I find it very hard to believe based on my experience in high school that class sizes dropped from 1990 to 2008. I was in high school from 2004-06 and I can tell you that my classes certainly did not get any smaller as time went on. If anything, they only got larger! I had 25-30 people in my AP US History class, and there were easily 25 people in my physics and chemistry classes during high school. Also I was not aware that states and districts had imposed limits on classroom sizes. I suppose that makes sense, and that it is a good way of curbing excessive spending on programs that may not be needed etc. I find it interesting as well that the study that was cited as having the greatest effects and benefits from smaller class sizes are minority groups. Oddly enough, it is, or I am largely led to believe, that minority groups are the ones who are in the largest classrooms. Think might be a result of media and television coverage depicting urban, overcrowded schools though. The concept of having sixty kids in a single classroom is crazy to me, much less having 60 first, second, or third graders. That sounds like absolute chaos. I can't believe that the novice teachers in those classrooms get paid 50K a year though. I don't know how long it will take for me to make that much money but I can guarantee its going to be quite some time, and thats even with having a masters degree under my belt!
I'm just wondering: does the Willamette Masters in Teaching course fall into the residency category described in the article New Vigor Propelling Training. It sounds like we are, based on the fact that we have to do the preteaching hours and have to the the actual hours in our fourth semester here. Based on what I have read in the article, it seems like our program is pretty ahead of the curve. I am definitely glad about that. I wouldnt want to get a year into the program and then find out that it isn't good enough to help me get hired as a teacher because the standards were too low or whatever. This is an area in which I feel our program really excels: a majority of teacher-educators see accreditation as a compliance-based process rather than a standard of quality preparation. I feel like I wouldnt have been nearly as good of a teacher if I had tried to go right into teaching from my undergraduate studies. I would also say that it would even be possible that I would have given up teaching after a year or two had I not done this program... I want to be a quality teacher and understanding it more is extremely important to me, and will hopefully keep me in the profession until I retired :D
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Education Week 11/17 Reflection
I have to say that I rank among the number who are very pessimistic about the integration of dance with other subjects. To me, I have a very difficult time seeing how on earth you would be able to integrate dance with a subject like physics. Obviously, there is nothing in the article to suggest dancing and physics is a good idea or even being used, but I use it as a point. Are we seriously able to integrate dance with subjects that allow for greater knowledge at higher grade levels? I remember doing that "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes" dance in elementary school but learning to read by dancing seems farfetched to me, much less combining danging with even more "difficult" subjects. I appreciate the arts, but I think I would stand on the side of the fence that it should remain its own distinct discipline, and I definitely think that dance should be in schools just as much as music or arts programs are. Until we could see some more conclusive evidence, I would rather keep it that way. but then again, you cant hope to get any evidence without doing it first...
As a person who has done an excessive amount of texting in the last few years of his life, I'm not sure how I feel about the study from Cleveland showing that kids were three times as likely to have sex if they texted beyond 120 times a day. I would like to see studies from different areas before jumping to any conclusions... that isn't saying anything against Cleveland, Ohio of course but it seems like much too small of a sample from such a small area that it cannot even closely be called legitimate. This is one of those articles that frustrates me because they come out and say that "hyper-texting" as they like to call it leads to sex and other risky behaviors, but there is such a a strange link. I mean, come on people. Its such a ridiculous way of saying things; it's practically verbal coercion. "well we have this study here, but you are certainly allowed to have your own opinion, but aren't these numbers funny?" slightly ridiculous in my opinion.
As a person who has done an excessive amount of texting in the last few years of his life, I'm not sure how I feel about the study from Cleveland showing that kids were three times as likely to have sex if they texted beyond 120 times a day. I would like to see studies from different areas before jumping to any conclusions... that isn't saying anything against Cleveland, Ohio of course but it seems like much too small of a sample from such a small area that it cannot even closely be called legitimate. This is one of those articles that frustrates me because they come out and say that "hyper-texting" as they like to call it leads to sex and other risky behaviors, but there is such a a strange link. I mean, come on people. Its such a ridiculous way of saying things; it's practically verbal coercion. "well we have this study here, but you are certainly allowed to have your own opinion, but aren't these numbers funny?" slightly ridiculous in my opinion.
Education Week 11/10 Reflection
OK, so there is an article on pay, I would hope that everyone in the class read it, because no matter what you think, it very much pertains to you. It was especially interesting to me because I recently did some research into Salem-Keizer School District and how much teachers are paid there. It is a combination of the step and lane system. Every year there is a raise for experience (starting at 34K for a Bachelors degree and 40K for a Masters Degree). Part of me is glad that many of them are changing from this system to one based on performance reviews, but part of it doesn't sit well with me either. Shouldn't teachers be rewarded for how well they are teaching their students? Shouldn't someone with a Masters degree be paid more than someone who only has a bachelors? I don't necessarily agree with the person in the article who said that 'The plan “is less about reforming a compensation system and more about what are the things we need to do to have a high-quality, highly effective teacher in every classroom,”' because it seems like this might be an effort to get rid of super old teachers who are past their prime and don't have a love for the profession anymore... Perhaps they shouldn't be teaching anymore? I agreed with the Pittsburgh system cited in the article that incorporated the step system and the performance review system as well. And I think that the Baltimore plan is just completely ridiculous. It values on course as 1 credit as opposed to a positive or superior review being worth 9 and 12 credits towards getting a pay increase? That just seems silly. That provides no incentive for teachers to keep being lifelong learners, which is what we are supposed to be teaching children. That plan makes it seem like, ok do these things until you can become a teacher and then after that point you don't have to learn anymore, because its not like you are going to get paid for it anyways so why bother? I feel like there should be some sort of reward...maybe, I think? I also found it very interesting that the Pittsburgh one was something current teachers could opt into, but I dont think it would be very likely that many teachers would opt into it because for ones that had been there for a long time already, they would have the most to lose. The longer a teacher stays in the system, the more they benefit. I would be very surprised if any teachers working more than five years would opt into that plan.
