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?
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?
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