What I have learned...

This is my last required blog for my CEP class, but it defiantly will not be my last blog I will write. I have taken so much away from this class and can't wait to continue to explore what other types of technology are out there! An important thing I have learned from this class is that there are endless possibilities to use technology in the classroom. Before taking this class I thought using technology in the classroom meant using computers, projectors, ELMO's and SmartBoards, but nothing beyond that. Technology is more than the equipment that could be found in your classroom. It's more about the different programs and ways of communicating between people. This semester we were able to explore a different type of technology every week and from reading other people's blogs and doing some exploring on the Internet that there are thousands of ways to bring technology into the classroom. But it's not just knowing about these technologies that's important, you need to implement them! Bringing technology into the classroom will make lessons and what I'm teaching more engaging for my students. Technology is the future of schools and classrooms and that is something that we as teachers need to embrace and use in the classroom since students are going to be using technology in many aspects of their life. I want to learn even more about how I can integrate technology into my classroom and how to show other educators and administrators how important it is to use technology in the classroom. I plan on continuing to keep up with my blogging, expanding my portfolio and keeping up with other teachers and colleagues blogs. It's important to keep up with technology that is being invented every day because it is really going to influence how we teach in the classroom.

Reward Systems in Classrooms

One thing I have discovered in my field placement this year is that my CT is BIG on reward systems in her classroom. At the beginning of the year she would do a different type of reward system every week, which has turned into a monthly reward system. The students are divided into 7 or so different groups that are based off their reading levels. One week she had small plastic cups that she would fill with marbles or pebbles if she saw a group doing a good job. She has also used a sticker system where the students needed 20 stickers by the end of the month to be apart of a class party. Right now she is implementing a bead reward system where each student has a container that they will is being filled up with green and red beads, which will be used to make a necklace at the end of the month. So if the students are doing their work and behaving in the classroom then they will receive more beads to make their necklace with. I question the way my CT rewards the her students because she will tell the students that they will earn 5 beads if she sees the group working well for the next 20 minutes instead of rewarding the students for doing a good job after the fact. There is sometimes 3 different systems going on at once inside the classroom, which I think could be confusing for the students. There is a sticker chart on the doors of her classroom for each student, there is sometimes a group reward system, such as the cup and pebble one explained earlier, and another system where students get a star or sticker to put on their sheet, which they keep on their desks. Also there is constant competition between the boys and the girls, where if the girls are doing well then they will get a sticker and also a competition between the different groups of students, as well as a competition between individual students to see who can collect the most stickers or beads. There is too much rewarding and competition that is going on in this classroom that I think is taking away from the learning, which should be the most important thing in a classroom.
I'm not sure how I feel about reward systems in classrooms because I think this is taking away from the fact that students are being extrinsically motivated to learn instead of intrinsically. The students are not learning because they want to, but because if they don't participate or don't get the question right then they won't get a bead or sticker. This also includes behavior where students are behaving well in the classroom because then they will get a reward instead of behaving correctly because it is the right thing to do. I think that if you have one type of reward system where students are being rewarded with sitting in a special chair to read a book instead of giving students stickers, food or toys that this would be more affective in the classroom. Rewards should be helping the students further develop their skills or learn even more and not fill up their stomachs or giving them an object to play with. There seems to be a fine line with rewards systems in classrooms and it is important for teachers to use them the correct way and to not cross that line so students are not motivated just based off of what fun thing they will get in return.

Wikis

Today I got to explore Wikis and how this piece of technology can be useful in the classroom. I came to find that Wikis are a lot like Google Docs in which you can invite people to edit your documents, power points or spreadsheets all on a website or page. It is very convenient that you don't have to e-mail people back and forth to accomplish what you want where a lot of confusion could be created. The difference between Google Docs and Wikis are that Wikis are a little more personal where you can create a profile, change the background or theme of your page and really make it your own while in a Google Doc it is just a simple document that looks the same as everyone elses document and is not directly on one of your pages. the personalization of Wikis is what makes them similar to a Weebly or this blog that I'm typing out. All three of these tools can really become yours where you can change the different settings to make the tool more to your liking. the difference between a Wiki and a Weebly or Blog though is that someone cannot come around and edit your Weebly or Blog. The only thing they can do is add a comment or a message, which could get confusing to follow if you were talking about something important.
One way I would use a wiki in the classroom is if the students were working on group projects and they all had to collaborate together to get it done, but did not have the time out of school to accomplish it or if they all had different parts they had to do. You could give each student a role and the person who is the leader or facilitator could create the wiki and all the pages, which could represent the different parts of the project, and the students could go on and edit/work on the pages at their own time. Students can hold each other accountable with each part of the project and if they get stuck or need help the other students can easily see what they are working on and help them out. They can also add and delete things that could improve the project and look after each other's work. Another way Wikis could be used in a classroom is for reading groups. In many classrooms students are broken up into groups when reading a book, whether it's the same book across the classroom or different books for different reading abilities. Students could collaborate with one another and talk about questions that the teacher assigns the students could discuss and use a wiki to do this. The teacher can also see the conversations of the students and probe the students to think more about their responses. This will help the teacher see what types of connections the student's are making about the reading, figure out who is reading the book (which could be a form of assessment instead of having a pop quiz) and see what the teacher needs to emphasize more in their classroom discussions about the books. These are just two ways that a wiki can be really helpful in the classroom and I'm sure there are endless possibilities for this tool to be used.

