Essential Questions

The questions below are my first try at some Essential Questions for my Technology in Education courses at National Louis University.

Who are you?

What do you think she is thinking?

What makes a good artist?

Is this good music?

How long will he live?

When will it all end?

How do you love someone?

How do you know you love someone?

What is the meaning of life?

Is it all worth it?

Can I really make a difference?

What is the point?

Is there a God?

Does he really care?

Why does he let bad things happen?

What happens when we die?

Do dogs go to heaven?

Do the good really die young?

Why are some people luckier than others?

Why do people seek out the companionship of others?

These are my first tries so be gentle.

The evaluation of students' use of technology tools.

Upon looking at the scaling rubric provided by my professor at NLU, two important thoughts come to mind. 1. How do you seriously evaluate a student's work using a set of numbers and specific criteria. I will not be speaking for any of my colleagues I'm sure, but in my own personal opinion this is a very difficult thing to do, and there are always certain students who you can not grade using Bloom's WHATEVER! Everybody in the education world now is all about rubrics, test, and the next big educational philosopher. Here is my question..... What happened to personal attention and mentor ship? To me the the assessment of a student's work is plain and simple. It's the final product. Did the student do what I asked them to do and how did they go about making that happen? These are things that cannot be measured, correctly anyway, with the use of a rubric or test. It can only truly be a meaningful educational experience for the student if there is a very real feeling of one on one mentor ship. Meaning this, the teacher demonstrates how to properly do things. They break it down into how they themselves would go about finishing a project. Then they guide the student through the creation progress. They must be careful not to crush the creativity of a student because more than likely the student will come up with their own solutions to a problem. This is what we want as educators! To teach the students HOW to learn. Not to make them memorize the way we would do things, but rather teach them how to come up with there own solutions through trial and error. This is how real life works.
2.Why is everyone so worried about giving students a number that represents there success. I know it may seem like I'm on a soap box here, but what are we really teaching our students. That you need to do this or that to get a good grade, or score? Or, that projects and problems are solved with careful thinking planning and are not ever finished just because you got a B on it. There used to be a sense of pride and responsibility in doing a good job at anything. Getting it as perfect as you can and taking the time necessary to do so. Many times are students are thinking to themselves.... Well, I only have to do this and this to get a decent grade. Where as in the past, there was more time spent on the small details of a project instead of the Final product. I can't help but be afraid that with all the rubrics, and standardized testing that we are raising a generation of ROBOTS! "Do as we tell you, or you will not PASS!" That's enough to scare anyone into not thinking for themselves!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/04/eveningnews/main1472010.shtml

http://www.gallup.com/poll/19552/testing-testing-schools-too-much.aspx

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED430052&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED430052

Tech Skills Integration

Many times as a technology teacher I have found myself trying to justify the teaching of technology skills (Typing, Software Instruction, etc.) as separate entities from everyday lessons in the classroom. I do believe that there is a time and place for both integration and stand alone technology lessons, but maybe it's because I teach at a elementary school that I find the need to have more lessons on the technology itself. I have found that some of the teachers at my school are quick to say things like type this document up in a word document. Now, this might seem like a no brainer to the teacher because they feel like they are teaching their students how to use technology as a tool to help them with their work. Then, they get every body's word documents and look with horror as their students have created documents with strange fonts, font size, improper titles and headings, and no paragraph indention. Not to mention that the students pecked it out with one finger and it took them twice as long to complete their document because they have never developed any typing skills. I have come to find that when teaching elementary age students you can never assume that students know how to use certain technology we take for granted properly. It is necessary to show students how to use any tool. You wouldn't give a table saw to a 10 year old and say, "cut this piece of wood. Make sure it's a clean cut because you only get one chance!" Although this may not seem like the same thing as telling a child to type up a word document, but in many ways it is the same. We are asking our students to create a quality product with a tool they have never been trained on. Which means we are setting them up for failure from the beginning. Same as the table saw we are also putting them in danger because we are allowing them the opportunity to develop bad habits they can follow them into high school and beyond. I should know. I still peck around the keyboard with two or three fingers because I was never trained with proper typing skills. So this blog, will take me longer than someone who has received the proper typing training. At the same time we have to be careful to not implement any technology skills into lessons because then students have a hard time understanding that technology is a seriously helpful tool for learning. It is a fine line we walk as educators, but as with the table saw you wouldn't want to teach your students how to cut a piece of wood just for the sake of cutting it. We have to teach that it is a means to an end. We want to show that by having the proper training with tech skills we create something that has meaning and use. Then our students can take that table saw and use it to express their creativity in a proper way.

