Chap. 31

I may be showing my age a bit here but the first time I went through WMU we had huge mainframes that stored all the data from the classes that were taught. The computer stations were just keyboards and monitors and enough computing power to send information to the mainframe. All data was stored in one location; gee that sounds very much like the chapter we just read. As the technology was improved and components got smaller we had the boom in personal computers, where all the data was stored in one location except it was a very specific place with very limited ways to share information. Along comes the internet and we are back to the "mainframe concept" curiously called data farms where huge amounts of information are stored in one central location again. The difference is that this time the data needs to be "secure" and it can be manipulated and used by many different people inside an organization. In the small school district where I work the pricipals all have to put together an annual report for their building, much of the information is the same and some is specific to the building. With the school district data all stored in one central location the pricipals can access whatever they need to prepare their report. This also allows for the sharing of duties, for example, one person may be good at charts so they can make all the Excel charts for the district and another person can do the paragraph writing portion. Storing all the information in one location allow all the principals access to everything they need to produce the report.
Our school uses Study Island as a tool for kids to practice standard assessment test taking. This is program also uses central location data storage. Exactly where that data is stored I'm not sure but the program is internet based so the data is out there somewhere lurking in cyber space. Or perhaps it is stored on our in school servers and the program is accessed over the web. Regardless it is another example of data storage in one central location and access to the program can be from anywhere in the world.

The activity I liked best from this course was the lesson on screen casting. I believe I will be able to use this tool in the classes I teach, therefore it becomes a valuable asset to me and to my students. It will allow them another avenue for learning. As we all know some kids learning by hearing instructions, some by seeing things done, others by doing and trying an activity. The screen casts will allow me to add a different dimension to my students learning. If I store the information on a web site then they will have access to it for as long as they can remember the web site address. Another advantage I see is that the other technology teachers in the district will have access to the information. We can then update or add to our knowledge base as the need arises.

FotoFLexer

FotoFlexer is very easy to use and figure out even for a first time user. As a middle school teacher I feel this application would be used on a very limited basis if at all. In my school we take very few photos and do not display them electronically, perhaps an elementary teacher would put some animation to pictures and then post them with their online newsletter. I'm still not convinced teachers would take the time to play with the pictures. Now if you were posting personal pictures I can absolutely see using this application. It would be a very easy and fun way to spice up any picture at your disposal.

ZOHO review

I took a look at ZOHO applications. I can't imagine there is anything else you would need to do as a teacher that you could not do on ZOHO. I seems to have everything you would ever need. The word processor and spreadsheet look just like Microsoft Office, and really as a teacher you don't need a ton of bells and whistles, you need to put out a product that the kids or other teachers can read and use. The other part I liked was the online survey application. In our district we have a survey that we ask the parents to take at parent teacher conferences. This online application would save the teachers from complining all the data by hand, that would be a real time saver. We would also be able to put the data into the spreadsheet and make any charts that were needed for state reports. This would be a nice feature to have at our disposal.

Chapter 30

After reading Chapter 30 I've become aware that my students would be better served if I put some animation or screen casts into my teaching techniques. In my school district we have the computers pretty tightly regulated as to where the kids can and can not go. The issue becomes one of where I will store my visual aids so the students can actually see them. I'll have to investigate the possibility of making my own website that seems the best option at this point. I can then access it from home or at school when I want to make adjustments or changes. The students will also be able to work at home or at school this seems to be the ideal option. So what can I put on there?

The technology class that I teach has no text books, I really do not want to copy pages and hand them out to students as they tend to misplace them and that becomes wasteful. So currently I have written directions for them to follow as they explore the Microsoft Office products. If I put the information on a website, I could then include screen casts to enhance learning. At this point in time I do not allow audio to be used as the students would have all kinds of music playing. With the use of the screen cast I would need to get some ear phones so they could listen to the directions as well as see the instructions. These are all very do able. I believe it would make lessons easier for the students to follow and perhaps they would retain the information better. The only question that remains is if the school has blocked the use of free internet websites. I will be trying that very soon.