The other article I found really interesting was about Juveniles' education. I would claim that in the case of most youths who commit crimes, putting them in Juvy would be a was a reforming them rather than punishing them. That would make it all the more important to make sure than children who are being educated while incarcerated to receive a quality education. They aren't going to stay forever so they need to be prepared to get out into the real world.
The other article I found really interesting was about Juveniles' education. I would claim that in the case of most youths who commit crimes, putting them in Juvy would be a was a reforming them rather than punishing them. That would make it all the more important to make sure than children who are being educated while incarcerated to receive a quality education. They aren't going to stay forever so they need to be prepared to get out into the real world.
Education Week 11/3 Reflection
I thought the article about federal funds being given to more high school and middle schools to lessen dropout rates was a great article. I really appreciate the message behind it. It's great to see schools working hard to get students who drop out back into school so that they can finish out and get their diploma. Even better they are looking into spending a lot of the money on prevention. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There were a few things I thought was a little disturbing. This program that just received 50 million dollars in this fiscal year received no money in the last 3 fiscal years. Which means that for over a year that Barack Obama was in office this program received no funding. I would have thought that he would have gotten the ball rolling on something like this a lot sooner. Even worse, for the last three years of the Bush administration, the entire program only got 5 million dollars. So much for Bush's legacy being education reform. Guess he figured No Child Left Behind was enough... Also, I was really pleased with the fact that the teachers in one of the districts that received the money were sticking around after hours to help out. I hope they get paid, and I'm sure with schedules like that it is very difficult to avoid being burnt out, but to be honest I think that is the only way they are going to be able to do things. Why would you bring in people the kids don't know? Realistically, if it is going to be successful, the staff are the ones who are going to have to put in the hours. Otherwise, I don't think that the kids would care very much if it were someone besides their teachers.
The Obama Plays Cheerleader for STEM article was pretty pathetic; not that focus of the article, but rather the writing. The article uses the STEM acronym multiple times in the beginning of the article. As they get to the middle of the article, it becomes STEN. WHAT? How on earth does this happen in an article in this publication? Don't they have people double-checking this stuff? Not only that, after STEN had been used multiple times, near the end of the article it became STEM again. It seems like this was a case of little to no help in the editing process. In terms of the actual article, I found it interesting that people were expressing their frustration that the funding hadnt been increased for a particular program. One program was more or less absorbed and instead of 180million dollars being spent on it, 300 million was scheduled to be spent on it. Last I checked, that was over a 50% increase in funding...
The Obama Plays Cheerleader for STEM article was pretty pathetic; not that focus of the article, but rather the writing. The article uses the STEM acronym multiple times in the beginning of the article. As they get to the middle of the article, it becomes STEN. WHAT? How on earth does this happen in an article in this publication? Don't they have people double-checking this stuff? Not only that, after STEN had been used multiple times, near the end of the article it became STEM again. It seems like this was a case of little to no help in the editing process. In terms of the actual article, I found it interesting that people were expressing their frustration that the funding hadnt been increased for a particular program. One program was more or less absorbed and instead of 180million dollars being spent on it, 300 million was scheduled to be spent on it. Last I checked, that was over a 50% increase in funding...
Friday, November 5, 2010
Multimedia Project: Facebook Security Options
I chose to do my multimedia presentation on Facebook and its security options. This is extremely important considering how Facebook has proliferated in the last six years. People share a lot of their personal information and part of being a digital citizen means knowing how to manage the information about oneself on the internet. This video is an introduction of how to do so on Facebook. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8XVY8JPwe0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8XVY8JPwe0
Education Week October 27th Issue
Language Acquisition Article: First off, I think that "magnetoencephalography" is the largest word I have ever seen. That thing is a whopping 22 letters! But seriously, this article addresses some long held beliefs about learning a second language. I found it interesting that they were trying to say that it didn't matter very much what age a person was, that we are all capable of learning another language. Some of the evidence that they provided seemed to contradict that point. "...A Japanese baby, whose native language does not differentiate between the sounds, will get worse at hearing the difference." They reinforce the point that learning a second language later in life is much more difficult: the age at which many students who learn a second language is when "'they’re becoming less likely to be able to make those native-like sounds in another language,' Ms. Abbott said." I can honestly say I wish I had been learning a second language during my early childhood years. I feel that way even more so now after reading this article that basically says that learning a second language early on directly benefits children. I don't see how this dispells the previous myths that many people had about learning a second language. If anything, I thought that this article was pretty confused about itself, almost like a college student who started a paper with one idea in mind and suddenly went completely off course throughout the course of the paper...
