SNHU Education Summit

The keynote speaker is from a nonprofit that promotes change in education. For an older man, he seems to be on the cutting edge of the notion that educational methods need to change in order to "fix schools." But I also think the standards have changed since the internet makes finding and accessing information so much easier. "Every job is a learning job." It's a rare job that doesn't evolve over time anymore, that doesn't require constantly updating skills, learning new ones and discarding outdated ones. Why shouldn't the same be said for teachers? It's not a matter of fixing teacher preparation--it's a matter of making more technology available to enhance classroom lessons, using the technology to engage the students in the classroom instead of the old model where they sat passively maybe absorbing knowledge maybe just absorbing enough to pass the exam. We know that doesn't work any longer for the majority of students.
He talks about changing schools from teaching organizations to learning organizations--which all makes perfect sense to me. This doesn't seem so radical to me. But then I've never had a teacher who really made an impression on me, who inspired me to achieve or push myself so maybe that's why I believe the success lies within the student and a good teacher is only one of many catalysts for that success. I have seen teachers who seem to get a vicarious thrill when they fail students, as if it's the students' fault. I want to see students succeed and not get constant messages of how they fall short of expectations.
Learning teams seems like a great way to approach any type of lesson, a way to incorporate many disciplines within one lesson. To have the math teacher and the social studies teacher and the language arts teacher all collaborate on a lesson that involves the Great Depression and the World War--through a mixture of media and techniques and methods--it would be a novel lesson that would sure to be engaging.

Blogging and using technology as routine

At this point I am somewhat comfortable blogging but I don't feel that my posts have anything of substance to contribute. It is difficult for me to write about myself since I am accustomed to writing without putting any of my own opinions and perspectives into whatever subject I am writing about--or at least that's how I learned to write as a journalist. But I am no longer a journalist. I have a new career and I am trying to be a teacher and find a full time position so this second career can officially start. I like the Learning Through Technology course and I have discovered that there are thousands of web sites geared to teaching and education and I found out that I meet the criteria to be an HQT but other than that there hasn't been a lot that I could use in the classroom, or at least not yet.
In the year that I have been substituting primarily middle school I have learned a lot, mostly from the students themselves. For the most part I have found teachers to be not particularly friendly or helpful to substitute teachers. I had one teacher say she was going to make it an easy day for me and then left a substitute plan which entailed showing the 7th grade science classes a movie called Lava Blast that had actors dressed in costumes with clown-like make up and dialog that was better suited to 3rd graders than 7th graders. The students found it juvenile and it was actually quite a difficult day for me since it was somewhat of a joke when I was reprimanding them to be respectful and be attentive for a movie that was obviously meant for a much younger audience. One class just laughed the whole way through the movie and that was the easiest class of the day. The other classes were justifiably bored and disinterested. I would have had an "easier" day if we had done a review of a previous lesson or gone over a study guide or at least something productive that made the kids offer something. It's ironic to be learning about technology in the classroom when the only computer in the classrooms I've been in is the one on the teacher's desk. When technology is used it's usually a student who has to help me figure out how to coordinate the TV with the DVD player and determining which of the two remotes have the correct button to get the right input signal to play a DVD or video. A very passive use of technology by any standard.
Meanwhile, there's the teachers who have misspelled words sprinkled throughout EVERYTHING--class posters, self-made worksheets, notes on the board, homework assignments, project assignment rubrics, even in math word problems. There was a second grade class that I substituted for and the teacher had left a a 6-page math packet for the students with "Maching numbers" titled on one page and other misspelled words and typos throughout. Is that my journalism snobbism rearing its compulsive proofreading head? Or how about a language arts teacher who is aware of my journalism background but hasn't offered to let me volunteer to help on the school newspaper although I offered my help and expressed my willingness to just lend a hand? I am trying not to fret about this window of time that is happening now as schools prepare for next year and I am wondering if I will get to teach in a classroom of my own in September and why I haven't had any responses from my applications for teaching positions. So it's very nerve wracking to be stressing about doing my coursework for the very first of my graduate school courses while I am substituting every chance I get and working nights and weekends at a diner. Of course once summer comes it won't be quite so hectic but for right now it's a little much. And because my college transcript is so abysmal I really need to do well in this course for my provisional acceptance. And I am somewhat perplexed that part of a teaching application includes my college transcript when I graduated nearly 30 years ago and that transcript in no way indicates my capabilities and commitment to being a competent and inspiring teacher. I was not a very serious student though I have always been serious about my writing and a worked on several newspapers during the last 30 years in addition to copious proofreading and editing.
I know I am on the right path because the kids are telling me in their way that they appreciate me. I have to think about the hug I got from one 8th grade student who is chronically in detention and constantly bemoaned by other teachers because she doesn't take her "meds" regularly. I think she likes me so much because one day when I was the language arts teacher sub she was disruptive, wandering in and out of class at least once, refusing to focus and generally living in a world of her own. I gave her a detention and felt a distinct sense of frustration. It so happened that I was substituting the next day for that very same teacher so when she came in the class and everyone was seated I gave the students the task for the day. I went to her and told her that she was going to be productive and that I was going to help her make progress on the project that all the students were working on. I spent maybe a few minutes going over directions with her, prompting her on a few responses and guiding her through the lesson that included reading The Walrus and the Carpenter out loud with her. She completed a few pages of a multi-page packet and ever since that day she has been my biggest fan.
Or the students who say "Oh it's you Mrs. Izard. You're my favorite substitute," and I get to hear that at least once a day when I'm there. Or when, before the bell rings there is a ring of students around my chair all taking turns talking to me about lunch or school or assignments or their plans. It's just those little things like that that make me look forward to a day of being at school with the kids. I'm using every opportunity I have to teach them something even if it's just good manners. So I think if my heart is in the right place then everything else should follow.
Yeah right.