Teaching Controversial Issues in School

One thing that we talked about in my TE 401 class today was teaching controversial issues in school and whether you would want to do this in your own classroom. Controversial issues can range anywhere from having a debate of whether someone should have to buy another student a new pen that they broke when they were borrowing it to who should be responsible for fixing the roads or figuring out whether all schools should have a school uniform. I decided that I wanted to teach controversial issues in my classroom because this would allow students to not only share their own view points, but will have the opportunity to hear other students perspectives and opinions on an issue or problem. Learning how to deal with conflict and controversial topics are important for any person to learn because people will have to interact with people that do not have the same values or viewpoint as them at some point in their life,so if we can teach students how to become informative about topics, learn how to gather facts and information about the topic and how to argue about it in a respectable way that this will be teaching them a skill that will be beneficial to them outside of the classroom.

It was also brought up in our discussion that it is important that the teacher builds a trusting and strong relationship with all their students and that the students can trust one another as well. If there is not a comfortable learning community where students feel safe to share their views and ideas then the discussions and debates will not be as rich or worthwhile then if the students felt comfortable with one another. It is important for the teacher to establish this learning community early, like during the first week of school, and not right before the teacher decides they want to have a debate. A comfortable learning community should begin at the beginning of the year and developed as the school year goes on.

So would you teach controversial issues in your classroom? Why or why not?

SMART Boards

    This week I was able to explore SMART boards through the workshop we had on Wednesday. I had very little experience with SMART boards prior to this workshop. We had a couple in some of the classrooms at my old high school, but I never saw them used. I did see a SMART board used once in my field placement last year though, but the only thing my teacher used it for was as a projector screen. Because of my limited experience with SMART boards I used to think they were pointless and that they really weren't that special because I never saw what all the different elements they contained. Through this workshop though I have learned that there are THOUSANDS of ways you can use a SMART board and that there are endless possibilities to use it in a classroom. A SMART board is a touch screen 'white board' where you can use the special pens to draw things or you can use your fingers to drag and select things. There are thousands of applications that comes with the SMART board technology, such as game templates, like Jeopardy, different fonts and pictures, instruments that you can play or listen to the sounds they make, spinners, dice, maps, a stopwatch, and even an application that allows you to dissect a frog! You can even go onto the internet with your SMART board and you can draw, highlight or write on a website, take a picture of it and it gets saved to the SMART board to be used over and over again. This tool is one of the coolest pieces of technology that I have used and experienced with this semester and hope that I can use one of these in my classroom in the future.

Cell Phones in the Classroom

      This week i have explored the idea of whether we should use cell phones is school to better educate the students and to bring in a familiar technology into the classroom setting. This issue has been debated since cell phones have been put in the hands of younger and younger students that now it is typical for a middle school student to have a cell phone. The pros of bringing cell phones into the classroom is that students can look up meanings of words, use them as calculators or even do research by going onto the internet to look up information on websites. If a student cannot remember a math formula they need to use on a worksheet they can quickly look it up on their cell phones. This makes it easier for students to do projects or paper that involve looking things up on the internet because not every school has a computer for every student, but since almost all students have a cell phone they could look up anything they wanted at the palm of their hand. This means that students will have easier access to the internet and have the opportunity to work on projects, which will in turn allow students to really be creative where there is no limits to their learning. Smart phones especially can be beneficial for the students because there are so many applications out there that can enhance student's learning abilities, such as google earth, dictionaries, 'words of the day', conversion tables and the list goes on... With the way cell phones have taken off and been developing at a rapid pace, most students, I believe, will have a smart phone in the next 5 years.