Educators Step up Efforts: Reading the statistics about this school in Kentucky is appalling... "Just 4.7 percent of Shawnee’s students scored “proficient” or higher in math in spring 2010" and "Less than a quarter—22.6 percent of students—scored proficient or better." How is it that the principle there still has a job? That isnt just underachieving, you practically have to try and do that poorly. Why wasn't he booted out and replaced with someone who was more likely to do the job. It seems pretty clear that the effort to turn the school around is going to rub people the wrong way and it will inevitably be very difficult. Why not bring someone new and do the job right rather than risk letting the guy who let things get so bad try and turn it around. Not to use a football analogy, but it looks like its a building year for this Kentucky school, and they are in desperate need of a new head coach. Their abysmal record dictates a change that isn't likely to happen with the same personnel that oversaw such a decline. Having re-read, and re-thought, the second part of the article, it's also likely that the fact that they are on their 4th principle in 13 years has contributed to the falling standards of the school. Perhaps some real continuity would do the school some good. Another football analogy: a team that switches head coaches every 2-3 years isn't going to win the Superbowl...
Educators Step up Efforts: Reading the statistics about this school in Kentucky is appalling... "Just 4.7 percent of Shawnee’s students scored “proficient” or higher in math in spring 2010" and "Less than a quarter—22.6 percent of students—scored proficient or better." How is it that the principle there still has a job? That isnt just underachieving, you practically have to try and do that poorly. Why wasn't he booted out and replaced with someone who was more likely to do the job. It seems pretty clear that the effort to turn the school around is going to rub people the wrong way and it will inevitably be very difficult. Why not bring someone new and do the job right rather than risk letting the guy who let things get so bad try and turn it around. Not to use a football analogy, but it looks like its a building year for this Kentucky school, and they are in desperate need of a new head coach. Their abysmal record dictates a change that isn't likely to happen with the same personnel that oversaw such a decline. Having re-read, and re-thought, the second part of the article, it's also likely that the fact that they are on their 4th principle in 13 years has contributed to the falling standards of the school. Perhaps some real continuity would do the school some good. Another football analogy: a team that switches head coaches every 2-3 years isn't going to win the Superbowl...
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Education Week October 20th Issue
New Orleans article: It may just be me, but I felt particularly outraged by this article. It's been five years and this article led me to believe that only now are new schools being opened up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 6,000 of 36,000 students are still using portable classrooms?! That is almost seventeen percent of the area's kids using portable classrooms! Could you imagine if such a thing were to happen here at Willamette University? People would be outraged! Granted, Willamette University and the public schools of New Orleans are completely different places with completely different funding. Regardless, from what it seems like to me from reading the article, a tremendous amount of time has been spent dilly-dallying around trying to figure out how the money they got from FEMA is going to be used and figuring out who is going to oversee the use of that money. That isn't to say that those things aren't important. They are very important. But honestly, its been five years since the hurricane and stuff just doesn't seem to be getting done...
Early Ed Absenteeism: I think I might be a little biased about absenteeism but that is largely because of my background. In 9th grade, I didn't miss a single day of school. I remember that because I got an award for it at an end of the day assembly. Not too many people got it. When I was younger, if I was ever sick and it caused me to miss a day of school, I was made to watch History Channel or National Geographic Channel specials and write up a report on them for my dad (this was probably more incentive for me to go to school in the first place haha). Obviously, other kids don't get the same treatment growing up. I know for a fact that some parents couldn't give a rip about their kids education and do very little to support them. How is it that missing 10% of school is Chronic absenteeism? Why is it so darn high?? Shouldn't it be closer to 5 or 6%? Could anyone imagine missing 10% of the days at work due to sickness or playing hooky. I'm only 22 years old and I can tell you right now that you probably wouldn't last long in many workplaces missing days at that rate. The fact that it isn't lower is an indication of the extremely low standards that we have for student attendance. Where is the accountability? Why are we selling our kids short?? It's amazing how little we care, especially for the early education absenteeism, considering how important it is. How else are kids supposed to get acclimated to living and working with others. This immediately sets children up for failure!
Early Ed Absenteeism: I think I might be a little biased about absenteeism but that is largely because of my background. In 9th grade, I didn't miss a single day of school. I remember that because I got an award for it at an end of the day assembly. Not too many people got it. When I was younger, if I was ever sick and it caused me to miss a day of school, I was made to watch History Channel or National Geographic Channel specials and write up a report on them for my dad (this was probably more incentive for me to go to school in the first place haha). Obviously, other kids don't get the same treatment growing up. I know for a fact that some parents couldn't give a rip about their kids education and do very little to support them. How is it that missing 10% of school is Chronic absenteeism? Why is it so darn high?? Shouldn't it be closer to 5 or 6%? Could anyone imagine missing 10% of the days at work due to sickness or playing hooky. I'm only 22 years old and I can tell you right now that you probably wouldn't last long in many workplaces missing days at that rate. The fact that it isn't lower is an indication of the extremely low standards that we have for student attendance. Where is the accountability? Why are we selling our kids short?? It's amazing how little we care, especially for the early education absenteeism, considering how important it is. How else are kids supposed to get acclimated to living and working with others. This immediately sets children up for failure!