One other idea that the article brought up is that in any group of students there are many different learning styles, some are auditory, some manipulative, some visual, some a combination of all of these. The hard part for me the teacher is to get all of these learning styles into my teaching. Sometimes I feel that drawing pictures, or making projects is just a waste of time, but I need to remember that some students actually get something out of the experience. Others times I need to lecture and put examples on the board so the visual learner can see what I'm talking about. By putting some of the lessons on the computer and letting the students explore on their own I will be reaching another segment of my learning population. Again I sometimes question if doing work on the computers is actually reaching any one, the hard part to remember is that all students learn in different ways, and it is my job to present the material in as many different ways as possible to reach as many kids as possible. Computers is just another avenue for reaching some kids.

Website

https://sites.google.com/site/broncoblack77/

My intention is to give the students some information regarding my classroom policies . This site could also be used by parents who need to know what is going on inside our building. The following pages could have information regarding homework policy, announcements about when homework is due, upcoming tests or projects, late work policy etc.

Once again I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to figure out how to navigate and produce a website. It is very likely I will use this in my classroom in the future.

Chapter 27

Looking at the 2004 ISPI/ASTD PT competencies I would like to focus on three of them. Hopefully I am some what competent in all these areas but as we all know there is always room for improvement in our professional life. I will focus my discussion on the three listed below:

• Focus on results and help clients [students] focus on results.
• Use partnerships or collaborate with clients [students ] and other experts as required.
• Be systematic in all aspects of the process including: The evaluation of the process and the results.
  

In the teaching profession it is often difficult to see the results of our work. A teacher has a student for one school year, my classes run for 50 minutes, if you figure out the math it comes out to 6 days [24 hours ] and 6 hours, that I actually teach the student. That really isn't a lot of time when you consider my students are 12-13 years old. So what I teach the kids usually doesn't show itself in the school year that I have them. Perhaps they will remember something in their next History class or when they vote for the first time or when they are talking to their parents, so a teacher many times will not see the results of the 6 days and 6 hours of instruction.
Results for the student most often is the grade they are receiving. For most of my kids the most important thing about an assignment is filling in the correct answer on a piece of paper. For me the most important thing is that some information goes into the students brain. The only way I can tell if they have it or not is to continually refer back to something that has already been taught to see if they can continue to reply with the correct answer. This reinforces their learning and hopefully something sticks for a long period of time. In the end the goal is to have the kids focus on learning something not on the grade they receive, this is hard to achieve because grades are so important in society today.

Collaboration between students is definitely an area that I need work on. I know the experts say that students working with other students is a great way for everyone to learn something. I have not found this to be the case at all. If I choose the groups then the students generally don't divide up the work evenly. Some kids don't trust the others to do the work, and are not willing to risk the project not getting completed because a member of the group does not hold up their part of the project. So some of the group members end up doing all the work so that it comes out the way they want. If I allow the kids to pick their own groups then people work with their friends, some of the projects are well done, while others don't get done at all. So while the research shows that group work is a valuable learning experience I am still looking for the happy medium that I feel allows all the kids to be a valued member of a group. This is an on going process for me.
On another level working with my co workers in a group is not at all a problem. The staff has been together for a minimum of 5 years, some of course have been there longer, be the newest staff member has been there for 5 years. This makes group work so much easier, we all know each others strengths and weaknesses, so when we divide up the tasks we all know who is good at what and we plan accordingly. No one gets "stuck" with something they don't want to do, and the project runs smoothly. All because we have professional people each doing a portion of the work that is interesting to them.

As I have already talked about results in the above paragraph, I will focus this discussion on the evaluation portion of the statement.
Fortunately I teach a subject that can be evaluated objectively, this makes things so much easier. Tests can be true/ false, multiple choice, short answer, or essay, the first three of which are objective evaluations. Essay questions can be open to interpretation and thus are subjective. So on most of the tests I give the answer is either right or wrong. Student evaluation is easy.
Now when we move to the program level of running the school things are a little different. The staff sees a problem and suggests a solution, or the administrator sees a problem and tells the staff what the solution will be. Evaluating this kind of program is a bit harder to do. Every person on the staff has a different opinion of what is working and what is not. Generally, they all have a different suggestion on fixing the problem. If the principal mandates a solution the staff feels the process was forced upon them making buy in very difficult. Many times if a new program is unsuccessful it is just thrown out rather than being evaluated, tweaked, and tried again. The more veteran teachers are much harder to convince to try something new because in many cases "they have tried it before and it didn't work." Once again junking a good idea because it was not evaluated and revised to fit the needs of the school. So evaluating any school program is essential but not always put into practice.