    The cons of having cell phones in classrooms are that they can be a huge distractions during a lesson because students are able to hide their cell phones out of the sights of their teacher to text their friends or play games. Cell phones going off in a classroom can also be a distraction, which used to happen on a regular basis in my high school and also occurs in some of my college classes. Another problem with cell phones in the classroom is that it is an easier way for students to cheat on tests. Students can text their friends and ask them for the answers or if they have a smart phone or a phone with internet access they could look up the answers to problems on a test.

   I think that if we educate the students on the appropriate uses of cell phones in classes and model to the students how a cell phone can help students learn even more and how cell phones can enhance their abilities to find out more that they could be very good for the classroom. Distractions, cheating, and inappropriate uses of cell phones will always be a problem in a classroom as long as students own cell phones. As long as we show students the proper way to use a cell phone in the classroom and find a way for the students to respect you enough to not use their cell phones in class in ways that are not helping their education that they could be very beneficial. For now though I think that not every student has the access to a cell phone, and one that could be used in a classroom because most cell phones that students have are just for talking, texting and taking pictures. I think for now cell phones should be kept in students lockers or backpacks until more research has been done with cell phones being used in the classroom and the correct ways to use them in a school setting.

School Pride

So I am currently watching the show School Pride, which is a show about these four adults that go to schools and renovate them so that the schools are in better shape for students to learn in. They are trying to create a better learning environment for the students. It is along the same lines of the show "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" but the difference is that the students, teachers, parents and anyone who is or was impacted by the school volunteer to help fix up their school. The four people who run the show take in some special projects, like fixing a football field, redoing a classroom and cleaning up the cafeteria, but they also provide the school with some new technologies or resources that the school may need. The schools that I have seen them flip upside down have been inner city schools that are literally falling apart. What this show is showing America is that there is a huge problem with so many schools across the country where students cannot focus on their learning and school work because they are too focused on whether the ceiling might cave in on them. This show also conveys to people that teachers are putting in so much time and even their own money to teach their students when the school obviously does not have the funding to give the teachers the resources they need. If the schools cannot even fix their leaky roofs or broken lights then how are they supposed to provide the teachers with the materials they need? The teachers are paying out of pocket to help the students succeed and this is occurring across the country and not just in inner city schools. This show has proved that if you improve the facilities and the learning environments of students that test scores and grades of students improve drastically. I encourage you to check out this show just to see what it is all about. One of the schools they renovated was in Detroit, so if you want to see how they are affecting your own state this would be an episode to check out.

Google Docs

I have used Google Docs before in one of my TE classes and i thought it was kind of annoying. I was annoyed because there were a lot of us trying to use one set of documents at once and the computers were moving extra slow, so it was causing a back up. This time when I used Google Docs it went a lot smoother and I was able to experience a real sense of how it works. I was a little frustrated by the fact that my document kept wanting to save and sometimes the program didn't pick up every letter I was typing, but other than that small inconvenience I have found Google Docs to be very beneficial and interesting. I would suggest using this to write a group paper or to work on a project together instead of people trying to find a time in their busy schedule for everyone in the group to meet. This way a bunch of people could work on the document on their own time and people would not have to be sitting right next to each other to get the assignment completed. I also think that this would take off some pressure of people who are nervous to express their ideas to a group. This was they can express their thoughts in a document and not be nervous to speak their ideas out loud. Google Docs can also be a way for a bunch of people to edit someone else's paper without having to print off multiple copies. I can think of a thousand of other ways that Google Docs can be used and I feel like many of these ideas can be implemented in the classroom as well. I see this being used more in the upper elementary or higher. Google docs could be a way for students to communicate with students from other schools, states or even countries to see how the types of papers or projects they are working on are related to the other student's work. This could be a way for students among an entire school district to collaborate on a large project to help better their community. There is an endless amount of opportunities for Google Docs in the classroom and I feel like a lot of amazing and large projects/ideas will come alive through this application.

Halloween Dance in Elementary?

When I was in elementary school we would celebrate Halloween by dressing up in our costumes and having a parade around the school, so everyone could see our ans we could see everyone elses costumes. We usually had a little party too where we ate some cookies and fruit punch and it was all innocent fun before going out and getting candy that night. Well in the school that I am placed that this year they decided to change up the tradition of having a parade around the school to having a Halloween dance. One of the teachers in the school said it worked out very well in the school she was previously in and suggested that they try it at the school I'm placed at. All the students were invited to come back to the school for a dance from 6-7:30 at night the Thursday before Halloween. Parents were invited to stay and watch their children while others went home. I was really confused by the fact that ?Kindergarten-5th graders were having school dances already. I always thought that school dances were a privilege in middle school where students were a little more mature. I talked this over with my CT and she completely agreed with my stance that the students are a little too young to be having a school dance. She was surprised that I had this mindset because she said people my age are all for this change and the school dance instead of the traditional parade. She proceeded to tell me that she did not think the school dance was a good idea because of the sprouting relationships that are already beginning in the elementary school. She says there are problems in the school already with the boys calling the girls names or cat-calling and the girls where make up to school and dressing in not the most appropriate clothing. The Halloween dance just provokes this behavior and makes it a bigger problem. She also told me that a lot of the students in her classroom are apart of families where their dad has children with multiple women. I feel like this school dance is providing a way for the students to grow up much faster than they should. Do you think that dances in elementary schools is alright or that they should wait until middle or high school to be allowed to have these types of parties?

