My Philosophy...

2008-10-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

Intense Technology

I will take many things with me from this class; friendship, camaraderie, and a new respect and better understanding of how to integrate technology in the classroom. Camaraderie that was born and tested through the fires of intense and challenging work. Friendship that was established through class meetings as well as communication via e-mail and chat rooms. And of course a many new ideas that I had no idea that even existed. I learned so much in this class kicking and being drug into the new tech era. I feel that I have a much better understanding of the numerous programs offered by gmail. I can make storybooks, create imovies, make web quests, create Blogs, utilize chat, share and collaborate on documents, listen to podcast (that I had no idea even existed), and searched literally through at least a hundred great educational sites, many of which I will try to use in my class ( like Educationalcity.com), learned how to guide and protect myself and my students while on the Web, and finally, how convoluted the copyright scene is in our world today. I also learned that even though there is so much out there to use, we are going to have to push hard to get administrators to give us the time to be creative and use this new technology. My team at school is also looking into grants to help upgrade our equipment.

The technologies that I plan to use in my classroom are somewhat limited until we can update our classroom technological equipment and improve our bandwidth to handle the new programs. What I do plan to do, is quickly set up gmail accounts for my students and expose them to many of the latest technological programs that are available. Additionally, I plan to use many of the free educational sites that I have learned through the course. Soon, my technology advisor has assured me, that our school is purchasing equipment that will allow us to programs such as ,"Skype." How awesome that will be for the students to talk and learn from others live from around the world!

The most valuable idea I learned in our class is to challenge your students. To push them in the area of technology further than they ever thought they could go.

Copyright, Copyright, Copyright, Copyright!

2008-09-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

The four sites I read are a fine reason why I never took the L.S.A.T. To truly understand and feel secure in this field, you need to be a litigator. The first site,” Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines” used words that I found hard to follow. But it does have at its site a great," Fair Use Chart for Teachers." This is great, because no one that has a real life is going to take the time to memorize the tremendous amount of rules and regulations. What I found important from their site was ethics. How that we as teachers are setting the example and should not steal any others copyrighted material.

A visit to, “A Visit to Copyright Bay” helps educate teachers and get a better idea of , "Fair Use.” It has a cute design and is laid out like a map of a bay. You circumnavigate around to learn more about copyright law. What is scary is they have a disclaimer as not to be considered legal advice. So the waters continue to get murky.

Checking out the third site took me to the," Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center." This is an impressive site with access to current court cases regarding copyright. It also has many links to all sorts of areas that relate to the subject. I really had no idea that copyright was such a huge deal.

Lastly, I cruised through, “Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of Web Site Management.” This site shares information concerning copyright and websites. What I got out of it was that because Websites are such a new item, there is little case law. It also has lots of enlightening details. One that caught my eye was even though your school might have purchased the rights to use a clip art program, it does not automatically give you the right to use that clip art on the web. You have to do your research.

To sum it up, this is a huge area of law. If you are going to take anything from anyone, check out where you stand in regards to copyright laws. Or you might pay dearly!

Review and Critique Number 5, “Hand Jive”

2008-09-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to check out something on the podcast that my fourth graders say they are watching. So I chose a show they suggested from a show called, “ICarly.” I downloaded the podcast from the Kids and Family section. The premise of the show is that actress Miranda Cosgrove is trying to balance her newly acquired fortune she has made from a web show while still experiencing all the trials and tribulations of everyday life. This show probably falls under the genre of a TV comedy. The episode I thought I was going to watch was called,” Hand Jive.” But what I found was a back scene action from the cast practicing and commenting about their secret handshake. So, I really have not watched a true episode but I am looking forward to one. If you are interested in what’s happening behind the scenes of a Nickelodeon show, then this site could be for you. But otherwise, you’re better off practicing your own,”Hand Jive.”

