Funnies

Another Math Joke

Funnies

Math Joke

Help to Implement Common Core

San Jose Public Libraries have online tools to help teachers implement Common Core!

NoveList

Read about it on Alum Rock's Blog

Football Better than High School?

I didn't get to see the speaker, Mike Vollmert, but I read this article he provided a link to: Seventeen Reasons Why Football is Better than High School by Herb Childress. It's ingenious! All these reasons can be a way to improve education. I'm going to put them in two blogs since it is long. Here are the first nine with my examples included: 1. Teenagers are considered important contributors rather than passive recipients.Their ideas need to be held as important in school. Multimedia projects should be assigned where the students have choice and can make their own contributions. 2. Teenagers are encouraged to excel.Students need to be encouraged to go beyond, to excel. They should be given creative assignments which motivate them to put their all into it. Gamification might be that avenue. 3. Teenagers are honored.When students excel, they should be in the news. Students can make videos and create blogs about other students. 4. A player can let the team down.In the real world everyone on a team is accountable. Students should work together and there are online collaboration tools to facilitate this. 5. Repetition is honorable.Mastery should be encouraged and acknowledged. If you do something once that doesn't mean you can do it again. Online courses with badges are a good way to get students to replicate. 6. The unexpected happens all the time.The unexpected in the classroom needs to be accepted. Use the unexpected as a jumping off point. With new technologies, the unexpected happens, but they can also be used as tools to adapt. 7. Practices generally run a lot longer than 50 minutes.There are lessons that require more time. Students don't all require the same amount of time to understand. Flip teaching might have some good ideas where students can spend their own time on lessons on computers. 8. The homework is of a different type from what's done at practice.The two shouldn't be boring repetition, but reinforce and enhance each other. Project-based learning incorporating technology is a good way to use class time (OR homework time), not doing worksheets. 9. Emotions and human contact are expected parts of the work.Students as passive recipients does not help them learn. We need to know how they feel. Do online surveys, and then discuss their feelings and thoughts.

Football is successful in this country. This can be a model for success in education or another endeavor.

Stay tuned for the rest!

Sick

There was a week between my two lasts posts. I've been sick. There will be two more to come soon!

Look at what we have become:

The Candle Problem

This is a response to the TED Talk by Daniel Pink:

He talks about what's called the Candle Problem. It was fascinating that incentives don't necessarily boost performance. In most problems encountered in occupations now require creative thinking. You aren't just given information in a book you need to know for your job and when you learn it you are ready to go. In the research Daniel Pink talked about, incentives work great with this kind of work. But, as teachers we need to boost creative problem solving skills. With technology all around us, everything changes and people get bored. Creativity is needed. We need to think of new ways to do things. With a narrow focus and incentives, we will not progress to be the most advanced in the world. As teachers, we need to give students other reasons to think and work on something. Not just grades or prizes. Extrinsic motivators might get participation, but (according to the research) in many cases it will decrease thinking power and performance.

But, how do you get students involved without incentives? Daniel Pink has three answers (but he seemed to be talking about business). He mentioned autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Purpose makes sense. If you have a reason to do something, you are more likely to do it and put your all into it. I’m not sure what he meant by mastery, but it seems like it can be a motivator to do something if you will be better at what you do and eventually be a “master”. Daniel Pink does discuss autonomy and mentions the known evidence of its success in companies such as Google. I agree that teachers need to give autonomy to students. In order for them to be creative, they need to be in control of where they are going. As teachers, I think our job is to guide them along the way to make their paths fulfilling, educational, and fruitful.

Communication Class

With all these digital ways to communicate knowledge and interests (social networking, Pinterest, Google Presentations, email, gaming, etc) will students be able to communicate effectively without these? All employers conduct interviews and usually they are face to face. A student communicating digitally throughout school will have the disadvantage. I was thinking that as we incorporate more of this technology into classrooms, we should compensate with teaching social skills and traditional communication. There could be a required speech/journalism class where students do speeches, debate, conduct interviews, and write professional articles. Not only will this help students land jobs, but these skills are also great to establish an inviting society which is productive and professional, full of entertainment, creative ideas, advancements, and thoughtful words.