ELMO Projector

What I decided to explore this week as my technology of choice was the ELMO projector. I saw my CT use it for the first time in her classroom last week Thursday. I noticed on the first day I was in her classroom that she had one and was interested to see how much she would use it because from my research this week I would use it all the time. She used it to show the students a worksheet that she handed out to them and what they needed to do to complete it. I have noticed that my CT last year also had an ELMO and used to put a worksheet up there and it would be displayed on the whiteboard at the front of the room where the students could come up and do the problem on the whiteboard without actually writing on the piece of paper. I have also seen an ELMO used to read to a bunch of students who were sitting at their desks so they could see the pictures better and follow along reading with the teach. By seeing the ELMO used in these ways I was curious what other ways you can use an ELMO. I discovered a fantastic website that has "100 ideas for data projectors and Document Cameras" which is the category an ELMO falls under. The things that I have seen an ELMO used for were on there, such as Read-aloud and whole class participation in a practice state test, which is what my past CT used it for. There were also some interesting ways to use the ELMO, for example modeling of the physical process of writing - hand movements, which would be very beneficial for the third grade classroom that I'm in that have been learning cursive, magnifying insects needed for a science lesson and highlighting good vs bad grammar in writing. These are just a few ways I discovered that an ELMO can be useful in a classroom setting. The ELMO could be used in any age group and in all different subjects. It is better than the old projector that I was used to seeing when I was in school. I hope I can get one of these in my classroom in the future.

http://www.umesd.k12.or.us/techlinks_100ideas (here's the website I talked about in my post)

Preparing to teach for the first time

Today I had my social studies talk with five students from my classroom. I had my science talk with five different students last week so I was a little more prepared on how I wanted to conduct my interview. I looked back at the things that went well and stuck to them and changed the things that could have gone better. Before i started my social studies interview I wanted to let the students know that I was going to be teaching to them next week to give them a heads up. I wanted to be honest with them and get to know me a little better so I told them straight up that I was nervous about teaching to them and asked them if they had any tips for me. They were all telling me how if people weren't listening to me that I should write their name up on the board and if they continued to be disruptive or were still not listening that I should put checks by their name, which if they get two then they will not get the snack that my CT brings for the students every day. They then told me that if they are being extra bad that I should send them to the principals office and I told them that I hope that won't happen. The students were telling me how they can get kind of crazy and wild when a sub was there and I told them that's EXACTLY what I was worried about! That when I teach they are all going to go crazy and not listen to me or do what they are supposed to. They told me that they don't like subs that much because they don't know them at all. They said that when I teach it will be a little different because I know them and they know a little bit about me. I come to their classroom and help them with their writing and math and know a little bit about each one of them. I then asked them if they were excited about me teaching and they all agreed that they were excited. I told them that we were going to do some fun things, and they seemed interested which made me feel really happy. I am so happy that I had this small conversation with my students because I feel a lot better about teaching to them next week. I recommend all the TE 401 students who are going to be teaching their first lesson soon to just talk to your students and be honest that you are feeling a little nervous. They will give you a little confidence and tell you all the inside stuff about the classroom and the students in it. I am now very excited to teach to this group of students and can't wait to see how they are going to react to me teaching to them next week.

Personal Learning Network (PLN)

I have found that developing a personal learning network (PLN) to be very beneficial. I have had the opportunity to follow many teachers and educational blogs, see what people are "tweeting" about and to bookmark different websites and resources all in one area using 'Delicous'. I have found that Delicious has been the tool that I use the most because it is so easy to save websites in one area and search for them by looking up their 'tags'. I have been using 'my Delicous' to look up websites and different resources for many classes and am constantly adding more to it. I feel like I have made a connection with the educational world by exploring and developing a PLN and believe that I have learned about how much more information and resources are out there for me to find and use to help with my teaching and how I can help others with the different concepts and technologies I have learned about. The only downfall of the PLN is that it is hard to keep up with all the blogs and all the tweets on top of my regular routines and jobs. There are so many people that I am following on Twitter that I have not been able to read their tweets because they write so many and with a lot of people tweeting multiple times a day it is very hard to read every single one. Twitter in general has been hard for me to get used to, really learning how to use it and how to use it in an effective way. So the only downfall I have found with developing and using a PLN is keeping up with all the different ways of communication and following everyone that could be and has been very important with learning new teaching skills and working different concepts into my own teaching. By learning to get used to using my PLN and how to use it in the most effective way I feel like it will be very beneficial for the rest of my teaching career.