Critique and Review Four, Only One More,

2008-09-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

This site was super cool! It is called, “Wired Science.” You can’t miss it as the advertising image is that of an atom, or is it a molecule. The selection is small, only three video clips to choose from. The third caught my eye because of its title, The Worlds Greenest Museum.” It shows many of the facts and construction that is going on at the remodel of this Museum. At first I did not know where the museum is and I wondered if it was close enough to go to. Much to my happiness it is the remodel of the old Steinhart Museum and the Planetarium complex. The video gives insight as to the building materials used and some really neat stuff they are installing. Like a rainforest enclosure that you can walk up to see the many different levels and life that it will support. Let me intrigue you to go here, I do not want to give away too much, but there will be live animals mixed in with the different habitat regions. Would I recommend this site? Do I even have to say it? You bet, and I can’t wait to take a class there!!

Around the World With a quick Click Review and Critique Three,

2008-09-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is a site that centers on a photography theme. The shots taken from iphones can be up linked to this site. It is a new format that some are calling photoblogging. The intro gives you a five slide show to get your interest. Once inside you travel the world, almost. Go where you want, zoom in to take a better look. Mac users can use your fingers to do the walking; others like me have to use the mouse. Would I use it? Probably not. Would I recommend it? Not to the average guy, but if you lean a little bit more towards the “geek squad” you might really enjoy it.

Blast Off with Critique and Review Two, “Discovery Channel”

2008-09-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

Another Free site, where have I been the last few years? Pulling a Rip Van Winkle! What a great site. The short videos can be used to enhance your History, Science and Language Arts lessons. Great realia! A super exciting way to put some pop in any lesson you teach. I watched two short videos. The first was on Jupiter and the second on the Kennedy Space Station. The Discovery Channel gives you wonderful audio facts, great information and brilliant photography. This site is a keeper. Top scores and I recommend you use it soon. I know I am.

Number One Ipodcast Review and Critique

2008-09-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

Nummer Eins. (Sorry, number 1) The first podcast I reviewed was, “Learn German for Free,” by Stephan Wiesner. This first thing I liked was it is a free site. I looked at some of the reviews he shows about his site and they are all over from 2 stars to 4 and a half stars. I decided to try my deutsch. Picking the first podcast I was surprised to find out that lesson 1 was not a beginning lesson, so starting over I found lesson 10 to be the starting place. He does have a soft voice, although he does annoy me with two things. First, his poor attempt at humor and he has a bad habit of smacking his lips. If you can get by these you’re on your way to learning. You do have the opportunity to purchase a book to go along with the early lessons. He explains his lessons in both English and German, so perhaps in later lessons he does more of an immersion class. Lessons are told in a story mode to help build a place for your new knowledge. The length of the lesson was actually short, around twenty minutes, so for those of you with actual free time you can squeeze it in. There were many different podcast to choose from as he had over 85 possible choices. Overall, for my classmates, I would give the site a thumb up with the side note that I think it is better for one on an intermediate level of speaking rather than a total beginner. Choost (See ya).

ucb359.5 Podcast

2008-09-20T18:09:00.001-07:00

Podcasting Blog

I think that podcasting is on the cutting edge of technology for most schools. I do agree with Dr. Tim Tyson in his video podcast from our third link in that it certainly stimulates creativity. It is much more interesting to make a presentation using a podcast on a subject than to write a report, make a collage or create a posterboard. From the first link, F.A.Q. For Podcast Fans, I agree with the fact that podcasting is a great way to deliver information, whether it came from radio, TV or movies. Sure beats the boring assignments that 99% of us teachers assign. Wouldn’t it be cool to have time to research, write assemble props and then shoot your podcast? And the new tools in the new Macs can make it all happen. There are even sites, like link 2, “Making a RSS Feed,” by Danny Sullivan that will teach you how to hook up to the Web. Possibly the neatest asset is that in a modern well supplied school with parents that own newer computers or Ipods, you could easily communicate with them. I do believe that it is necessary to hone these skills so that we as a society aren’t left behind in the tech field, but can it happen equally across the country. I don’t know.

How could I use the Podcast in my classroom? I could theoretically use it in many ways. IF I was given new computers and time to develop lessons to interact using the podcast I’d have the kids making reports, creative projects, even movies. I have done plays, puppet shows and I think it would be neat to make the quantum leap to the next level, and be able to use technology to share creativity about what they have studied. But without much more training, better equipment and the help of Administrators to implement time and materials, I’m sorry to say it probably won’t. I do not know if my 5 year old laptop could handle the new programs; if I could hook up additional speakers to handle the music aspect, or if I could afford to buy a new Mac, because I know money out there for our school to buy new items for the entire school just can’t happen. Throw into the mix mandated curriculum, minutes, and program improvement requirements and I feel terrible about the chances of using high tech programs like this at many sites.

