The Outlet

www.doityourself.com

Just kidding! I am not actually going to be talking about a plug outlet, instead, I am going to talk about how blogging can actually be an "outlet"-as in a way anyone and everyone can express their thoughts and feelings. 

The access that people now-a-days have to the internet, and to posting on the internet, it like nothing we have ever seen in history. It is not just a new way of entertainment, but something that affects current culture. This can go both ways-either good or bad. But, because I feel as if most people with their heads screwed on right know the bad ways, I wanna concentrate on the good ways. 

Why not use blogging, or our own websites to their full extent. Culture is going to be influenced by this regardless, so why not be the one influencing rather than those people you sat next to in high school that you liked...but well...would prefer them NOT dictating the world you live in. 

I think the one of the greatest things we can do as good citizens is being proactive and not just sitting around waiting for someone else to make the change or say what you've been wanting to say. I know this is easier said than done, BUT blogging and the internet does make it easier (especially when it is free).

That being said, whats stopping you?! I love blogs because you could use them to further your ministry, creativity, family, fashion, politics passion or whatever else there is!  

Should Cell Phones be Allowed in Schools?

This is the heated question that some teachers would love me for bringing up, and some hate me. I bring it up because I recently read an interesting article on how and why we should be allowing students to use their smart phones in school, and what we can be benefitting from in doing so.

Interesting right? When I saw the title of it, I decided that I needed to take some time and read about it. This is the link if you want to go and read it directly, I will just briefly summarize it here and add a few of my own opinions.

Her main point, which I think is one of the strongest, is that most all (if not every) professions allow their employees to use their smart phones...so why not teach students (who are future professional employees)how to efficiently and effectively use them.  They are also crucial in teaching 21st century skills AND if a school is on a tight budget which might prevent them from having a good source of technology, why not make the most of the truly "smart" phone most students have in their pockets anyway?

       www.cnet.com

These points are all very strong in my opinion...the world is changing, and to our benefit-in some ways-that are enhancing our way of living. I think we should be making the most of it, not just in our personal lives, but even in incorporating it into otherwise "traditional" ways of life (such as school).

With this new found freedom though, as all other freedoms require, we must incorporate different (not necessarily more) responsibilities. This is where the debate could get heated...in adding my "two-cents" I don't think change is a bad thing nor should it be feared by rather embraced when set in the correct boundaries.

It's the End of the World as We Know it...

For some reason this has been coming up so much in conversation recently I just had to throw it out there...

wikipedia.org

Don't ask me why, but this past break multiple people (with no connection to each other) have randomly brought up the topic of what the world would look like if all use of computers and technology went void. 

It honestly scares me a little to think about the reality of it because we depend SO much on it. Pretty much everything...ahh.

Take this for example, the heating system in my house suddenly stopped working so we obviously called in some professionals to turn up the heat. What they found as they were investigating was that everything required for the heating system to work was perfectly fine and functional. The heaters, the transmitters, the do-dads, and other fun things. BUT the tiny little computer box that allowed them to all function together broke...so nothing worked at all. 

Basically what I am discovering over and over again, is that we may have all the functioning components, but if the computer part ever goes missing (and pretty much everything we have now days have some component that is reliant on computers) then, it sounds like to me, we're all about doomed. 

I mean who knows what will happen and if we can ever truly prepare...but all I'm saying is that I genuinely enjoy and am thankful for the equipment that we currently have...and hopefully always have. I REALLY am a horrible horse-back rider and would have a dim future ahead of me if everything resorted back to that. Just sayin'.

Because...Baby Bald Eagles

www.wildnatureimages.com

Something that I love about the Education department here at CCU, is that they get their students out and in a JeffCo classroom within their first year of college. 

Granted, I have done 60+ hours of field work thus far, and honestly have learned more already about being a teacher by actually being one, than some of my classes have taught me about being one.

That being said, something that happened while I was working with my second grade class nicely incorporates with my previous blog post (about practically using technology in the classroom).

_________________________________________________________________________________

It all began while we were working on animal research projects... so we already had animals on the brain.

One day one of the teachers was informed that their was a recently discovered Bald Eagle nest in Michigan, that had some "ready to be hatched" eggs in it. 

Well of course when the Bald Eagle foundation (or something of the sort) found out about this, they decided to plant a video camera near the nest so that their would be a 24/7 live stream of the progress of these little baby Baby Eagles. 

The teachers back at the school I was working with went to work and found the website with the live stream of the animals. We would periodically put it on the smart board in our classroom and watch these creatures in their natural habitat. We saw the parents take turns watching the eggs, we saw the babies as they were hatched, we saw the parents protect and feed them, and much more.

This experience totally brought to life the animal research project we were doing, and taught the students more about wild life than many of their books did.

     And here's the thing-- it never would have been possible without technology!

Practicality at its Finest

    In general, when technology is incorporated into school it's more so viewed as an instrument or tool rather than a subject or something to be taught.

This being said...I decided to do a bit of exploring on my own and find some fun, practical ways that other teachers have found to be useful in using technology.

...and wouldn't you know, I found this all using TECHNOLOGY!...