Rocks and Minerals

        Presentation including narration/sound.

Presentation with no sound

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dg8bghxj_0gfh77qc2&revision=_latest&start=0&theme=shelley&cwj=true



This is my presentation using Google Docs.

MEAPS

This past week in my field placement the third grade classroom i am in started taking the MEAP. They did a section of reading in the morning that was supposed to take 70 minutes and ended up taking them about 2 hours. They still had another section of reading in the afternoon that same day, which was a lot shorter. I remember taking the MEAPs and how worried as a student I was to do my best. I do remember they took a long time to do, but I don't think they took two hours! That's such a long time for a student to sit there and stare at a booklet full of reading passages and questions. And if you happened to be one of the students who finished early you had to sit there quietly while reading. coloring or working on homework until all your classmates were finished. It's different seeing the MEAPs from a teacher's perspective instead of a student's perspective now. I think it's more nerve wrecking for a teacher than for the students because these tests determine how good of a teacher you are and how much your students have learned. I have realized through all my education classes how controversial these types of tests can be though because teachers are supposed to make learning fun and meaningful for their students and these tests hinder that a bit because teachers are becoming forced to teach to the tests instead of what they think is important for their students to know. It's important for teachers to teach life skills and things about the real world, which are not covered in a MEAP. If I was a student now, especially in high school I probably would not take the MEAP. It used to be that if you did well on it that you could get money to go to college, but that was stripped away so now it is just a test to see how well teachers are teaching. But it's not even a true test of that either! Another way needs to be figured out to assess students knowledge and teachers teaching abilities than through a MEAP or standardized test.

Technology Lesson

I am going to teach a lesson about the difference between rocks and minerals. Rocks are not the most exciting thing in the world and teaching science for many students can be quite boring, so maybe if some type of technology is involved students will enjoy it more and be more enthusastic about learning the material. I would want to use the flickr slide show or the digital story programs we have used. I know I have rock and mineral samples at home that students can look at and feel, but some of them are very small and not the 'coolest looking'. Maybe if I show pictures on a slide show of some really interesting rocks and minerals that the students will be interested in finding out more about them. Some misconceptions students have about rocks and minerals is that they are the same thing. When someone picks up a piece of quartz that it is a rock because it looks like one, when the truth is it's a mineral because it's made up of all the same material, while a rock is made up of different types of materials.

Digital Storytelling

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Digital storytelling can be very useful in a classroom. I was able to do a digital storytelling project in my TE 401 class already and it was a lot of fun to use. This can be something used all the time in the classroom to the teacher presenting ideas through a video they made or students coming up with their own stories to tell. This could be used at the beginning of the year to have students tell their story about who they are instead of having posters. this way students can be more creative and use any picture they want without having to worry that it will get ruined on a poster. This can also be used in a social studies/history class where students can use pictures and videos to tell the story about a certain era, battle or the life of a famous inventor. This allows the students to be creative and learn something new through the research they do and by watching other students stories. Digital storytelling can make teaching history in a fun way for the students instead of just learning dates and places. I loved how easy it was to use one true media. They make it really easy to upload videos, edit them and put your own music in your story. If you don't have music you can upload to the program there is hundreds of different songs to choose from. You can crop your picture, figure out the transition and decide how long you want each picture to show. There were a few down points on the program though. The only way you can put captions on your story and share it with others is if you buy the dvd or upgrade to the 'premium' account. I originally had captions in my story, but because I didn't have that premium account they are not showing. Also i did not see an way to audio record or talk in the story. I think this is another element that would be fun and key to use in a classroom where students can literally tell their story instead of writing it all out in captions or hope the students understand just by looking at the pictures. All in all I think digital storytelling can be very beneficial in the classroom, but it is important to find the right program that will work best for your projects in your classroom.