Week 11

I produced a video that my students could use to get a start on Power Point. If I made it longer I would be able to show them many of the features, but this gives you the general idea of how the tutorial would work.

Chap. 22
The first thing that came through loud and clear in all the subjects writings is that working in a university setting is very demanding and time consuming. It seemed as if the work being done outside of teaching was as important as instructing class, but I realize that is only because the purpose of this writing was to show the organizational structure of the instructional design process. I'm sure everyone of us reading the article could say the same thing about our current teaching positions. We are all required to be involved in the school organization in various capacities outside of teaching in the class room. As much as we would like to close our class room door and just teach it is not possible in today's world. So our profession from Kindergarten to college demands large amounts of time to things related to the school but not about teaching students in the school.

The state of Michigan demands that its teachers are highly qualified to teach their specific subjects. Gone are the days when a teaching certificate reads K-12 in any area, some may remember when anyone was allowed to teach 7th and 8th. So in the K-12 education arena a teacher must continually take classes to keep their teaching certificate current. Brenda Litchfield, seemed to take on the role of faculty development person at her university. Her job involved orientation of new faculty members, providing workshops for continuous teacher development, and helping individual teachers reach their full teaching potential. It seems that Brenda keeps abreast of the current trends in education, along with the latest technology updates and tries to distribute the information to her colleagues. She took on this role voluntarily, in our school system a very similar thing happens, especially in regards to technology. Some of the teachers are willing and able to learn new techniques and ways to use technology in the classroom. This includes how to plug in, set up, and trouble shoot some basic items on any of the machines being used. Other teachers have no use for learning something new, and are content let someone else learn it first and then just teach them what they need to know. Knowing that this is the "way of the world" in our buildings the so called experts are more than willing to help out the others with how things work. We are all aware of the people who will share their knowlege, these people are the ones who are encouraged to go to conferences and training sessions so that everyone can benefit from the expertice of one person. It sounds very similar to what Brenda Litchfield did for her fellow teachers at the university she worked at.

What I learned after reading this chapter is that across the board, teachers, instructors, professors, or what ever other title a person has, are one of the hardest working group of professionals around.
In the earlier grades papers need to be checked and the next days instructional materials need to be organized. This is not done when 25 little people are sitting in front of you, each one with some very important piece of information that you absolutely need to hear. In addition the classroom teacher has four or five different subjects that need to be taught regularly, with standards and benchmarks that need to be met. In the later grades generally the teacher has one subject to teach but might have an honors class along with a remedial one. So while the subject matter is the same the preparation is different. As we read in the text university instructors are expected to do research and publish papers, or write grants along with their teaching duties. So when the teaching day ends the working day begins. We all know friends and neighbors who come home from work and are done for the day, rarely is this the case with a teacher.

Chap. 21

As we have all heard many times, change is hard, basically that is what this chapter is talking about. Teachers that I have known are particularly hard to change, they like things the way they are and always have been. Think about the teacher who has been in the same grade perhaps even the same room for 20 years or more!! If this person is one of the exceptional teachers in the building then you can assume that they have figured out what works best for them and their students and that is way things are taught, forget about all the new techniques and strategies. Now assume that someone in authority has decided to bring about systemic change to the school district. I'm sure you can see the resistance coming from the veteran teacher.
It was interesting reading about the amount of preparation and planning needed to institute a major change in a school system. I am in a very small district and could not imagine that that much planning would go into a change that was planned for my district. It sounded like a lot of talk and not a lot of substance, but then I started to relate it to the change that we did implement this school year. Our high school decided to go to trimesters this year. The reasons for this change were many but the most important one was that trimesters would allow our failing students the opportunity to pass and continue their education in compliance with the new state requirements. So last school year when it was time to start scheduling the students into classes a decision had to be made as to weather the classes would be semesters or trimesters. The decision from the top was trimesters. Kids were scheduled, teachers were given their assignments and the school year started in Sept. This was a much different approach than what is described in our text. Missing from our approach was the setting up of the framework, the discussions with stakeholders ( parents, teachers, staff ) as to how this would work and was it the best education for our kids. Also the teachers were given no time to learn and prepare for a new school day. The result is that we are now seeing cracks in the system and fixing the cracks will be band aid variety at best. Teachers are grappling the re aligning their curriculum to the new time frame, trying to figure out how all that teaching will fit into the new set of minutes per class. What needs to be cut out, what can be looked at more in depth. Looking back, which is always with 20/20 vision we probably should have talked about this change for another whole school year, and implemented it starting in Sept. 2009. My guess is the transition would have been much smoother.

