The Web 2.0 blogger that I investigated was Clay Burrell author of the blog Beyond School. Burrell seems to be an expert at using classroom technology to stay connected with the outside world. Clay is a Language Arts teacher that incorporates blogging, Skype, podcasts, Twitter, and YouTube to stay connected to the outside world. He also has his students use these programs to enhance their learning. In these aspects I feel that Clay Burrell is making excellent use of technology, and I am wondering if he has ever considered using a ventrillo server in any of his classes. Ventrillo is another program that is roughly similar to skype, but it is more often used in online gaming. I have used ventrillo servers in the past to speak with friends in New Orleans, Kentucky, Mexico, and even Turkey. The program essentially converts a computer into a large walkie talkie that the individual users designate their own "hot key" to press and speak directly with people all over the world through microphones and the speakers of a computer. I think that it would be a great tool to connect classrooms of students all over the world to experience collaborative lessons. Even if Burell does not use this server he is definitely making great use of the technology at his disposal.
I am a bit skeptical of Burrell's grading system though. He allows students to grade themselves, and also believes that If they fail an assignment outright, but made considerable risks in the process that they deserve an A. I'm unsure of how productive that this will end up being, although I do agree with him that it is important to let students do some self assessment, I just feel this method takes it a bit too far.
I really believe that Burrell has some very cutting edge thoughts on education, and I think that his networking assignments make really great use of cutting edge technology. While I don't agree with everything he says I do believe that he has a good handle on what it means to be a great teacher.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Type I and Type II Technology
Type I and Type II technology are different in how interactive they are with the user. Type I is not as interactive as Type II, thusly it is easier to find more creative uses for type II technology .
examples:
Type I:
many power points that are used instead of lecture notes
I've had to take multiple choice tests on line for a computer class
e-books
Type II:
Oregon trail played as a lesson
I've seen strategy computer games used to reenact famous battles
Web Quests
Maddux D. Cleborne, Johnson D. Lamont. Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning. 2005. Hawthorne Press, Inc.
examples:
Type I:
many power points that are used instead of lecture notes
I've had to take multiple choice tests on line for a computer class
e-books
Type II:
Oregon trail played as a lesson
I've seen strategy computer games used to reenact famous battles
Web Quests
Maddux D. Cleborne, Johnson D. Lamont. Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning. 2005. Hawthorne Press, Inc.
My MEL Experiences
Student/Teacher Relationships: I have always felt that this was a very important part of learning, as I have always noticed that teachers who are more comfortable with the class tend to have more luck reaching more students. I consider myself lucky because I have only had a few teachers that were terrible establishing strong relationships with their students, but out of all of the good ones I have to say that my creative writing teacher was the best. I had Miss. Eshelmen in my senior year and she was able to create a very safe environment for our weekly writing critiques by submitting her own work to be criticized with the work of all the students. Her reasoning for this was if she expected us to put our writing, pride, and feelings on the line it was only fair that she did the same. Her doing this really helped me out when it came to the memoir unit because it was nice to know that our teacher was putting her personal experiences out their to be judged just like I was doing with a memoir about my great grand father's funeral.
Autonomy: This is another teaching strategy that depending on the subject really helps me to learn and to get higher grades. I can remember having to jump through all sorts of hoops while writing my first research paper. I had to turn in so many note cards by such and such a date, and I had to submit an outline, then a rough draft, and ultimately hand in a final copy. I knew at the time that the rigid scheduling was only in place to help the students to know that we were still doing all the work correctly, but I couldn't think of anything but the multiple deadlines, and ultimately did not do as well on the final draft as I would have hoped. Although when it came time to do another research paper with another teacher, and he told us to have the entire paper done by a certain date I was able to pace myself and I ended up getting an A+ on that paper. It was the autonomy that helped me to know when I would do my best work on the paper and that is when I would work on it.
Context: Is something that I found out I needed while I was taking a physics course my senior year. In this physics course we would use many of the same equations that I had struggled through and ultimately failed to grasp completely in a pre-calculus course that I had taken the semester before, but the difference with this course was the fact that my teacher, Mr. Lybarger, was able to provide a context for those equations that I had never fully learned to use before. It was the context on how these equations would work in the real world that made them finally click. It made sense to me that a certain equation be applied to a car speeding around an icy corner because I was able to visualize an actual object for the coefficients to all the variables. It also helped me because I would be able to check my answers to a realm of possibility. I knew that it was impossible to throw a baseball at seven hundred miles per hour so I would go back and rework the equations until I came up with a plausible solution.
Helping Students: This is something that all teachers should be willing to do, but some that I have had, would outright refuse. Interestingly enough it as always been in my worst subjects that I have had teachers that would refuse to give students help. In middle school I had an algebra teacher that called home and forced me to drop the class because I had a B- in his class. I wanted to remain in the class and I asked him for help, but he refused to help me after class and ultimately called me up to the blackboard to do out a problem. After making me rewrite the problem four or five times because my handwriting was so poor, he informed me that the problem was wrong and told me to go sit down and called on his son a, "competent student" to do the problem "legibly and correctly." It turns out that I had only forgotten a negative sign out of nervousness. I switched into a different class a few days later. If I had been able just to talk one on one about what I was doing wrong I know that I would have been able to fix the problem. I know this because I did just that with the same subject and a different teacher.