Learning Through Song

Earlier today I was listening to music and singing along with the bands, rappers and other singers knowing every single word. I am constantly listening to music and if I don't know the words to a song I really like or can't figure them out I look them up on the internet and learn them. I usually listen to the song while reading the words and they just stick in my head and the lyrics become really easy to remember. Even songs I haven't heard in a couple months or even a couple years I can still remember the lyrics the second the song starts playing. This got me thinking that there are so many people that are just like me, constantly listening to music, singing along to the songs and remembering every word. Learning lyrics is such a simple task, but for some reason many people have such a hard time remembering multiplication facts, dates of wars or scientific theories. If learning school subjects can be as easy and fun as memorizing lyrics in our favorite song we would be a much more intelligent generation. Maybe if we started teaching using songs that kids can sing they would remember more facts, concepts, dates, names etc... I remember in elementary school we used to learn different things through song. Many people can recall the song about the 50 United States or even our alphabet is a song!! It is easy to learn the alphabet because it's a song and I know so many people that would be able to sing the song about the states even though they haven't sung it in years! In 8th grade we had the opportunity to make our own songs about the Constitution by changing the lyrics of a song of our choice. We chose the song Respect by Aretha Franklin and I still remember the song we made. I have also heard of schools, typically charter schools, that are bringing song and music into their classroom to teach their students because they have noticed how easy it is for students to remember lyrics to a song, even if the song is educational and teaching about a school subject. If we bring music and songs into more of our classrooms maybe students will not only learn things in a fun way, but will retain that information for years.

Google Earth

This week I was able to explore a new technology, which I chose Google Earth. I have heard a lot about it and its features, but I have not had the chance to experiment with it until this week. I've seen my friends use it a few years ago  to find their homes or random landmarks and from what I observed it look confusing. This initially turned me off to Google Earth until I discovered how to use it this week. It is really easy to use and there are so many cool features to it! If you are in a state or area and you are looking for a golf course or a restuarant you can use Google Earth to find these things just with the click of a button. It also can be used to see diffferent places in the world that you have never seen or maybe will never experience. You can look at these places at a birds eye view or if possible go down to a level like you are walking on the ground! This can be a really cool way for students to experince the world instead of just looking at pictures in a book or atlas. Students can start of simple by looking up their homes or their favorite places in their town and through more time and working with Google Earth they can start to see things around the world. I am focusing in Math and Geography and if I were to teach middle school geography or geography in upper elementary I would let the students use Google Earth to show them the places they have been and the places they can go.

Slide Show

Copyright

Photo Attribution
Original Image: "Cinderella's Castle"
by: Devin Mulville
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mulvill2/5046309074/in/photostream/
Released Under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

This is a photo I took over the summer when I went to Disney World with my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. This photo is licensed with Creative Commons. I did not know much about Creative Commons or copyrighting until my CEP 416 class. I have always seen the CC with a circle around it symbol and I thought it was like a trademark, so no one else could use it or copy it. Through this class I have discovered that Creative Commons has different types of licenses, such as allowing people to sell it or not, allowing people to change it or not and making sure someone gives you credit for your work. It makes it really easy for someone to create any type of restrictions they choose to put on their video, picture, music etc... I have found it to be very convenient because I can allow people to change my picture, but they are not allowed to sell it without my permission. The only drawback I have found with Creative Commons and copyrighting is when you have to cite whatever it is you are using. If you look at the citation below the picture, there is a lot for someone to have to type or write out to make sure it is cited properly. It is a necessary process though to give credit where credit is due and I am sure once I get used to citing different things it will become a faster and easier process.

Different Style of Teaching

I have been to my TE 401 field placement three times now and I am starting to understand what goes on in the classroom and observing how the students are learning. I am in a 3rd grade class and my cooperating teacher (CT) said that this class is one of the calmest she has ever had in 20 years of teaching. The students are mostly African American and Hispanic, and some have really big personalities while others are extremely shy. I just finished up giving students math assessments, so my CT can figure out what she needs to emphasize her curriculum and lessons on this year to help students get better in the areas that they didn't do as well. Basically I have not been in the classroom observing too much because I have bee out in the hallway administering assessments. I finished them up on Thursday and was able to spend some significant time in the classroom. The students are divided into groups and have 6-7 centers they have to complete each day and a couple of the centers they have to listen to cassette tapes and do a worksheet. Well I found out on Thursday that it's not a random person talking in these cassettes, but my CT made them and she is teaching the children through these tapes. This made me realize that I have not seen my teacher do any type of instruction yet and she has told me that the students rotate through the centers until 1:30 each day. So in doing the math this means that students would only be getting at maximum 2 hours of "live" instruction. I don't think it is possible to teach social studies, science, math and literacy in 2 hours of everyday. I have come to believe that the students are being taught through these tapes and this bothers me a bit.