Education Week October 13th Issue
"Researchers and policymakers agree that teachers’ expectations of what their students can do can become self-fulfilling prophecies for children’s academic performance." From this first sentence, I was absolutely hooked on this article about the soft bigotry of low expectations. It focuses directly on one of the questions that constitutes a teacher's philosophy of education: what is the nature of my students? I find it amazing that I had never really considered this question before, and my reaction when I first heard it. I first thought why do I need to know the nature of my students? It seemed like I would have to get into the classroom first and see what I thought about them. "How am I supposed to make these judgments when I have never taught before? I think I should just 'wing' it and just go with the flow as far as how I feel about the nature of my students." The teacher in this article is a perfect example of someone who probably "winged" it like I would have done, and who ended up suffering for it; whose kids ended up suffering for it. The idea of a self fulfilling prophecy is completely true: we are the ones who determines what happens in our lives and in our classrooms. Students are going to be the direct benefactors (hopefully) of how teachers feel about them. Communication, as this article describes, is key. Basically, students would have payed attention more knowing how much work went into preparing for class; teachers wouldn't sell their students short by thinking they can't do it or are just wrong. One the other side, understanding is a key component in the collaborative effort that is teaching. Rather than having the teacher bash their head against the wall trying so hard one way simply needs to refocus and adjust. Students are more than capable of understanding, they simply have to be in the right mindset, or, as Teaching with the Brain in Mind would say, the right state. We as teacher's will have the ultimate task in helping student's understand what it means to teach and to be a teacher. Doing so will provide a frame of reference for students to understand what it means to learn and be a learner.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Reflection of Ed Tech Standards
Simply put, the big picture or the goal of what the technological standards can be summed up in this phrase: the positive use and integration of technology into the education of America's youth. Without technology and its integration into education, American students will inevitably fall behind other industrial nations. As technology becomes a larger and more important part of how the world functions, it remains the utmost priority to educate students to effectively use all the tools at their disposal. One of the points is "promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility". This is an especially important point. Without understanding the responsibilities and safe practices of digital citizenship, our youth becomes at risk for the pitfalls that come with the digital age. Knowing to use "strong" passwords will keep personal information safe and out of the hands of people who might use it to take advantage of others. Knowing how to use multiple email accounts will allow people to better organize themselves. The other points like "model digital age working and learning" do little good if students cannot be safe. This doesn't change the fact that the productivity is going to increase by allowing students to collaborate with others and allowing students to be more creative in a world that is becoming more digitized by the day.
There are many strategies that could be implemented at the high school level that we have already been using in this class. The effective use of a blog to post assignments has made things very easy to turn in assignments. It will only become easier as more and more students become wired at home (however we are finding that school resources will be able to meet children's technological needs more as time goes on.) Teaching students about keeping their information on the internet safe is also important because it is an age where Facebook and Myspace use can only be described as prolific. Being able to coordinate projects and papers between students using Google Documents would have saved me a lot of heartache as a high schooler and as a college student. As a teacher I would be able to *communicate* and coordinate my grading efforts with my students, resulting in a stronger relationship with the students and a better hope for motivating them. Being able to, say, write notes on a students paper while chatting with them on Skype at the same time would be tremendously beneficial for the student. The electronic submission of papers, assignments, etc would mean I wouldn't have to try and read a student's terrible handwriting either. It's a total pet peeve of mine...
There are many strategies that could be implemented at the high school level that we have already been using in this class. The effective use of a blog to post assignments has made things very easy to turn in assignments. It will only become easier as more and more students become wired at home (however we are finding that school resources will be able to meet children's technological needs more as time goes on.) Teaching students about keeping their information on the internet safe is also important because it is an age where Facebook and Myspace use can only be described as prolific. Being able to coordinate projects and papers between students using Google Documents would have saved me a lot of heartache as a high schooler and as a college student. As a teacher I would be able to *communicate* and coordinate my grading efforts with my students, resulting in a stronger relationship with the students and a better hope for motivating them. Being able to, say, write notes on a students paper while chatting with them on Skype at the same time would be tremendously beneficial for the student. The electronic submission of papers, assignments, etc would mean I wouldn't have to try and read a student's terrible handwriting either. It's a total pet peeve of mine...
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Analyzing Student Data In A Spreadsheet
I have to say that my first experience working with Google Spreadsheet was an extremely frustrating one. I had an inordinate amount of trouble simply trying to do what I wanted, including copying the spreadsheet into another window, failing to find where I could click to Delete Row or Delete Column, failing to realize I can apply the "Average" equation across multiple boxes; all of this was on top of the fact that I had trouble grasping what Barry meant by growth above the overall average. In fact, I'm still not entirely sure on that, which makes it all the more frustrating as I've probably done a good deal of it wrong, or at the least included plenty of students that I shouldn't have and not included other students I should have. Frustrating to say the least!
