Mr. McClung

Although I'm just over two years from teaching I still think about what it will be like my first year of teaching. Mr. McClung's advice is something I know I will keep and refer back to often, not only as I prepare for my teaching career, but when I begin to teach as well. He made some great points about things that may seem obvious to some people, (such as communication, flexibility, and listening to students), but are often overlooked by first-year teachers. There are so many things they are trying to learn and teach their students that the obvious is sometimes overlooked.

Can Wikipedia be Trusted?

I've been a college student for 3 years now, and one thing I have always been told by my professors and/or instructors is that Wikipedia is not to be used as a resource for papers. The format was too unreliable. Is that still the case?

Some say yes, others say no. The debate is still ongoing, but some people, such as Virgil Griffith are working to make it reliable. I'm not too sure that's possible, but attention has been drawn to the way many companies will self-edit entries about themselves, deleting negative information and replacing it with complimentary information.

My thought is this: for general information, Wikipedia is probably ok. However, for serious research, or if you are trying to make an educated decision about a product or a company, check with a truly unbiased source, and check more than one source.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

When we were asked to view this lecture by Randy Pausch I was not sure how I would find more than an hour to sit and watch it, much less write something that made even a tiny bit of sense about what he had to say. I managed to find the time to watch it; twice. The first time I watched it, I really enjoyed it. However, it was so full of insight I could not retain it all.

I love that he uses humor and has fun throughout his lecture. You can't fake enthusiasm like that. It's genuine. You either love what you're talking about or you don't. He obviously had fun and enjoyed every moment of the lecture. Interestingly, hidden within his humor were some great nuggets of wisdom. The following is a brief look at a few of my favorite nuggets he shared.

• You don't have to accomplish a dream to be able to learn from it. I look at it from this point: If we don't learn from our mistakes and failures, then we won't learn even when we succeed.
• Learn all you can from all the people who know. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Surround yourself with people who want to see you succeed.
  
• How you say something is as important as what you say.
• Don't be afraid to learn from your students.

Dr. Pausch was a master at the 'head fake'. He made you think he was talking about one subject but was really talking about something else. He took the concept of childhood dreams and turned it around to show how to succeed in all of life.

This video is one that I will go back to; I learn more each time I watch it.

Karl Fisch

It's not only teachers who are afraid of technology. Many adults are afraid of the unknown, and for them, technology is the unknown. I like the way Mr. Fisch equates technological literacy with reading literacy. I realize that they are not exactly alike, but there are similarities worth looking at. Most students today expect technology to be used in their education. When it's not, what are we telling them? Are we telling them that they are not worth the effort for us to learn something new? It would seem that way.

Like Mr. Fisch, I do not like to hear parents say "I was terrible at...". It's almost as is they are giving their children permission to fail. When I hear these statements, it makes me want to encourage the student to put forth even more effort to overcome the preconceived notion that they too will be "terrible at...". We have to be more than teachers, we have to be coaches, motivators, and cheerleaders too.

Kelly W. Hines

After reading "It's Not About the Technology , rereading it, and then reading it for a third time, there are several things that capture my interest in this post. First, I agree that there has to be a change in the way teachers think. We can't stand in front of a room full of desks and talk about things in a book that children believe have no relevancy to them and their lives. We have to understand what motivates them, and use that to help them learn. What motivates the children of today? Technology. Wii, I-pod, You Tube, computer animation, Facebook, Twitter. These all involve technology. Why not use their interests to our advantage. No, as teachers we can not assume that everything has to use technology, but if it's what interests the students, we should not ignore it.

Which brings me to my second point. I fully agree with Ms. Hines that teachers should never stop learning. The more we can learn about technology, the better equipped we will be to properly use it in our classrooms. Technology is constantly changing. It is our responsibility to stay abreast of developments and find new ways to reach this constantly changing youth.

And a final point that grabbed my attention was the statement: "Teachers who customize the learning experiences of their students to involve critical thinking and problem solving are doing their students a greater favor than those who misuse technology as a means of facilitating learning." I love her choice of the word 'misuse'. Teachers can use technology to teach critical thinking and problem solving, they just have to be sure that technology is not their only tool in their chest. How many carpenters do you know that use only one tool to build a house? How many tools should a teacher use? I say as many as possible, because using only one tool won't get the job done.

Students Today

Although I am a non-traditional student, I can relate to the message of the video A Vision of Students Today. Student loans, sleepless nights, and $100 or more textbooks that are used seldom, if ever, are a part of our lives now. We study from traditional books as well as e-books, and much of it does not have a direct relation to the career we are preparing for. As a future Elementary School teacher, I don't believe my job will be obsolete before I graduate, but some people will face that situation, as well as the reverse; training for jobs that have not been created yet. Hard to imagine! For non-students, this video does a good job of giving the viewer a gimpse of what our lives are like.

If I could add anything to this video, it would be the perspective of the students like myself. Those of us who are married, have children, and still carry a full course load (I carry 15 hours) have a different set of challenges in addition to those that traditional students face.

As for the quality of the video, the text was a bit difficult to read at times. This was due to mainly two reasons: the camera moved away from the message too quickly, and at times was too shaky.

All in all, it was a good video that presented an excellent message.

Preparing for a podcast

In order to prepare for my group's podcast, I reviewed Eagles' Nest Radio Episode #3. I was very impressed with the students who participated in this particular episode. Their podcast was a lesson on Ancient Rome. I loved the music that they chose, it gave a very dramatic flare to the podcast, capturing your attention from the beginning. There were a few times that the music was too loud, making it difficult to hear the speaker, but it was still a good podcast.

Review of The Technologically Literate Teacher

Unfortunately, it was quite difficult to view the video The Technologically Literate Teacher . That said, it did give me the opportunity to know some things I don't want to do on my video cast. The ladies did not look at the camera, instead, they looked at their papers most of the time. Eye contact with the camera is, in essence, eye contact with the audience. It would also be better if the dialogue flowed more like a conversation instead of a presentation of facts.
The sound quality was good, as was the picture quality, but unfortunately, it was just too long. One of the ladies did seem to use her notes a lot less than the others, which was a good thing. Maybe had the setting been a bit more casual they might could have relaxed a bit more. Good effort though.

Multi-Facated Me

Blogging is not just for techies!

Last week I posted responses for 4th and 5th graders in New Zeland; this week it was for 1st graders in Canada. The world is getting smaller by the week! I hope that our local schools (Mobile County Public Schools) allow blogging by the time I have my own classroom. These children are learning from an early age that with technology we can do so much more. What an awesome motivational tool!

Comments 4 Kids

I have absolutely loved doing the Comments 4 Kids assignment. I love seeing what children on the other side of the world are doing in school. The excitement you see in their eyes on posts they have made is contagious. When someone asks me about school, I have to tell them about this assignment/program. It's marvelous. I hope to be able to use a program similar to this in my classroom one day.

Mr. Needleman

Mr. Needleman is an innovative thinker. He's not afraid to think outside the box. His willingness to try new solutions to an age old problem is fantastic. Most children like to play dress-up and pretend. That's what he let them do; he just asked them to write down what they wanted to 'play' in advance. He was able to show the children that writing is not a chore to dread, but an adventure waiting to happen.