Not all students are going to learn from hearing someone talk, while working on a worksheet and maybe looking through a book as a reference. Some students learn better from seeing a teacher instruct, taking notes and listening to the teacher talk. If there is some type of commotion going on in the classroom or a book is dropped to the floor and makes a loud noise the children on the head phones typically look over and are distracted from the tapes. They do not have the chance to go back and rewind them if they missed it because there are one or two other children listening in at the same time. The students end up missing important information and have no way of asking questions if they were to not understand something. This occurred on Thursday when one of the students was confused and did not understand what they needed to do and I could not help them because I had not listened to the tape. The only thing I could do was tell them to try to get through the tape one more time before they had to switch stations. It was very frustrating that there was no way for me to help these students, and there won't be any way to help them in the future unless I listen to the tapes in the morning so I know what is on there, just in case they need help.

When I discussed this type of teaching to my friends they asked me "If these students are being taught through tapes then what is the point of teachers?" I thought this was a great point because if every teacher adopted this teaching style teachers would really not  be needed. You would just need someone to make sure the students were listening to the right tapes and making sure they finished them every day. Teaching is supposed to be interactive. You are supposed to create meaning for the students to keep them interested and excited about learning. Students are supposed to be given the opportunity to ask questions, make comments or have discussions about the lessons or content. By teaching through tapes none of these qualities or aspects of teaching are being reached. My hope is that my CT is doing 'normal teaching' in the afternoons for those 2 hours, so the students are not just listening to tapes all day long. I am going to talk to her more about these tapes and hopefully go in on an afternoon sometime soon to see what type of teaching occurs then.





Photo Attribution

Original Image: "cintas cassette"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaos_nt/28240788/

by: chaos.nt

Released Under as Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

Get off the bench and get in the game

On Monday and Friday Oprah had episodes concerning the public schools in the United States. According to the statistics the United States has fallen way behind other developed countries in many areas of education, such as math and science. What they are predicting is our schools are not doing the job to educate students, which will lead to this generation of students being less literate. The high school drop out rates in many places are reaching 50% in some schools, which is appalling. The reason Oprah talked about this on her show was because of a new documentary that came out on Friday in select theaters called "Waiting for Superman", which is about a few students who are trying to get into a good school that will give them a good education and an opportunity to go to college. The only way these students can get into these schools is if their number is picked from a lottery. As a future teacher this is devastating. I can't believe that children are basing whether they will have the opportunity to go to college and have a good future by a lottery. Some parent said that this lottery will decide whether their children will go to college or end up in jail. I honestly knew about many of these statistics, but I was unaware of the lottery situation that some children are going through to get a good education. These statistics and this problem with our public schools is one of the main reasons why I wanted to  be a teacher. I want students to be excited about learning and want to come to school everyday because they can't wait to get involved with the classroom and to learn to benefit their future. When I was watching Oprah I was becoming infuriated, but not because it was giving teachers a pretty bad reputation, but because I am one of those people that will do anything to make sure my students are learning all they can and pushing themselves to do better. It gave me goose bumps watching because I want to be one of those people that makes a difference and be recognized as a great teacher. One of the things that Oprah emphasized on that I really liked was that talking about this issue on national television was starting a conversation that needs to be talked about everywhere in the United States, but you cannot just sit there and talk about it. You have to get off your seat and do it. Get off the bench and get in the game. You can't depend on other people, or one person to do it all. It's time to stop blaming the teachers, unions, parents and economy. We need to start working together and making a difference.
I know that this movie probably shows teachers in a very bad light and I wish Oprah (and I have heard the movie) would talk about how their are some really great teachers out their that are doing a fantastic job because there are many fantastic teachers and districts in our country, but we need to make sure that these people are spreading their good ideas and successes to other teachers and districts. It's time to make a difference in every students' life and give every single child an opportunity to succeed in this world. Who wants to join me in making a difference in our schools?

Technology in the classroom

This past week I was able to go to my TE 401 placement for the first time. I was really excited about going there, meeting my CT, and beginning to build relationships with my students. The teacher explained to me how she uses the song "You've got a friend in me" from Toy Story to teach students to be nice to one another and be friendly with each other. She uses a boom box or typical CD player to play the song so the whole class can hear instead of using the computer. She also has centers in here classroom where she has students grouped in 3 or 4 by color and students work on different things at different stations. She also has leaders for the group, which one of their jobs is controlling the tape recorders that are used at a couple stations. I was really surprised to still see tape recorders being used in a classroom. I haven't seen those used since I was back in 1st or 2nd grade. They had the large blue headphones too that I remember using. There is also a station were students use a computer, which is refreshing to see that students are learning to use and experiencing a more modern piece of technology. The classroom also had an ELMO, which is becoming very common in many classrooms today. It is basically a projector, but you don't have to transfer everything to transparencies. There is a camera that projects whatever you put in front of it, whether it is a picture book, a worksheet, or just a small object that would be hard to see in the back of the classroom. I am very interested in this piece of technology because of how often I am seeing it in classrooms and how useful it can be, not only in an elementary school setting, but also in a college setting (we use the ELMO all the time in our classes). So the classroom I am going to be in this year already shows signs of many types of technology being used by the students. Both 'old school' and modern pieces of technology are used and I am interested to see what other technologies and programs are going to be used as the year progresses.

