only alternative I can think of is something similar to boarding school or military school. But then the downfall would be the lack of socializing with the oppostite sex. Which may or may not be important to some but I think it is important for children to be around those of the opposite sex to learn how to co-exist with them.

The next blog I read was Fundreds. This blog raises awareness of lead-containminated soil in the major U.S. cities and those who contribute to the pollution. It is an art-based project called the Fundreds project. Students are given templates to creatively designtheir own fake hundred dollar bill. It is an artistic project which I think is great since many schools who are lacking sufficient funding have to eventually cut their art program. The funds raised and collected help support New Orleans. This project goes beyond art; it helps students to realize that we as a nation must come together to help one another out in desperate situations. No one's problem is theirs alone.

I also read Teachers Need to Become Social Networking Experts. In this blog the scenario of a teacher who is out sick has another teacher to step in to take over the class. Well this class is ahead so the teacher must find something for them to do. The teacher turns to Twitter. In a matter of minutes people the sick teacher does not even know has given ideas to the teacher who Twitted them. I think this is another way that shows those who are tech illiterate how technology can be useful in the classroom as an educator. The more people you know and are connected to, the more ideas you have access to.

In the blog, How Do I Know I Am Not Just Being Selfish?, the question of whether or not technology use is being asserted too much was asked. I really do not think it is. Once upon a time it was easy to find a job not having any knowledge about technology. Now it is asked on job applications how much you know and how fast can you type. I think it will become more of a determinant in the future. I do not think that the technology agenda is being pushed too hard. For our nation to be so "powerful" we are behind in so many ways. The last blog post I read was Using Technology for Effective Communication. The matter adressed was being able to effectively communicate with parents. I think it is very important to be able to communicate with the parents of all students especially those who speak little English. What the blogger made a good point about was the use of teh mobile phone. What I think about is it is good for parents to have access to teachers if any confusion needs to be clarified and the reverse is also true for teachers? However, what about harassment? Or, as an educator, will you have time away from the job?

CommentKids: Rachel

I read a blog about Rachel's field trip to the swamp to see a trumpeter swan get its wings clipped. She explained how the men used a big net and a small boat to catch it. In his attempt to catch the swan, he almost fell into the water. The reason for them to clip the swan's wings is so that it will know that he is at home and will not try to fly away. The DNR is trying to increase the swan population in the swamps and according to Rachel we must all do our parts to help.

My comment to Rachel was that she introduced me to words I was unfamiliar with until now. My experience with an animal with clipped wings was with my parakeets and I have never sen a swan in person. I gave her positive feedback on her story. I enjoyed reading it.