What to do with a map?

We just finished studying the American Revolution. We talked about the troops and where they travelled, also how people got from place to place, as there were no cars, trains, planes, etc. As you can see I put a map of the Northern colonies on my blog. The students can now use the distance finding tools to measure how far the troops actually walked or rode horses to get to Quebec. Also Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys attacked Fort Ticonderoga and dragged the cannons they acquired over to Boston and the Battle of Bunker Hill. Using Google maps and measuring the distance these troops travelled will be a real eye opener for the kids. I can also use this when we are studying the Oregon Trail.

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Class so far

It's a good thing this question was not asked five weeks ago!! The anxiety level was way up there back then. But after getting into the routine it's like anything else you get used to the expectations and learn to roll with the punches. While it was not a comfortable feeling I can see the validity of just jumping in with both feet and doing it. Now that I look back I can understand the reasoning. If you think about it the same amount of anxiety takes place in any new class you take, the only differance is in a classroom you can turn to the person sitting next to you and say " Are you getting any of this?" Misery loves company after all!! After reading some of the other blogs, I realized we were all in the same boat, we just couldn't see the frustration on each others faces. So with the benefit of hind sight I can see the method behind the madness, and I can't really think of a better way to start. I assume you are aware of the ansgt it generates with the students, I also assume that has leveled out as time goes on.

Chap. 18

As I was thinking about industry using technology to make life better or more productive, I thought about our fellow student Steve who teaches flying. Flying students are able to use simulators to hone their skills and practice manuevers without actually going up in the air. A very good use of technology in my opinion. This led me to another idea, how about putting teen age student drivers into simulators. First of all it shouldn't be that hard as we have tons of race car driving games already available. Then with some adaptations to the game kids could be exposed to all kinds of driving conditions. Consider the powerful impact the simulator could have by emulating a drunk driver, how the kids would view the road, varinging the perceptions, blurring the obstacles, making objects seem double, fuzzy signal lights. The more I think about it I'm actually wondering why this has not been invented yet. Then the program could make various weather conditions, the sky's the limit, [grin ]. So the road could be icy, snowy, wet, slick with leafs, in our area we have fish flies also known as June bugs that make the roads slippery. If you lived near a desert sand storms, or water over the roads if you are close to rivers, lakes etc. Rules of the road is another area that could be explored. Fire engines, ambulances, and police vehicles could all enter the picture. Accidents could occur in front of the driver, practice passing large trucks, stopping at railroad crossings, the list goes on and on. I believe you get the idea, while I am not currently a driver ed. instructor I was once a long time ago. I actually got into an accident with a student driving, a simulated accident would have been much cheaper, and a lot easier on my heart.

Businesses use technology to keep their employees current on developments in their field. This is especially useful if the business is an international one. The employee can sit at his/her desk learn about the culture and laws of the foreign country and apply them to the business they are running. One example is the car companies, even doing business in a country as close as Canada requires a knowledge of their laws, taxes, money exchange rates and how that will affect the hourly rates of employees wages. Of course, large companies must show a profit so all of these factors must be taken into account before any product is sold. Imagine a new employee trying to run a transaction with a foreign worker even though they work for the same company. If the new employee had no knowledge of how the foreign employee did business it would be a mess. Hence, the use of the computer to have a set of instructions, rules and regulations, and tests to help all workers in all countries stay on the same page. The employees are not thrilled with having to take the courses, so the business ties their promotions to the number of courses the employee has completed. Their has to be a hook somewhere, and the pay check is always the easiest to use.