A type of technology that we have been learning about in class that I am interested to see use in a classroom is blogging. From the very post post I said that I always wanted to start a blog and I've come to find that they are really easy to use and it's nice just typing out your ideas, thoughts, and experiences, which makes it easier to remember them and share them with others. I feel like blogging could be a really helpful tool for teachers and parents to communicate better. As a teacher I could just quickly type out some interesting things that happened in class that day, remind parents of upcoming tests and assignments their children need to accomplish and even write up announcements and tips to help their children grow as learners. This require for every parent to have some type of access to a computer or the internet and not every family has this luxury.
This could also be a way for students to do a 'quick write' either at home or during the school day where they could write something according to a prompt designed by the teacher or just a way for students to work on different English skills, such as opening sentences and when to start a new paragraph. I do feel that blogging cannot be started at too young of an age though because it is important for younger students to learn how to physically write things down and practice writing their letters and sentences before having them type everything out. It is important for students to learn how to write letters and sentences and not just rely on computers to do the physical writing for you. I've come to find that there can be both pros and cons to blogging for students and teachers, which makes me want  to observe and learn more about how teachers are using it in their classrooms.

General Ed Teachers and Special Needs Students

Yesterday in my TE 401 class we had a group of students that are majoring and have experienced working with special education students present to the rest of the class what type of students we could potentially be seeing in our classrooms in the future. I have personally worked with a few students with ADHD and autism, so some of the information was a review for me, but there was other information that was very informative and helpful to me. I am majoring in general education, so I was not required to take any special education courses. After the group was done presenting it made me think more about how important it is now in the school system to try to include students of special needs into the general education classes, but it is not required for us general education majors to take any classes concerning special education. This really bothers me because even having a basic understanding of the types of special ed students that could be in our classroom is extremely important to know and if it wasn't for the few experiences I have had with special ed students I would not know how to cater to their needs and to help them get the most they can out of being in a general ed classroom. I wish that we were required to take even one, but preferably, multiple classes helping us understand special ed students and how we can enhance their learning.
Why is it not a requirement for general education majors to take special education classes or classes that teach us more about special education students?

Did you Tweet?

This week one of the types of technology we learned how to use was Twitter. Honestly I never wanted to get a Twitter account because I did not see the point. To me it is just updating what you are doing at every minute of every day and following what your favorite celebrities are doing. I don't update my staus on my facebook very often, which serves the same purpose as Twitter, so I felt like this will not be useful. So when I first signed up for the account I did not have the best attitude towards Twitter, but once I saw that people use Twitter to get information out to other people and not just letting the world know what they are doing all the time it made me change my mentality a little bit. I can see how Twitter can be used for useful purposes, but I am still a little doubtful. Through the next few weeks i hope that I discover that Twitter can be a useful tool for the future. Keep reading my blog to find out my findings!

Hello Blogging World!!

So, I've always wanted to start a blog and my CEP 416 class has given me the perfect opportunity to try it out. My name is Devin and I am a senior at Michigan State University (Go Green!). I am majoring in Elementary Education with a focus in Math and Geography. My goal is to teach middle school math someday and to also coach a sports team, preferably softball or volleyball.
I am what you might like to call technology challenged. I'm not the best with computers and I even have difficulty with copy machines sometimes, but I am willing and eager to learn. I am on the internet a lot and understand how to use google and facebook, but other things such as twitter, blogs, skype and other popular sites. I have taken some computer classes in high school to become better with powerpoint, microsoft word and excel, but I don't remember how to use these tools to their fullest extent. I want to get better with technology and understand how to use it because I know that technology is a huge part of our generation. I want to be able to be one of those teachers that excites students by using technology in the classroom and not be the teacher who can't get the DVD player to work. I really hope through this class I learn how to use many types of technologies, websites and tools to make my classroom more versatile and exciting. I am willing to try and really explore each type of technology we use and figure out in what ways I can use it in my classroom. I hope this blog is a good start to understanding how to use technology!