One teacher said that a fun way to teach students the ropes of the internet and getting linked to other sites, is to send them on some sort of scavenger hunt.
    ...a way to do this practically is by creating a Web Quest.

creepypasta.wikia.com

Another practical thing that can be used is email. This may seem overly simple, but especially for younger students who haven't learned how to use one, creating classroom email addresses for them is a fun innovative way to enhance communication.
                         Just make sure to respond and email them back!




And guess what else?! Ironically, another fabulous way to use technology can be through...BLOGS.
Yup, students writing posts in a classroom blog, parents using blogs to access information from the teacher, giving students their own free blog for creative writing...there are plenty of ways to use blogs.


In conclusion, there are many ways that we as teachers (or aspiring ones) can practically use technology, we just need to do our research and add a little creativity.

Real Life Scenario PART II

As I was saying...
    The reason this all makes sense is because as we were learning about behavioral grade points, I began to think of what a fun way to encourage students to behave well could be...

The fun part (I think) about being an elementary school teacher, is that it requires extra creativity!

And then it dawned on me, most children love technology now days, there must be a way to use it in having them act nicely.

Something that I quickly remembered, was when I was doing my field work this past spring. The school with which I was working with used a cool app where each of the second graders got to make their very own monster/fantasy creature. They decided what it looked like, what it liked and disliked, and its name.

Once each student had their own creature, the behavioral system was set into place. When the student did something where they were able to gain positive behavioral points, the monster got more points also. The aim was to "gain" as many points for their monster each week so that by the end of the week they could purchase or add something new to their creature.

The students I was working with all LOVED this system, and it worked pretty well.

Obviously this wasn't their own sort of thing to keep them in check but it definitely was a cool different way.

When I have my own class one day, I would love to find a fun, more active way of incorporating "behavioral grades" like this one.

Real Life Scenario PART I

One of my favorite parts about being able to choose a major and take classes in accordance with it, is that eventually they all begin to make sense together as a whole.

For example, obviously in this class (Educational Technology) we are learning about how to incorporate technology into the classroom. In a different one of my classes we are learning about the logistics of test taking and how to run a classroom in more legal sense.

This week, I saw how both of these classes I am taking, can in reality, come together and work.

It all started when we were discussing if there should be such a thing as "behavioral grades"...
We came to the conclusion (with the guidance of the teacher) that if a teacher is going to incorporate "behavioral grades" into his\her teaching than they should make sure to never take away points from a student, but instead add points if they are doing well.

Make sense? It is just like a "schooling" way of looking at the class half full versus half empty.

Continue reading for part II and see how it all comes together

Resources at our Finger Tips

 I was just browsing the internet, looking for a good thing to put on Diigo, when I actually came across a really interesting source. Its called "edtechteacher" and its this organization made by teachers, for teachers, to help them with technology in the classroom.

These teachers, teach other teachers in workshops, conferences, summer schools and lots of other learning opportunities. I found this to be really cool because it reveals the importance and need in this department of schooling. Clearly people are searching for this type of thing since it exists.

But it makes me wonder... are school systems equipping their teachers efficiently? Are teachers having to go around their place of employment in order to get the proper skills that they are expected to have, or are school boards doing their jobs in properly providing these types of workshops and conferences for their teachers?


If you want to check this organization out their website is: http://edtechteacher.org/

So What's the Point?

As we have been researching\needing to find things to post on Diigo or twitter, I have actually been quite surprised at how many things are out there for us students, and one day teachers, to use.

Admittedly that I had no idea such an invention like Diigo or Google Pages existed until recently, but that's beside the point.

 Here's the point:

I feel like technology and its uses are advancing so much (including the fact that it's always at our finger tips) that even our expectations for students and certain professions are going to change. Like for example...why focus so much of schooling time on memorization (of certain things) when you could focus on something more in-depth,dynamic, and interesting since students could ...in reality... always have the answers to things with them on their phones etc...Get what I'm saying? So maybe instead of having all the students in an AP Politics class, spend days memorizing all the presidents and their office term dates, the teacher could skip that...assuming that if ever they needed to know the specific dates they could take 5 seconds and google it (or even ask Suri)... and instead have them concentrate on the tactics, details, and long term positives\negatives from certain presidential terms and how they could impact our political choices now. Make sense? Pretty much I think a positive of all this technology stuff is that people are honestly able to retain more knowledge, be smarter, and hopefully do more productive things with their time...of course if one has the self-control to avoid surfing the internet....

Say what?!

It makes sense that technology is booming (or should be) in the classroom...but what happens when the students know more about it than the teachers? 

    

  Honestly, this question was a common one to run through my mind as I did my field work last semester. I worked with second graders (pretty much like high functioning toddlers) and in more then a few situations, I saw them having more knowledge about smart boards, cellphones, Ipads, and computers than most teachers. Clearly, since these children are growing up in a technological age it's all second nature to them...so what does that mean for us, those who lived in the "VHS movies, only have a land line" age? It means we need to work twice as fast and hard to not only keep up with them, but also to be able to teach them. How so? Classes like Education Technology in which I am currently enrolled. 

I know I need to be in this class, well, because frankly, it shouldn't be this tough for me! Here's to a technologically advancing Lindy-Joy!