Chap. 14

I found that the diagram on pg. 141 pretty much sums up the whole chapter for me, and applies to what we as teachers do every day. So let's take a look at what we do.
Paper work is the backbone of the teaching industry, all the way from lesson plans to student worksheets. We are organized and we do know where it is we want to go, our administrators want to have curriculum maps for the entire school year, there is no question we are organized. We have goals provided for us by the State of Michigan, the federal government, and our local school districts. Teachers definitely have the organization part down pat.
We also know what the performance is we want the kids to achieve. Sometimes I tell my 8th graders let's just give you all A's on your report card and then we can worry about you learning something!! They like the idea of getting the A's, it's the let's learn something that's the hard part. Performance takes many shapes and forms. Currrently we are taking the MEAP test, talk about knowing the desired performance, we've been preparing for the MEAP for weeks now. Everyone knows the performance that is expected on this test. Once again, just because the kids know the expectations does not mean they are going to perform to that level. This leads to the idea that some students will purposely do poorly on the MEAP, just because they know the expectations are so high from all the adults around them, others can't meet the expectations no matter how hard they try. Remember the part in the chapter where the military screened the personnel so they could get the recruits that would have a better chance of completing the task and only teaching those men the activity. The ones that didn't make the grade were assigned to other activities. That is not allowed in todays educational world, high schools are now only training kids to go to college. We all know that not all kids belong in college, we still need electrictions, plumbers, bus drivers, and construction workers. Our educational system has no room for training these students, this is one difference from the chapter and the diagram. According to the chapter training workers to do the best job possible and finding the occupation that will help the company grow and survive is a valued goal. That is not always true in education.

Podcast

dandelions.mypodcast.com/2008/10/Dandelions-149795.html

Chap. 3

Will the internet have a major impact on grade school students?
I think the internet will be a part of elementary school curriculum for a long time to come. The work world runs on computers, everything from working at McDonalds to being president of a major company, to owning your own business. All of these undertakings have computers attached to them, payroll, writing memos, e-mail, sending documents as attachments, ringing up a sale, setting up meetings the list goes on and on. People have to learn how to accomplish these tasks.. that falls on the schools. The little kids have leap frog, play stations, and Sesame Street. As they get older the "toys" get more expensive but the learning to manipulate them still lies with the schools. So keyboarding, typing memos, excel spreadsheets, database applications, cad programs will all need to be taught. It is very unlikely that a K -12 learner is going to sit down, by him/her self, at a computer and learn excel. It may not be a human being standing in front of a class that does the teaching though, it may be a computer tutorial program. Either way the learning will go on in an educational setting. Even though learning about computer games will take place outside of school, the education of business type programs will be taught in school. The progression will start with the little kids learning to navigate programs and servers, saving, opening, adding file names etc. and will progress to the upper grades where they will learn the current programs for business use. I suspect the need for classes like the one we are currently taking will also remain a necessity... the teachers after all have to stay one step ahead of the students. The more they learn in the early grades the farther advanced they will be in the higher grades. Teachers will not be able to rest on their laurels.. they will have to keep their skills current also. Hence the need for ongoing professional development.
While there are some excellent computer programs available for student learning I don't foresee the end of having human teachers standing in front of kids. The personal connection that teachers have with students is irreplaceable. So the computer becomes another learning tool instead of a replacement teacher.
As students get older the internet can become a source of income, or give people the ability to work at home. Teleconferencing, email, placing orders over the web all allow some individuals the ability to work from home. This is a huge change from the old days when everyone had to leave the house and go to work. As we are experiencing high gas prices imagine how nice it would be to leave the car in the garage and work from the living room couch.
Training and testing is also convenient on the internet. One example is the Federal Aviation Administration testing. The FAA can administer its flying tests to anyone in the country over the internet. This is a huge time and money saver. Students who need to take an exam simply sit in front of a computer take the test, it is scored immediately and the results sent to the FAA all without a human test overseer. The student knows immediately if he/she passed, and the FAA has the information needed to issue the appropriate license. This is one area where our tax dollars seem to be operating efficiently.
It will be interesting to see where the technology leads us in the future.

Battle Creek International

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Western Marching Band

Week 6