http://www.libraryinstruction.com/info-tech.html

http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/front_tech.htm

http://www.gmu.edu/resources/facstaff/part-time/strategy.html

My last Awful PD

In my most recent technology cohort class the question was posed to me, "What was my last awful professional development, and why was it so awful?" I immediately laughed to myself because I knew exactly when it was. That same day of course. HA! The same day my professor asked me that question I had attend a CPS Tech Tuesday training on the use of iPods in the classroom. Before I got to the PD I was very exciting about learning something new I could show my teachers and the teacher I had brought with me to the training. What I was hoping for was maybe some new ideas on lessons and teaching strategies that my primary teachers could actually use. I had hyped it up to the 2nd grade teacher I had brought with me, and boy was that a mistake. The ALL DAY LONG PD was basically spent on showing us how to use a iPod. Okay, now I understand that working an iPod might be difficult for some but seriously, COME ON PEOPLE! This is the year 2010! The number of the people that have had no experience with an iPod in this PD was probably 1 out of 50. The entire PD was spent on how to work the different features of the new video iPod. There were no teaching strategies talked about. No real outline for lesson plans. No ideas offered on how to manage the use of iPods in the classroom, or anything of that nature. In fact, some of the best ideas from the PD came from the teachers that were there to learn from the presenter. It made me realize how important it is to think about the PD you are going to give thoroughly, as well as the audience that you are trying to target. It seems to me that PD is best when the presenter has a very specific implementation idea that they want to discuss with the trainees. Anything other than that is just worthless. Then again that's just my opinion.

Final Project Reflection

This post is a reflection for my final project for m Tie-542 class at National Louis University. For my final project I created a WebQuest meant to be used for 8th or 9th grade students. The WebQuest task was for two students to work together on a project called "Sign the Next Amazing Band". In this project students learn that they have just received a new position in a record company and there job is to search out new and young talent and pick a new band to pitch to the president of the company. The students will gather all the information they can about their group and develop either a Power Point or Keynote presentation that will persuade their boss (the teacher) and the company employees (the class) that their band is the next big thing.
Although I found this project difficult at first, I started to get into it and really enjoyed creating it. In fact I feel like this WebQuest would go over very well with my kids and plan on implementing it, and sharing it with the other teachers at my school. The most difficult part of the project was the actual set-up time that was necessary in Dreamweaver. Finding the right resources and all of that wasn't that difficult. After looking at some other WebQuest online as well as some of my classmates I feel that there are a couple of things I could do better. The first thing that I feel might make it a little more appeasing to the eye is if I would have added a few graphics when appropriate. I also think after reading it over a couple times that I could of laid it out a little bit better so that it would have read a little more smoothly. I do feel though that for my first WebQuest it wasn't that bad. I look forward to creating some more. Hope you enjoy!

Web 2.0 Application

I recently stumbled upon a new web 2.0 Application I thought would be very useful to my teachers called Quizlet. Quizlet is a great application that allows it's users to create Flashcards easily. It's a great tool because not only can you just create Flashcards but you can also easily create flashcard sets with as many questions and answers as you want, import questions and answers from your computer or other websites (or just type them in directly). You can also cut and paste questions from other peoples' flashcard sets to make your own and Invite friends to share your flashcards via email, Facebook, or MySpace. You can also do One-click look up of official dictionary definitions, and other users' previous answers.
One of the best features of Quizlet is you can create a group so your friends or classmates can study together. You can also discuss answers with your group via live chat. Another great feature is that you can get notified when group members post new study sets, you can edit and improve sets created by other group members, and a great feature the groups can be private or public. Here is a link where you can get look at a video tour.

This is a great site and a great teacher resource. It comes in handy in a lot of ways in the classroom, and is a great way to study with your students on upcoming test or math equations, formulas, scientific method. I hop you all find it to be as useful as I have.

A Favorite Resource list!

A really well organized resource list on the web can be very helpful to any classroom teacher. One of my favorite internet resource list is called internet4classrooms.

This website has all kinds of resources for classroom teachers in it. The best thing about the resource depository for me is how well it is organized and categorized. The site does a great job of covering all the grade levels K-12 and also categorizes the resources for the different subject matters. The site even gives teachers lesson plans for internet related activities as well as some helpful sites for parents who want to work with their children.

Some other great things about the site is the many fun learning activities that it has for early childhood teachers. I have found that many early childhood teachers feel that they don't know how to utilize computers in the classroom with their students. This website offers many fun activities that my kindergartners can't get enough of. Another great feature of the sight is the links listed for exceptional children. There are some great lessons and activities for those students who may be gifted, have autism, and for students who have ADHD. As teachers we all know how a site like this can be helpful when trying to differentiate learning to all of the students in the classroom. The value of the information on this site is exceptional and the accessibility for teachers is a must have.
I almost forgot my favorite feature which is a extensive internet reference list for teachers to use in their classrooms. The list includes links for online dictionaries, thesaurus, and almanacs.
This website is an amazing resource for any teacher and can help spark a teachers own creativity. If there is one place I always recommend my teachers go if they are looking for ideas it's internet4classrooms.