Connections: It is the ability to connect history to all other disciplines that drives my passion for it. Everything has a history, and I have had quite a few teachers that knew this and used it to engage their students. I have had countless numbers of history teachers that would start a class off with a list of "this day in history" type trivia questions, and they were able to touch on the history of all sorts of different subjects while giving out candy or even extra credit points. By doing this all students were able to see how to connect history to their interests and hobbies. Also whenever possible they would do small tangent lessons that would cover the history of sports, medicine, music, etc. of a time period or civilization that was being covered in class.
Autonomy: This is another teaching strategy that depending on the subject really helps me to learn and to get higher grades. I can remember having to jump through all sorts of hoops while writing my first research paper. I had to turn in so many note cards by such and such a date, and I had to submit an outline, then a rough draft, and ultimately hand in a final copy. I knew at the time that the rigid scheduling was only in place to help the students to know that we were still doing all the work correctly, but I couldn't think of anything but the multiple deadlines, and ultimately did not do as well on the final draft as I would have hoped. Although when it came time to do another research paper with another teacher, and he told us to have the entire paper done by a certain date I was able to pace myself and I ended up getting an A+ on that paper. It was the autonomy that helped me to know when I would do my best work on the paper and that is when I would work on it.
Context: Is something that I found out I needed while I was taking a physics course my senior year. In this physics course we would use many of the same equations that I had struggled through and ultimately failed to grasp completely in a pre-calculus course that I had taken the semester before, but the difference with this course was the fact that my teacher, Mr. Lybarger, was able to provide a context for those equations that I had never fully learned to use before. It was the context on how these equations would work in the real world that made them finally click. It made sense to me that a certain equation be applied to a car speeding around an icy corner because I was able to visualize an actual object for the coefficients to all the variables. It also helped me because I would be able to check my answers to a realm of possibility. I knew that it was impossible to throw a baseball at seven hundred miles per hour so I would go back and rework the equations until I came up with a plausible solution.
Helping Students: This is something that all teachers should be willing to do, but some that I have had, would outright refuse. Interestingly enough it as always been in my worst subjects that I have had teachers that would refuse to give students help. In middle school I had an algebra teacher that called home and forced me to drop the class because I had a B- in his class. I wanted to remain in the class and I asked him for help, but he refused to help me after class and ultimately called me up to the blackboard to do out a problem. After making me rewrite the problem four or five times because my handwriting was so poor, he informed me that the problem was wrong and told me to go sit down and called on his son a, "competent student" to do the problem "legibly and correctly." It turns out that I had only forgotten a negative sign out of nervousness. I switched into a different class a few days later. If I had been able just to talk one on one about what I was doing wrong I know that I would have been able to fix the problem. I know this because I did just that with the same subject and a different teacher.
Connections: It is the ability to connect history to all other disciplines that drives my passion for it. Everything has a history, and I have had quite a few teachers that knew this and used it to engage their students. I have had countless numbers of history teachers that would start a class off with a list of "this day in history" type trivia questions, and they were able to touch on the history of all sorts of different subjects while giving out candy or even extra credit points. By doing this all students were able to see how to connect history to their interests and hobbies. Also whenever possible they would do small tangent lessons that would cover the history of sports, medicine, music, etc. of a time period or civilization that was being covered in class.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Learning Styles Inventory Results
I would have to say that this is a very accurate portrayal of the way I learn. It also was very much in sync with the assessment of the multiple intelligences that I took in Dr. Ward's section of practicum. The only part of this that seems to be a bit high for me is the 8 that I received in the physical portion.graph from: www.learning-styles-online.com
Chapter # 2 Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness
QR#2
On page 30 of Fires in the Bathroom a quotation by a student named Mahogany gives some advice to teachers as something that should never be done. She tells the story of a teacher that would humiliate the students in front of the class by calling out poor grades in front of the class.
This is something that, speaking from experience, can cause a lot of discord in the classroom. This discord shows up between students with good grades and students with poor grades as well as between student and teacher. This sort of inappropriate behavior is something that in my opinion is a form of mental abuse because in high school most students care a lot about what students think of them and if it becomes public knowledge that a kid is getting mostly Ds the other students most likely won’t let that pass without some sort of teasing. I feel that students should have someplace to report behavior that is demeaning. Although unless it is made widely known I feel that most students would prefer to suffer in silence rather than draw further attention to themselves.
Chapter # 1 Knowing Students Well
QR #1
On page 13 of Fires in the Bathroom, Kathleen Cushman is talking about how to connect with students. Her suggestion has to do with linking a student’s interests with the teacher’s subject matter.
I think that this is a marvelous idea, as it helps to show a student that what they are learning has a practical application and it is indeed pertinent to his or her life. While this is an excellent idea in some cases it could be very hard to make the connection especially if a teacher doesn’t know enough about each of his or her students. This one little part of this first chapter is a perfect strategy for any and all teachers to keep in mind to provide an engaging classroom that is inclusive of all the students. While thinking about this as it would pertain to my particular concentration, being history, it opens up countless avenues to explore. Since there is a history to everything that exists it wouldn’t be too difficult to include the history of whatever particular interests the students have.
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