Also, here is a link to my final spreadsheet here
It is clear from the graph that every student showed signs of improvement. Some student's growth was minimal, as in the case of Blair and Walter. Other students improved their overall grades by great strides such as T. Owens (clearly a much better football player than student). Having the graph is a strong visual indicator of which students need more help as the term goes along and which students are having a better grasp of the material as time goes one. It also clearly shows students who have weak performances accented by strong ones and then have weak performances again. These students should be encouraged study hard (not that I wouldn't encourage everyone to study hard) because they demonstrate the ability to do well sometimes but not all the time.
Amazingly enough, six out of the twelve students lower than the 191 average got well above that score on their final test. For the six who did not get higher than the average on their final test, the score for each person did increase from Test 9 to Test 10 by an average of almost 11 points. There were two students from the underachievers group whose test scores decrease from Test 8 to Test 9, and even then the average was 1.5 point decrease, which could easily be explained by a "bad day". Whoever is teaching this class can be sure that towards the end of the semester that they are doing a good job of trying to bring the students up to speed on their work.
Also, here is a link to my final spreadsheet here
It is clear from the graph that every student showed signs of improvement. Some student's growth was minimal, as in the case of Blair and Walter. Other students improved their overall grades by great strides such as T. Owens (clearly a much better football player than student). Having the graph is a strong visual indicator of which students need more help as the term goes along and which students are having a better grasp of the material as time goes one. It also clearly shows students who have weak performances accented by strong ones and then have weak performances again. These students should be encouraged study hard (not that I wouldn't encourage everyone to study hard) because they demonstrate the ability to do well sometimes but not all the time.
Amazingly enough, six out of the twelve students lower than the 191 average got well above that score on their final test. For the six who did not get higher than the average on their final test, the score for each person did increase from Test 9 to Test 10 by an average of almost 11 points. There were two students from the underachievers group whose test scores decrease from Test 8 to Test 9, and even then the average was 1.5 point decrease, which could easily be explained by a "bad day". Whoever is teaching this class can be sure that towards the end of the semester that they are doing a good job of trying to bring the students up to speed on their work.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Web 2.0!
Web 2.0 refers to any application on the web that centers around people doing what they would like to do in terms of productivity, networking, having fun and being able to do it anytime, anywhere!
Screen Recorders: UStream defines itself as "an interactive broadcast system" so it basically means that anyone can record themselves with their webcam talking about anything and upload it to an internet site (ustream.tv) where it can be easily accessible to anyone!
How UStream can be used to increase productivity: UStream can definitely be used in a variety of ways, but the first thing I thought of was being able to record a professor's lecture in class to be able to listen to it again and again. I'm not sure if that is legal though...? Another thing I was thinking of would be for practicing speeches, for instance, the debates we had in Educational Psychology yesterday. It seems like not a whole lot of us, myself included are used to speaking in front of a group of people or in front of a camera under the circumstances we aren't just sharing what we are thinking or feeling... UStream would give us all a way to sharpen our public speaking skills and help give us confidence in our abilities.
Personal Productivity: Tiny URL is a tool that allows a person to shorten the web address from a long line of jibberjabber to something that is short and easily remembers, cut-able, paste-able, and share-able.
How Tiny URL can help us: It seems pretty obvious that Tiny URL is going to be used more and more as web based products are going into the classroom more in the future. By shortening the URL, students will be able to access the information they need to faster, and encounter less stress in doing so. For instance, the URL in my last post the linked to my groups Google Form was fairly lengthy. By putting the long URL in the Tiny URL generator, we get this instead: http://tinyurl.com/2fspnqz pretty cool!
Screen Recorders: UStream defines itself as "an interactive broadcast system" so it basically means that anyone can record themselves with their webcam talking about anything and upload it to an internet site (ustream.tv) where it can be easily accessible to anyone!
How UStream can be used to increase productivity: UStream can definitely be used in a variety of ways, but the first thing I thought of was being able to record a professor's lecture in class to be able to listen to it again and again. I'm not sure if that is legal though...? Another thing I was thinking of would be for practicing speeches, for instance, the debates we had in Educational Psychology yesterday. It seems like not a whole lot of us, myself included are used to speaking in front of a group of people or in front of a camera under the circumstances we aren't just sharing what we are thinking or feeling... UStream would give us all a way to sharpen our public speaking skills and help give us confidence in our abilities.
Personal Productivity: Tiny URL is a tool that allows a person to shorten the web address from a long line of jibberjabber to something that is short and easily remembers, cut-able, paste-able, and share-able.
How Tiny URL can help us: It seems pretty obvious that Tiny URL is going to be used more and more as web based products are going into the classroom more in the future. By shortening the URL, students will be able to access the information they need to faster, and encounter less stress in doing so. For instance, the URL in my last post the linked to my groups Google Form was fairly lengthy. By putting the long URL in the Tiny URL generator, we get this instead: http://tinyurl.com/2fspnqz pretty cool!
Google Productivity Assignment
Here is a link to the Google Document that my group created:
https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHdUVTY3azR0MFdmUWFCTGhlLU94X0E6MA#gid=0
Google Forms is a tool that will let an aspiring teacher create tests, surveys, and other forms. In addition to creating the forms, it will also allow the teacher to collect, organize and display the collected information in a variety of ways, including graphs and charts!
