Overwhelmed does not even begin to describe my feelings of late. I think I have a good grasp of what is going on and then "poof", reality settles in and I am once again lost! I know we will get all the work done, I am in a good group, but the mountain is high and time is short. The chance to work on it last night was a gift from heaven. I did feel I had a better understanding when I left, but still there is lots to do. There are just too many major projects to keep straight. There has got to be a better way. I thought the Work Sample 1 was an ongoing project, yet I have heard nothing of it and I know Work Sample 2 is right around the corner.
If they are going to include software education in this course it should be at the beginning. It would be a mistake to have it after the multimedia class. From the sound of things last night, I think people expected to learn how to use multimedia software. This would have been most advantageous to the group. How can we use multimedia with our kids if we do not know how to use it?
I really like the teacher tube video we watched "Are You Listening". I think it makes its point very well. I would like to use that with my faculty. I wanted to interject last night that it would be wonderful to move kids away from "how many sentences does it have to be" to "can you understand what I mean, do I make my point?" That would make a huge difference in engaging the student vs teaching for the test. What are the means to the end and what is the end? Are we preparing these future leaders to think for themselves or to get the answers correct? It seems that changing our models of education is a slow and painful process. Even though we know the key to success is in being able to problem solve and think, the students don't spend enough time partaking in that type of learning when they are being lectured at all day.
There are tried and true models of education that practice and succeed in this very type of education, but we fail to change our ways. Hopefully our colleges are teaching this way of teaching and our new teachers will follow through. We all know how hard it is to teach an old teacher new tricks!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
PBL-Can We Make It Work?
I am just not having any luck with this blog! I went to edit last week's post (which I didn't get up until last night due to technical difficulties) and it gave me an error message! So please forgive my grammatical errors on the previous post. I really did try to fix them. I sure hope this one posts.
The movie was very insightful and true. But making all those component come together smoothly is a huge challenge! Of course that does not mean we throw in the towel and say "impossible, can't be done". The best course of action is to keep trying, to persevere. That is what I keep telling myself even though many of my fellow teachers would just like to leave technology in the computer lab and not have to deal with it. I have not had a teacher's manual to work from for over 10 years and I have very involved lessons that overflow my file cabinets.
History has proven the home situation and emotional well being of the student are key to success in academics. With the webgrading system we have at school, the communications between home and school have greatly improved. For the parents and teachers that use the system, it has been a wonderful tool for keeping their children on target. When I send notes home, I am happy to see improvement in the students performance the next week. I so wish my own kids had that. I know we have teachers that still don't use it and I hear them complain about their students. If only they would trust technology. But I have offered help and they resist to the point of nastiness, so I back down. I am not the principal, I have no authority, so we all suffer.
I just installed Camino. Let's see if it solves my posting problem.
The movie was very insightful and true. But making all those component come together smoothly is a huge challenge! Of course that does not mean we throw in the towel and say "impossible, can't be done". The best course of action is to keep trying, to persevere. That is what I keep telling myself even though many of my fellow teachers would just like to leave technology in the computer lab and not have to deal with it. I have not had a teacher's manual to work from for over 10 years and I have very involved lessons that overflow my file cabinets.
History has proven the home situation and emotional well being of the student are key to success in academics. With the webgrading system we have at school, the communications between home and school have greatly improved. For the parents and teachers that use the system, it has been a wonderful tool for keeping their children on target. When I send notes home, I am happy to see improvement in the students performance the next week. I so wish my own kids had that. I know we have teachers that still don't use it and I hear them complain about their students. If only they would trust technology. But I have offered help and they resist to the point of nastiness, so I back down. I am not the principal, I have no authority, so we all suffer.
I just installed Camino. Let's see if it solves my posting problem.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
This week
Technology is not liking me this week. I upgraded my OS to the latest on my eMac and it is not allowing me to add to my blog or edit the wiki. So I have behind in getting to this blog. I did it already, but never checked to make sure it was in and it was not!
Last week's class was interesting. I have never heard of the Loti scale and I have been in technology for 10 years. I am happy to say that I have been striving and at time succeeding at hitting a 4 with a good portion of my lessons. I have aggressively trying to integrate the regular classroom curriculum into our tech program. I try to involve my students in the decision making process when it comes to our projects. Due to time constraints it is not always easy. I just did a budget project with the 8th graders where they had to research a career. They needed to know the amount of schooling required, the cost of that school, the average income for that career and the terms of the student loan. After all the calculations were completed in a spreadsheet they had to set up a household budget. Purchasing a home, car (if they could afford one), and all the expenses that the average American faces were put into the spreadsheet. Their eyes were opened to what good old mom and dad are experiencing.
I would like to introduce the Loti scale to my faculty and find out where they feel they are. Possibly that would put the spark into them to move themselves up to the next level. Think it will work?
Last week's class was interesting. I have never heard of the Loti scale and I have been in technology for 10 years. I am happy to say that I have been striving and at time succeeding at hitting a 4 with a good portion of my lessons. I have aggressively trying to integrate the regular classroom curriculum into our tech program. I try to involve my students in the decision making process when it comes to our projects. Due to time constraints it is not always easy. I just did a budget project with the 8th graders where they had to research a career. They needed to know the amount of schooling required, the cost of that school, the average income for that career and the terms of the student loan. After all the calculations were completed in a spreadsheet they had to set up a household budget. Purchasing a home, car (if they could afford one), and all the expenses that the average American faces were put into the spreadsheet. Their eyes were opened to what good old mom and dad are experiencing.
I would like to introduce the Loti scale to my faculty and find out where they feel they are. Possibly that would put the spark into them to move themselves up to the next level. Think it will work?
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