Hippocampus is the part of the brain most effected by mental auguish and trauma--hmmmm

Perusing the "The World Is Open" website with the links listed by the chapters in which Bonk refers to them could take hours. The sheer volume of choices and possibilities for educational tools as well as entertainment is astounding. That perhaps is where my greatest unease about the internet surfaces--all the choices and all the avenues for deviating off the original goal and intent. If procrastination is a guilty pleasure then the internet is a procrastinator's Shangri-La where one thing leads to many things to all things. Look for a title of a particular book on the internet and end up watching a documentary on a religion that you've never heard of. But as the internet allows you to do and as I am doing here, I digress.
As a starting off point for a lengthy history lesson, (World War II) or to delve into the background of a novel's setting (To Kill a Mockingbird) I believe the http://Hippocampus.org web site can serve as a resource for both teacher and students. I clicked on U.S History on that site and I was impressed by the level of detail and the way the subject matter was organized. There was accompanying text if you wanted to read along with the video and I thought the sources, pictures and audio were all well integrated. You can browse a history lesson or even a mini-history lesson and pick a particular topic within that lesson such as "Native American confrontations" within the Manifest Destiny lesson. It's a mixture of primary and secondary sources and there's even an option for the teacher to custom design her own hippocampus page for the students to really bring resources together in one place for students to use. There are suggestions for assignments and projects and historical footnotes with audio from real historical figures. It really brings history to life for those who just see it as useless and not relevant to today. To punctuate a lecture and a textbook chapter with pictures and audio of the people they are reading about could really make history come alive for some students.
This is one web site that I will want to use in the future.

What is free?

What's there not to like about a philosophy of open source software and software accessibility for all? How realistic is it for most of the children in the world to benefit from this educational opportunity?