Google Forms can enhance teaching and learning in a variety of ways:
https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHdUVTY3azR0MFdmUWFCTGhlLU94X0E6MA#gid=0
Google Forms is a tool that will let an aspiring teacher create tests, surveys, and other forms. In addition to creating the forms, it will also allow the teacher to collect, organize and display the collected information in a variety of ways, including graphs and charts!
Google Forms can enhance teaching and learning in a variety of ways:
- proofreading and editing
- forming templates
- it can eliminate paper waster
- google is non-proprietary so everyone can use it for free!
- because it is internet based anyone with a computer can access the forms
- a teacher can see in the areas students are strong and and the areas they are weak
- excellent in being able to identify trends
These were my initial thoughts: I was honestly blown away by this application. The fact that I can collaborate with fellow students and write my own response at the exact same time that someone else can on the same document is mind blowing. I would have killed to know about this during my time as an undergraduate student here at Willamette. At this point, I don’t see why Willamette bothers with assigning their own email addresses. It would be much easier to have everyone do gmail and give a short seminar when everyone starts at the university. Everyone would be much more productive and collaborative learning, which in part is a major goal of the university, could be achieved much easier. I’m going to work a bit more on the questions and see how it goes... I just finished typing out the rest of the questions on the spreadsheet but I still don’t know how to make it so that people can respond to the questions without having others see their answers, which is an obvious and important aspect of a questionnaire. I can see under the form subheading that you can see a summary of responses and embed the questionnaire in a webpage making it accessible to everyone who might need it. Overall, I’m very impressed with this application and as I learn to use it more, I can put it to better use.
I think that it simply takes a little bit of time before getting to know the program before being able to quickly and proficiently do things. I often find myself just swinging my mouse around as my brain searches for where the button is that allows me to do what I want to do.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
October 6 Education Week Reflection
A report was released from an executive in the Baltimore school district "showing that chronically absent students scored 15 to 20 percentage points lower on state assessments than did students who attended school more regularly." Honestly, all I have to say to most of this article is "DUH!" So much of primary and secondary school is simply showing up to class and having a pulse! This isn't that hard people. I have a hard time believing that people don't get this concept. It's pretty simple in my opinion. Show up, do what is expected of you even moderately (excuse the language) half assed and you are going to pass. I don't think that changes for most any place you are going to attend. It's not limited to primary and secondary school either. Plenty of my classes at Willamette Undergrad have felt that way too. Obviously a little bit of reading is going to be required outside of classtime, but even then some people can't do that. I'm not sure whether its laziness or what, but I have a hard time believing that people fail out of WU because of ineptitude. Anyways, I was impressed and slightly mortified at the degree to which one of the employees of the school district went to get students in class. Having someone drive up to a student's house to get them to go to school is ridiculous. Where are the parents in those situations? How is it that responsibility to get kids to go to school is falling on school districts like the one described in Baltimore? This all feels much to obvious to me...
The other article I reacted to was the one about China giving the United States more money to teach Mandarin in schools across the country. I honestly couldn't believe how naive the people who opposed to this sounded. With China becoming a dominant power in the world market (not to mention a military power as well) they will probably become our biggest ally (in which case we certainly would want plenty of people around who know how to speak Mandarin for the sake of business) or our greatest enemy (in which case we will want people who know how to speak it for military purposes). We are still fighting in the Middle East and the government is recruiting extensively anyone who knows how to speak Arabic. I'd rather not have people educated in the language and culture when we go to war with these people, so if China wants to help us pay money to teach United States citizens how to speak Mandarin its perfectly fine with me. It's not that I don't care that they violate civil rights or don't follow our ideas of child labor laws, I not naive enough to think that those are good enough reasons to turn down money from someone that will help us out in the long run.
Quick Hit: It's too bad there aren't more folks like Mark Zuckerberg. The dude dropped 100 million dollars to help turn the Newark, NJ school districts around. Thats pretty awe inspiring.
The other article I reacted to was the one about China giving the United States more money to teach Mandarin in schools across the country. I honestly couldn't believe how naive the people who opposed to this sounded. With China becoming a dominant power in the world market (not to mention a military power as well) they will probably become our biggest ally (in which case we certainly would want plenty of people around who know how to speak Mandarin for the sake of business) or our greatest enemy (in which case we will want people who know how to speak it for military purposes). We are still fighting in the Middle East and the government is recruiting extensively anyone who knows how to speak Arabic. I'd rather not have people educated in the language and culture when we go to war with these people, so if China wants to help us pay money to teach United States citizens how to speak Mandarin its perfectly fine with me. It's not that I don't care that they violate civil rights or don't follow our ideas of child labor laws, I not naive enough to think that those are good enough reasons to turn down money from someone that will help us out in the long run.
Quick Hit: It's too bad there aren't more folks like Mark Zuckerberg. The dude dropped 100 million dollars to help turn the Newark, NJ school districts around. Thats pretty awe inspiring.
