Blog Post # 14

 
     I think Joel Klein expressed a great vision of what education could look like in the public school systems of America. Klein believes that professionalizing education is top priority. He believes that the educationn profession should be competitive and held in high reguard. In his article he presents some suggestions on how this  could be accomplished.

     Klein thinks that when it comes to education, the job market should be competitive. He suggests that we "do what successful countries do and pick from the top third of graduates". According to Klein, better education training for educators is a top priority. And I agree with him. If the individuals teaching the youth of America, it is important for them to be properly educated in how to do so. Without the propper education for educators, we have the blind leading the blind. As stated earlier, Klein also thinks that teachers should be picked from the top third percent of graduates. I agree with this view to an extent. I do believe that teachers should be picked from an upper crust but this also makes me worried. I do not completely agree that because these graduates did well in school, that they will make exceptional teachers.

     Next, Klein states that we should change how the education profession is based on seniority. In the current system, seniority trumps performance. I think this a poor way to run our education system and is not only unfair to educators, but most importantly unfair to students. It is not fair for a child to recieve an average or below average level of education because the educator has recieved tenure. Nor is it fair for a child to recieve a lesser education because of his or her social status. His or her financial situation should not keep them from recieving a proper education. Furthermore, Klein states that educators should face rigorous schooling, preparation, and even have competitive internships  and a board test like other professions such as law or medicine. I think this would be a great implimentation to our school systems. It would ensure that teachers were well educated. Moral would be higher among educators, and their compensation would be based on their performance. This would create an incentive among educators to do their best.

     Lastly, Klein addresses the thought of radical change. This includes educators creating their own policies, boards to ensure these policies are being enforced, and moving up in the profession would be based on how well they did on specialized exams. I think this type of system would be a more strict environment that would make the education profession a very competitive and well respected profession. It is also a great concept because educators are running every aspect of the system. He also states that teachers would stop supporting the neighbor hood kids in neighborhood schools routine. Instead, children would be allowed to attend a school that was more suitable to them and their interests or talents.

     Overall, I believe that Klein has a great vision of what the United States' school system could be.

   

Final C4K summary

       Damien is 7 years old and in 3rd grade. His blogpost was the most recent of my C4K assignments. Damien's blog post was a google slide presentation he had created about an artist named Jo May. Jo May makes silk paintings. Her work is mostly nature scenes. She uses bright colors and produces beautiful pieces. His presentation presented a quality equal to the ones I have seen in class this semester and he is only 7. Damien also provided a link to Jo May's web page.I told Damien I enjoyed his post. I also added that he should send the artist a link to his page so she could see his interest in her work. Who knows, maybe she would send him a piece of her work?

      Malloryh's blog titled "Declaration of Independence - Class Mother", was very interesting. In this blogpost Malloryh, who is in middle school, is "declaring independence" from being class mother. She writes at length about the struggles she faces as being class mother. She then tells her fellow classmen how it sadens her when they say that "she isn't their real mothers". Malloryh then lets them know that when they are all in high school that she will never stop loving them. She follows up by quoting lyrics from an Eagles song. As an Eagles fan, this was the coolest thing I had seen since I started C4K assignments. She stated that "her heart was like, the Hotel California, once you are in her heart you can never leave". She showed a lot of emotion in her blog and it was well written. It is pobably the best one I have read all year. I told her how much I enjoyed reading her blog and that I was a huge Eagles fan. I also told her to keep writing, and that my middle school friends and I stayed friends all the way through high school.


     Yazmin's blogg was titled "Will You Rather" but I am sure the title is supposed to read "would you rather". I read her blog in late October when the halloween spirit was in the air. Her blog asked the question of "would you rather live in a small house, or a mansion with a ghost?". Most responses from her classmates stated they would live in the mansion and live with the unwanted house guest. I on the other hand begged to differ. My comment stated that I would most definitely live in the smaller house in exchange for a ghost free environment. I also made sure to tell Yazmin that she was doing a great job and to keep up the good work.