Review & Rating

2008-09-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

UCBx359.5 9/20/08

A Review and Rating of Three Web Activities for Young Children, By Fatboy (Neil)

E-Learning Games

BrainPop-First off I like that it gives you the ability to search for your State Standards, Subject and even grade to find which lesson you want to teach. It has all the core subjects and as well as lessons in tech., health, music and arts. Give some thought about letting your kids run free, as I searched through Health, there are subjects that are “touchy” for young students to be on without your district’s and parental approval. It uses a young boy and his sidekick robot to deliver the lesson. I loved science and would love to use it in class, it even has graded and non-graded quizzes to use. I would also use this site by making passports and letting my students explore my-selected sites and then sign off on their passport after they pass the quiz. Fun!

BlackboardMath- Opening up the site I liked the fact it is leveled, giving the student the ability to choose east, medium or hard. It also gives you more choices than math to investigate. (English, Health, Reading). The site is set for ages 9 and up. Looking at the health choice, I thought at first it was cool, searching for a germ, but then without frontloading a lot of vocabulary I don’t think 9 year olds would be frustrated trying to comprehend Playing on the easy site , the problems are simple addition ad subtraction. The medium site uses multiplication and fractional division. The hard site uses parenthesis and order of operation skills I would use this site as I saw no way to know what else might pop up. This site could be used as an after school intervention to help improve targeted skills in math like adding, subtracting… But I wonder if the exercises always the same? I couldn’t find a way to pick a certain skill to target. I also didn’t find a re-teach or explanations for error site, and the chalkboard screeching, as you write on the board, becomes irritating after a while.

Batter’ Up Baseball- Lots of directions on how to start the game, although many children understand the basics of baseball-not all do. You’ll have to go over with youngsters how to play. Opening up site it now lists 15 other games –this is going to distract my kids because now somebody will want to play other games. (Oops, I guess you aren’t supposed to pick the age first?) The game is alright, graphics repeat, and the game can be played by one or two. It isn’t a mental math game as the homerun questions will have to be done with scratch paper. This would be a problem in my computer lab, as paper and space are critical. So, I would probably leave this game as an activity at home to improve their skills in times and addition.

Site to Share- One of my favorite sites is Educationcity.com The pro’s are that it uses animation and bright colored characters to deliver lessons either as a starter or to reinforce what you have taught. You can choose from Math, L.A. or Science categories. Each choice has targeted programs from K-6^th grade. All programs relate to the State Standards and there are time limits. The biggest con is that is not a free site. You will have to convince your county or District that it is more than worth the approximate $1,000 to purchase the program. Remember, you get what you pat for.

E-Learning Library Comment

I thought the E-learning sites to be innovative. The first about employee security gives directions to supervisors to help understand their role has more to do than just productivity. 2. Banking Frontline Loss Prevention- This is a great teaching tool as it explains what is expected, gives the person an opportunity to practice and then gives an assessment to show understanding. 3. Lifescape-Decent managing tool to familiar managers with the protocol at their site (did not see a union side to deal with hmmmmm.) 4. Expedia Training- Good help for a new Travel agent- very frustrating for me. All in all, I am impressed. E-learning could be used as a wonderful asset to help one understand new concepts or advance their life long learning.