September 29, 2010 Education Week Reaction
Lo and behold! Another article pertaining to concussions on the cover of another esteemed publication. That sounded sarcastic, but it really wasn't. For those of you who follow sports (in particular, the NFL) closely, you would already be well aware of concussion debate going. A few weeks ago, the TMQ (Tuesday Morning Quarterback of ESPN.com) had a great article on concussions, calling for not only more attention to concussions at the high school, college, and professional level, but the youngest level as well. The main focus of his article is how concussions at a very early age, before the age of 12, has an even greater effect on the development of children than at the later stages. This seems to be a big theme this year, and even though it is in part due to the death of the UPenn athlete mentioned in this article (which I honestly don't think had anything to do with concussions) it is important that more attention is drawn to the subject. I'm happy that wrestling wasn't one of the sports listed in the article as having a large number of unreported concussions because I wrestled in high school and I will tell you that our trainers didn't let anything get by. It also helps when the rules of the sport are designed to promote the safety of its athletes and punish those who break the rules. I remember a match in high school where a teammate got "slammed" (official term) to the ground and the match was immediately stopped and he was evaluated for a concussion. Not showing any symptoms, he was allowed to continued the match and his opponent slammed him again, at which point he was disqualified and my teammate won. Of course, in football, big hits are praised (another thing mentioned in TMQ) and there is more incentive to hit big and also more incentive to stay in the game after receiving a big hit. I was surprised at how little of this article actually pertained to education, since it was relegated to pretty much the last paragraph...
Another article I found very interesting was the one pertaining to the sale of video games to minors. Being a kid who grew up on video games, and being frustrated at the idea of not being able to buy a video game if I wanted it, my history says I'd be slightly biased towards arguing the point that kids should be able to buy "expressive media" as the article likes to call it. I do express some concern about very young kids playing games that depict violence such as heads being lopped off etc. It largely is a job that falls on the parents of children though. It is not the state's or the governments job to raise children. If you think that, you probably should have not had kids yourself. This feels like a growing trend in which parents shirk their responsibility to their kids and is absolutely ridiculous. Also the article mentioned a brief from the Entertainment Merchants Association and the Entertainment Software Association about violence playing a long standing role in expression properly consumed by minors." What does it mean when something has been properly consumed by a minor? Under what circumstances is violence properly consumed by minors? In school? Only in books? Feels all very wishy-washy to me!
Another article I found very interesting was the one pertaining to the sale of video games to minors. Being a kid who grew up on video games, and being frustrated at the idea of not being able to buy a video game if I wanted it, my history says I'd be slightly biased towards arguing the point that kids should be able to buy "expressive media" as the article likes to call it. I do express some concern about very young kids playing games that depict violence such as heads being lopped off etc. It largely is a job that falls on the parents of children though. It is not the state's or the governments job to raise children. If you think that, you probably should have not had kids yourself. This feels like a growing trend in which parents shirk their responsibility to their kids and is absolutely ridiculous. Also the article mentioned a brief from the Entertainment Merchants Association and the Entertainment Software Association about violence playing a long standing role in expression properly consumed by minors." What does it mean when something has been properly consumed by a minor? Under what circumstances is violence properly consumed by minors? In school? Only in books? Feels all very wishy-washy to me!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Education Week September 22, 2010 Reaction
Since we talked about the possibility of responding to education week here on our blogs, I decided to go ahead and kick things off by doing so:
I have heard a lot of things recently about how ethnic studies courses in Arizona are trying to be wiped out by the state government, and an article in Willamette's Collegian was the first significant thing I had read about it. This article was even more telling. In a way it is not all that surprising as this is the same state that was trying to straight up build a fence from border to border in order to keep illegal aliens out. I'm not saying that the two issues are one and the same, merely that both of these reflect a train of thought meant to keep the "other" out, and to maximize the "U.S. vs. them" mentality (I hope people catch that pun...). Of the 2,900 students at the Magnet High School, almost half, (1,400) are taking the ethnic studies courses. I will tell you this: my high school was that big, and if any of those classes are even mildly educational, its a good thing that that many students are interested and willing and excited to be taking them. There is no way any class outside of underwater basket-weaving would get that many people interested at my school. Give the people what they want! Not only that but it definitely feels like Nazi Germany to be cutting off funds to a school for learning about other cultures. People who agree with it might say "But they are fostering Anti-American feelings!" to which I will say "get over it. America has done some pretty hate-inspiring things"
Another article I reacted pretty strongly to was the article on the front page labeled "Rhee Reflective in Aftershock of DC Primary." It talks for some time about how well Ms. Rhee and others have done turning things around for the Washington DC public school districts. But, *GASP*, to her and other's surprise, her boss lost a primary because despite their good work, their public image isn't that impressive. Who would have thought that education was more than just about teaching kids and trying to raise the bar. It reminded me of our class discussion of whether or not we were going to fire or retain Mr. Smiley at the cost of funding, etc. It is the case with any profession that if you don't "play the game" to a certain degree that you aren't going to get very far. It's not that I'm saying that people shouldn't be zealous about education reform or that they shouldn't do what they think is right. I'm just saying that they need to temper zealousness with realism, power with savvy and technique. People, Ms. Rhee included, will find they'll get a lot farther towards accomplishing their goals than they would otherwise. A tree that won't bend will surely break...