Web technology is essentially the new frontier and it's creating new pathways of human cooperation and collaboration. New frontiers are generally tainted by exploitative explorers and greedy prospectors that ruin it for everyone else. Mr. Bonk writes of this new technology age like it's going to equalize the masses to make education accessible for all. Maybe I'm jaded but when children still need clean water and nourishing food and basic medicine and that's still not possible in this remarkable age what good will open source software do for them? And in order to take advantage of any educational benefit children still need the basics of reading and writing. It's an amazing thing to think of that "caring and generative spirit" that it's possible to participate in via the web. It is a new way of teaching and accessing all the information that's being dispersed out there.

What can we gain through collaboration

Not only do great minds think alike. Now with all the interactive media, great minds can now share alike. In relation to widening educational opportunities for the global village of planet earth, there is everything to gain with collaboration being the human glue that holds the technology together. If people are connected in the most fundamental way, through shared understanding and shared perceptions, then the expansion of individual minds via the internet and live stream digital connections might translate to a greater chance for peace on earth or least improve the chances of making a generation of present adversaries future collaborators.
As grandiose as that sounds it is the human connections made through the new means of communication that make everyone more humane and compassionate. If elementary school children can connect and share a lesson and discussion via a voice thread or live video stream with their counterparts on all five continents making the global village a true global classroom then this collaboration will extend through other facets of society. The best place to affect the future is with those still children today. To have a face and a name with children half way around the world can only bode well for the future. Sharing and collaborating among second grade teachers on a global level might yield profund consequences unrelated to academic success for these children. The results might be a new age of humanity and compassion for all people worldwide since after all we all went to school together. And that's a connection, through the assembly of the classroom of all ages, that will probably stand the test of time.

K12 online conference on new literacy strategies for adolescents

The speaker addressed a study whereby two groups of 9th graders who were assessed as non-proficient in literacy skills were taught the same curriculum but one group had the traditional review and practice with worksheets and independent reading and the other had more technology based projects and practice. I thought it was an interesting study and one that only affirmed my belief that we have to use those technologies in the classroom that our children are using to communicate outside the classroom. In the study the technology group did podcasts instead of book reports and paper based projects like the second group. While there were signicant gains in both groups' assessment scores the technology group had a slightly better overall improvement. I think language arts is the perfect subject to have technology enhancements because each student can still really express themselves but in a digital way. There were several phrases that the presenter said that resonated with me such as "changes in literacy practices" and "new communication practices." I would like to be a teacher that really takes advantage of all the ways technology improves access to information and how each students can find their digital and valued voice. I think self-expression is a powerful tool and one that I would like my students to learn how to use in a constructive way.

Why should we integrate technology into lessons?

Technology in the 21st century classroom should be as integrated in the fabric of a classroom as the desks and chairs, which may be the only things that stay consistently recognizable in the not so distant future of education. With e-readers and the myriad applications of cell phones, there may be a day when teachers are no longer correcting papers but correcting e-papers. Technology has become a fixture in today's children's lives and educators need to be aware of how technology can enhance different learning styles and teaching methods. While I do think there is too much paper used in the course of a school day, I can envision a time when textbooks are not handed out but e-readers and students will read the text, and take the test all on the same device.

Technology is now just another basic skill to add to the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic curriculums. There are no more excuses to avoid integrating technology into lessons because technology is a prominent feature of the 21st century lifestyle, and it must be assimilated in the classroom as much as it is at home, in our cars, in how we communicate and in every aspect of our lives.

So why have I been so resistant in embracing new technology? Why do I feel contempt for Twitter? While I do have a Facebook page I rarely post and I see it more as a communication tool to see what my daughters are up to or what's going on with long distance friends. I know that on a scale of 1 to 10, one being someone who does the minimum email and only uses a cell phone in emergencies and 10 being a completely immersed technophile, I am about a 3. I know that there is much more to read and discover on the internet than I have ever sought out because I still go to the library once a week to take out books. I cannot give up my books although I know other book lovers like me who have grown enamoured with their Kindles. I'm sure one day I will be too but for now I won't give up my lifelong weekly visits to the library.