Keeping Our Kids Web Safe UCBX359.5

2008-09-19T12:03:00.001-07:00

Keeping Our Kids Web Safe

After reading, “A short introduction to the study of Holocaust revisionism,” by Arthur R. Butz, Link #1, I was appalled. I would certainly not allow any of my kids at the 4^th grade level read this for a plethora of reasons. Obviously, it is not a Standard, but moreover it is not proper material for an eight or nine year old to behold. If by some chance our computer lab’s filters were breeched and this came across I would contact the search engine and even report it our District service provider to block The tips from ConnectSAfety.org on how to safeguard your students, that I choose, really did not have any helpful hints on what to do at school as they were parental hints. Yet, you can modify some of their ideas, such as talking to students, warning them of inappropriate sites that could pop up and getting your students to talk to you about sites that they have concerns about. A great strategy at school is to always walk around your lab to monitor what material they are actually looking at. Educating students is a must. Using sites such as SafeKids.com to discuss risks as well as the benefits of the Web with students and having a Web Safety Night at school using ConnectSafety.org to educate parents. A great new program I have been using is called, “Lanscape.” Landscape has many great features such as the ability to blue screen any computer or all computers in the lab, and then you allow only the sites you wish for them to visit. Lastly, in regards to the question how the information is different on the web from books that I have read, well, most of the historical facts that I have read seem to back up the “myth” belief. Even though history is often skewed from the perspective of the country that is validating the event, having lived in Germany for three years and visiting many of the concentration camp sites, I too believe that the Holocaust occurred.

The second article,” Teaching Kids to be Literate,” by Alan November brings to light the fact about the web as he states,” For many kids, including my own, it’s the medium of choice.” This article brings up the issue that many kids will believe something on the Web, simply because it’s on the Web. Mr. November goes on to tell the story of a 14 year old (Zach) who while doing a research paper on the holocaust comes across the article written by Mr. Butz. Zach assumes that it is true based on simple facts like the author was a professor and was linked to the Northwestern University. More educated adults might have done a little more research before accepting his position. By doing research Mr. November says, one could have found out that Mr. Butz doesn’t really have any standing in the field of history, rather, he is an electrical engineering professor at N.W.U. Additionally if one was to do a search on Arthur Butz you would find out that his works are held in high esteem in the “Aryan Re-Education Page.” This article has to do with credibility! Mr. November also goes on to explain how to map links, to find out which links lead to this article. As in this case several Aryan and neo-Nazi sites like the Michigan KKK were linked. This article was very enlightening, and now makes sense as to why we are doing this assignment. I could easily now lead them to my site and write something totally in a different context to a historical 4^th grade legitimate published piece in order to get this idea across about the reliability and credibility of things you read on the Web.

The Last Link was a Teacher’s guide written by Dan McDowell of the San Diego Unified School District. (Updated July 5, 1999) This is a great article that could help teach students of all ages how to evaluate Internet information. It mentions many things to be on the look for as you make your decision as to whether the information can be thought as reliable and credible. The article brings to light things like: does the author have any self-interests in the work; is there a bibliography (with reliable sources); is this a personal web-site or does it belong to a larger reputable site. These are only a few of the red flags mentioned that could raise doubts as to reliability of the site or piece of work.

Project Based Learning is Red Hot

2008-09-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

Project Based Learning (P.B.L) offers a lot to students. Proponents of this philosophy speak of the many opportunities it gives its’ students and that their realistic projects given are more like the real world problems that our students will need to overcome as adults. Their view is that by accomplishing these projects they will learn to have a strong voice in helping to solve new problems or perhaps find a better way to do something later in life. More often than not, the task assigned will have many ways to solve it, giving the student a much better understanding of the subject material because they have dug into the area much deeper than the average traditional student would have. These projects are supposed to give the student; a great sense of ownership and pride; control over their learning; deeper understanding; and when working in a group, achieve better cooperative working habits. And so it will.

I believe that P.B.L gives a wonderful opportunity to excel for the student that has the trait of being self-motivated and also who has the confidence to work individually with minimal guidance from their instructor.

The article left me with many doubts and questions. Is this a program for all? Are these programs more for the GATE students? Are students screened before they are accepted into the program? How much parental involvement is required? What happens to the students that try and do not make the grade? Who helps their self-esteem?

As a former instructor in an Alternative based school, I believe that for the right students PBL can be a truly wonderful experience. But for those that need a bit more nurturing and guidance, perhaps, the traditional approach is better.

As a side note, when visiting their site, please check out their ideas and worksheets for planning projects. They are great!