Blog Post #13: What Did I Leave Out?

Assignment: This assignment is for history teachers. Now that we are in the technological age of the 21st century, it is hard to keep student's attention with lectures and note taking. I want you to find five available resources that combine history with technology. When you have located the sources, create a link for each and place them on your blog. Then, following the standards listed in Writing A Quality Blog Post and the ACCRS guidelines, write a brief descrition of each, how they work and why they would be a useful asset to the classroom.



1) GLOGSTER

Glogster can be used for any subject. It is a website that allows students to create digital posters. Students can go to the website and choose from literally hundreds of templates that cover evry subject and subject material. Once the students have picked the template of their choice, they then incorporate their reseach into the poster. The students can upload text, pictures, videos and websites to their digital poster. When students are finished with their poster, they can then present them to the audience using a smart device, computer, or SMARTboard. I feel that glogster would be a great resource for both group and individual projects. This site allows for the class to mix technology with social studies, produces a beter quality product than the old fashioned paper poster and is completely digital so no mess to clean up. The only down fall is this site is not free; there is a yearly fee.

2) MINDMEISTER

Mindmeister is a digital way to map out ideas. It is used for mind mapping and brainstorming. It allows students to start out with a topic or idea and elaborate on them. This resource could be used either individually or collaborately. Mindmeister allows students to share their mind maps with other students who can then add information as well. I think this would be great in a history class because it would allow students to share ideas and information among one another. Also, mindmeister is FREE.

3) GOOGLE EARTH

Google earth allows for people to view almost every inch of the World via satelites. This is a great resource for history teachers. While on the website, you can click the explore link that pulls up historiographical points of interest. The link provides a variety of pictures and places and gives an overview of their significance. You can even explore the oceans and MARS with this resource.  This would be a great way to enhance a history lesson. This would also be a great research tool for students. They could use this resource at home, in the car or wherever. Also, it is a free resource.

4) WHATWASTHERE.COM

The site whatwasthere.com, is a really awesome site. It couples history with technology. This free resource allows students to type in any city in the United States. It then pulls up old phontographs from a database and in the background is a picture of what is there now. It is really a site you must see for yourself to understand what I am trying to say. I think this would be another cool way for students to get interested in history. Instead of doing a lecture, an instructor could give the students an assigned town in the U.S. and let them explore this website and allow them to document their findings. Before I forget, there is also and app as well. And again, this site is FREE.

5) VOKI

Voki allows students to create their own personal talking avatar. This gives the kids the opportunity to use their imagination and makes the lesson more important and personal to them. This is a great way to get students interested in a history lesson. It is also a great way to allow students to do oral tests or reports. When students have to give a presentation in front of a class, it is uncomfortable and nerve wrecking for most. With Voki, students can have their avatar do all of the talking for them. I think this is a really cool resource and it would be very useful in the classroom.

Project 12 Part B

Project #10

Here is my interview with Christina Smith. She is a teacher at Escambia High School in Pensacola Florida. She has her batchelors in secondary education from South Alabama and has eight years of teaching experience. I hope you enjoy the video.

C4T Summary # 3

My first C4T assignments this month were both on John Spencer's blog page. According to his blog, Spencer is "an educator, author, speaker, incessant doodler, and perpetual bender of paper clips." I enjoyed looking at his blog posts. You can tell by the way he writes and the subjects that he covers that he is a fun and outgoing person with great intellect.
The first blog that I commented on was titled "You Can Geek Out About Everything". In this blog Spencer talks about a note that was given to him by one of his students. In the note the student thanked him for showing that it was okay to "geek out" about multiple things at once. The emphasis was on how we have stereotyped people with their interests. For example, some find it strange for someone who is artistic to play sports or someone who enjoys hunting to also enjoy theater. Spencer made it clear that it is okay to have multiple interests and that you don't have to follow the stereotypes our society has created. My response was thanking Spencer for puting this into perspective for his students. I also told him some of my personal experiences with these stereotypes while growing up in Alabama. I lastly told him to keep up the good work and to keep spreading messages like this to his students.
The second blog I commented on was titled "I Hid My Art". In this post Spencer talks about how he has always enjoyed art and even won prizes for some of his work when he was younger. He then talks about how he never considered himself and artist and never pursued his talent. Later in life he was curious to see if he still had the talent. He drew a picture of his wife one christmas and he realized he still had his talent. Later on, he and his wife wrote a childrens book that he illustrated. The funny thing is, the main character in the book was about a boy non-magical kid with a hidden talent much like Spencer himself. The main message for this post was for people to embrace their talents and not to hid them. I commented that he should share his story with his students. I think this is a great message that could possibly allow one or more of his students to pursue a talent that they too may be hiding.
I really enjoyed the blogs John Spencer has on his page. I hope that students can read his posts and be inspired.