I have heard a lot of things recently about how ethnic studies courses in Arizona are trying to be wiped out by the state government, and an article in Willamette's Collegian was the first significant thing I had read about it. This article was even more telling. In a way it is not all that surprising as this is the same state that was trying to straight up build a fence from border to border in order to keep illegal aliens out. I'm not saying that the two issues are one and the same, merely that both of these reflect a train of thought meant to keep the "other" out, and to maximize the "U.S. vs. them" mentality (I hope people catch that pun...). Of the 2,900 students at the Magnet High School, almost half, (1,400) are taking the ethnic studies courses. I will tell you this: my high school was that big, and if any of those classes are even mildly educational, its a good thing that that many students are interested and willing and excited to be taking them. There is no way any class outside of underwater basket-weaving would get that many people interested at my school. Give the people what they want! Not only that but it definitely feels like Nazi Germany to be cutting off funds to a school for learning about other cultures. People who agree with it might say "But they are fostering Anti-American feelings!" to which I will say "get over it. America has done some pretty hate-inspiring things"
Another article I reacted pretty strongly to was the article on the front page labeled "Rhee Reflective in Aftershock of DC Primary." It talks for some time about how well Ms. Rhee and others have done turning things around for the Washington DC public school districts. But, *GASP*, to her and other's surprise, her boss lost a primary because despite their good work, their public image isn't that impressive. Who would have thought that education was more than just about teaching kids and trying to raise the bar. It reminded me of our class discussion of whether or not we were going to fire or retain Mr. Smiley at the cost of funding, etc. It is the case with any profession that if you don't "play the game" to a certain degree that you aren't going to get very far. It's not that I'm saying that people shouldn't be zealous about education reform or that they shouldn't do what they think is right. I'm just saying that they need to temper zealousness with realism, power with savvy and technique. People, Ms. Rhee included, will find they'll get a lot farther towards accomplishing their goals than they would otherwise. A tree that won't bend will surely break...
OTEN Conference!
Below is my Yodio reaction post to the OTEN Conference that we attended last weekend on Saturday September 25, 2010 in Forest Grove, Oregon at Pacific University. Absolutely beautiful campus, and also very impressive facilities. I was surprised at how large of a showing Willamette University students had. It seemed like we made up the majority of the conference. My vote is to have it at Willamette this next year. I will say that they were very accommodating at Pacific and wouldn't mind going again, provided I wasn't getting up at 6 in the morning on a Saturday to do so... enjoy!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
First Assignment
There are so many things blogs allow us to do as educators. The possibilities are nearly endless. I think that the effective implementation of blogging in the classroom will facilitate greater learning in a variety of ways.
Discussion is a primary example of effective blogging for learning. As a Willamette undergraduate student, I took multiple classes that required a knowledge of the clunky WISE system in order to publish posts and create threads of discussions on various reading assignments etc. By eliminating the need for systems like WISE, web based blogging allows for greater ease of posting by the students and much less time involved for management of systems by educators. A greater degree of control can be exercised by the teachers as well. Being a person who got tired of having to use outdated and unappealing systems for discussion, the prospect of blogging for the purpose of education is a welcome relief...
Dissemination of class schedules and lesson plans are another way in which blogging can affect the classroom. Rather than having to wait to find out from a friend or from the teacher after missing a day, a student can go online to the teacher's blog to find out exactly what is happening that day in class and potentially get all of the work that was done in class that day at home. Not everyone can make it to school every day, and allowing those who miss more days to keep up with the rest of the class more efficiently. Plus, this gives students more power over their own education. They become more responsible for making up the work they miss; plus no one wants to sit at home and do nothing all day when they are sick. Just because you miss class doesn't mean you have to miss a beat.
Blogs aren't just for teacher to student relationships either. As the world gets smaller and more complex, educators must be able to communicate quickly and effectively. By combining blogging with email alerts, school staffs can not only stay up to date, but in the actual moment of changes in the school. They say knowledge is power, and by implementing blogging in the schools and their classrooms empowers all participants: administration, teachers, students, and parents.
Discussion is a primary example of effective blogging for learning. As a Willamette undergraduate student, I took multiple classes that required a knowledge of the clunky WISE system in order to publish posts and create threads of discussions on various reading assignments etc. By eliminating the need for systems like WISE, web based blogging allows for greater ease of posting by the students and much less time involved for management of systems by educators. A greater degree of control can be exercised by the teachers as well. Being a person who got tired of having to use outdated and unappealing systems for discussion, the prospect of blogging for the purpose of education is a welcome relief...
Dissemination of class schedules and lesson plans are another way in which blogging can affect the classroom. Rather than having to wait to find out from a friend or from the teacher after missing a day, a student can go online to the teacher's blog to find out exactly what is happening that day in class and potentially get all of the work that was done in class that day at home. Not everyone can make it to school every day, and allowing those who miss more days to keep up with the rest of the class more efficiently. Plus, this gives students more power over their own education. They become more responsible for making up the work they miss; plus no one wants to sit at home and do nothing all day when they are sick. Just because you miss class doesn't mean you have to miss a beat.
Blogs aren't just for teacher to student relationships either. As the world gets smaller and more complex, educators must be able to communicate quickly and effectively. By combining blogging with email alerts, school staffs can not only stay up to date, but in the actual moment of changes in the school. They say knowledge is power, and by implementing blogging in the schools and their classrooms empowers all participants: administration, teachers, students, and parents.
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