NETS For Students

2008-09-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

These goals, guidelines and proceedures regarding the Technology Standards for Students are well written with their best interest at heart. In theory (as much as our teaching classes are) they lead us right down the path of integrity and wisdom. Giving students the goals of collaborating with others online to learn, create , perhaps invent, or just research independently to come up with a deeper understanding of whatever project they are studying, or even to solve a complex essential question. Great! Perhaps this is happening at some well to do schools, and I know it does happen at New Tech High in Napa, but in the majority of our schools I wonder if it is happening.For the majority of grammar schools, in our district, we have about 40 minutes a week of computer lab. Some time is spent walking up, some logging in, some logging out for the next class, so you see there isn't very much actual research time left after you have explained the project and...
What is important to me at the 4th grade level is to install a love of computers, not a fear of them. To begin to give then the tools that they can use later on. (Keyboarding is a must to learn) Our school also has a program afterschool called the "geek squad " that helps students in grades 4-6 learn how to troubleshoot problems. Once again the real world is much different from the Standards based world.

NETS For Teachers

2008-09-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

NETS gives us everything we need to know, what were supposed to do, what we are striving for, yet, again I feel that our government is thinking all to much towards that "perfect world" idea. I'D love to give my students technology projects that advance their creative juices. So, all you have to do is give me time to plan and a budget that allows my school to get state of the art equiptment. Many of us are in the same boat, old equiptment that sometimes works, servers that can't handle the load and Districts that won't sign up for educational programs that are out there because of the money crunch. What they do purchase are the services for Benchmark analysis, S.R.I. and other similar formative assessments for us to use to better plan what we can teach in the core subjects. Oh yea, and "give" us forty minutes a week for our tech time. I am very afraid that Technology , because of the costs involved, may become another step-child , like history, science, fitness, art and music. The NETS are great, now, give us a plan to make them work.

McKinsey Report Listen Up

2008-09-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

My solving the problem to education would start with increasing the allocation of funds to school districts so that they could create a positive learning environment. Simple things that don’t work could be fixed, schools could be more attractive both inside and out. Each teacher at my school has to buy and plant their own flowers around their portable classroom, an out of pocket expense, to try and beautify the area. Second, I would get rid of social promotion. Many students who don’t have the skills needed to move on are simply moved up and out because there are no funding for more teachers, aids, and interventions to help them. Lastly, I would require the State to fund all programs that they, in their infinite wisdom, say that we need.

I would reorder the focus of priorities in this manner. I would reduce the number of Standards that we are required to try and teach (by scratching the surface) to a fewer number that we could go into more depth with greater understanding. Then I would reduce the number of High Stakes Tests, as they truly aren’t written on a level playing field for the student populations that are in many school districts. Lastly again I would give more project, hands on, based assignments to all.

The professional development that works best for me is to have other colleagues share their insight and wealth of knowledge on the areas of problems I may be encountering. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sign up for the area of need rather than sit and listen to someone in an area that you already have mastered or has no bearing.

The two greatest resources I need to improve are collaboration with other same grade teachers and the time to design and implement new ideas and lessons.

The Standards are sometimes overbearing. When you are mandated to teach this or that and then because of poor testing scores, the district “allows” you not to teach history or science because they are not tested, how can you buy into the idea that you must teach the Standards? Pretty soon, you too are beginning to pick and choose which Standards you decide to teach. Don’t lower the Standards, lower the amount of Standards to be taught.

My take on NCLB is that, there is a great idea there, but without proper funding and realistic timelines it should be redesigned or dropped. Without the funds from the Federal government to make their law work, dispose of it.

The class size alone doesn’t determine your success as a teacher. The quality of the teacher, their life experience, their connection with the students, and their ability to deal with all the intangibles from class to class, all are factors that need be considered. Last year I had two 504 students, three IEP students, several first year speaking students in different languages. How your ability to deal with many different issues will help define your success as a teacher rather than just class size.

I became a teacher because I love to watch young minds open up. I also wanted to give back and share my life experiences and knowledge in a way that hopefully helps create, in whatever small way, better students and later, better socialized adults.

It was difficult to sit and listen without any visual stimulus. I am a visual leaner that also must study (reread) in order to make my brain make connections to the new material. It's hard getting old.

trumpets are the best

2008-09-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

Most people think that guitars are the best instrument to listen to, I believe that the trumpet is the greatest musical instrument. From the earliest times important people were announced by trumpets. Presidents also have Ruffles and flourishes. Americans are even put to rest with the playing of "Taps." So rock on with the trumpet!!! Guitars pluck.