Blog Post #12

Project # 14

Check out our project #14

Blog Post # 11

In Back to the Future, I learned to give students a chance. When these students first entered Mr. Crosby's classroom in fourth grade; most students did not know their address. Two years later they are sent a balloon into the different layers of the atmosphere for their "high hopes" project. The amount of learning that takes place inside of Mr. Crosby's classroom is unbelievable. The students are learning from every aspect of their project. Group learning, searching the web, Skyping with professionals and class members, and blogging are just a few ways in which Mr. Crosby implements learning in his classroom.
The blended learning cycle is composed of six components: question, investigation, video, elaboration, review and summary. In our video the instructor uses the topic of natural selection. He gives the class a driving question and allows the class to investigate independently for an answer. He also so shares videos with the class to further their knowledge of the topic. Once the students have completed their research and have found an answer to the driving question; the instructor then elaborates one on one with students to make sure they have a complete understanding of the topic before allowing them to move on the summary quizes. This method of teaching is great because it allows the students to work independently or within a group, and uses technology as a way of learning. It is also a great method because it allows for the students to self evaluate their work and allows for the instructor to ensure the topic is fully understood by the students before taking their quizes.
In Making Thinking Visible the instructor puts his students in groups and asks them to create headlines stating what the unit being covered is about. He then posts these headlines in the classroom for the remainder of the unit. This allows students to see these headlines throughout the unit. Once the unit is completed the instructor asks them if their headline is still the same. By doing this the class is allowed to continuously have the headlines in front of them everyday and allows them to use
these headlines as a guide, or allows students to see how their focuses change throughout thee unit.
Super Digital Citizen was a really cool video to watch. The instructor allows the students to make their own digital superhero, and then allows the students to create their own comic with using their character they made. This is a great way to teach writing skills. It also means more to the students because it is a more personal project. This drives students to take more pride in their work and makes them want to create an outstandin piece of work.
The video on PBL showed us an itegrated studies classroom. The class was a combination of Canadian history, english, and information processing. I think this is a great idea because it allowed for three subjects to be learned collaboratively. I also like the fact that the students are constantly engaged by not only other students but by three different teachers as well. It allows for a more well rounded learning experience as apposed to traditional single subject learning. In this class they used PBL which engages students more effectively and provides a deeper understanding of the material among the students.
In Roosevelt Elementary's PBL program they stressed the importance of PBL in the classroom. I found the perspective one parent very interesting. She stated that PBL incorporates public speaking and that it teaches children to overcome their fear of speaking in public at a young age. I think this is a great skill to be learned. I didnt take public speaking until college and it is one of the scarriest things I have ever done. Although I grew up doing theater and drama, being on stage and playing someone else is easy; standing in front of an audience as yourself is a completely different scenario. I also liked the participation and involvement of the parents at Roosevelt Elementary. I have a lot of friends that teach and they say the hardest thing about teaching is that parents are not involved with their childrens education. It seems that the parents really and truly care at Roosevelt. and that is amazing. One last thing I found inspiring about the video (as well as the previous videos) is the implementing of integrated studies when using PBL. This allows for students to take real world situations and learn more about them using a variety of skills.