Friday, November 7, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
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.
Monday, October 20, 2008
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.
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.
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