Social Media, in the classroom?

This is a response to the pros of Social Media in the Classroom. (Read it here: http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2012/01/19/Pros-and-Cons-of-Social-Media-in-the-Classroom.aspx?Page=1) I think these are all good reasons to use social media, but not in the classroom. It should be used before or after class. It can be used in school, at the library, at home, or on mobile. It is a good tool, but it should be limited in the classroom. Using Twitter (or other social media platforms) in class is a distraction. There are too many things on there which will not keep children focused. The classroom time needs to be spent on learning, not digital socializing. Using social media in the classroom comes with many potential problems. How would it be monitored? Students can easily abuse it. There is also the chance of posting something that degrades your character, which especially shouldn't be seen by a potential employer or recruiter.

Flip Teaching Has Flaws

Education reform is needed. Giving kids worksheets that help them pass a standardized test is not working. We know this country is not one of the top in education. It should be. I think Project-Based-Learning is a good approach where you apply the knowledge and skills and learn more (look at http://www.nsgt.org/resources/articles/problem_based_learning.asp). But, what about Flip-Teaching? The students have instruction outside the class and then apply what they've learned in class. Would this work? I think it's a good idea to have them prepared before class, watch videos, rewind and play back at their own pace. But, I think there are major problems. How do you get the students to watch the videos or engage in the instruction? Would assigning some simple questions to answer work? What if they don't have the technology to get the instruction? I have a slow internet connection at home and it makes it hard for me to watch any videos. It just seems like this solution wouldn't work so well.

Subscribe to Comments

I noticed you can subscribe to comments. If you go to layout, you can add a widget on your page that allows people (including yourself) to subscribe to comments. I don't know if you can read it on the blogger page, but you can through Google Reader. I thought this was cool to easily see if people left comments on my page. Another way to subscibe to a comment is under it it says subscribe by email. There might be other things you can do too.

Animoto Video

Watch my video on podcasting (it's only 30 seconds):

Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.

Animoto is cool!

Gamification?

How should technology be used in the classroom? This is a difficult question. There are so many factors. The students, the resources, the subject, etc. But, it is necessary. The students are going to use it anyway. You might as well teach them how to use it effectively for learning. Isn't it the job of the teacher to prepare the students as much as you can for the future? I agree with people who say that students must learn how to evaluate, synthesize, and problem solve. The workforce uses technology, therefore the students must learn how to use it and leverage it. But, how should they use it? Is gamification (using gaming in the classroom) the answer? It is interesting that there is a digital school that incorporates gaming into everything, but is it wasting time? Is it necessary for their engagement? I would have to look into it more. Immersing someone in that culture might not be the answer. Would they know how to interact, communicate, and collaborate without it? I think the answer is to teach students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers by exposing them to a variety of different means.

Word Cloud

I just created a word cloud of my blog on wordle:

This is cool! But, I didn't see an easy way to save it.

Digital Native

After thinking about it and learning more about what comprises a Digital Immigrant, I think I'm a Digital Native. I grew up with a Macintosh Classic at home. Remember those? We learned how to use a mouse. How to click and double click. How to drag. How to open. How to manipulate windows. How to type in a word processor, create graphs, and draw in a paint program. These are all second nature to me that it seems that I'm a Digital Native. I also can think of a way to do something either on the computer or by using technology. A Digital Immigrant does not. A Digital Immigrant would pick up a piece of paper or go ask someone. I think one of the main differences between the two is that a Digital Immigrant has a very hard time figuring out the technology and the Digital Native does it with ease. But, with the technology changing so fast, we are all in a way Digital Immigrants. I don't know all the technology there is out there. There is so much. I'm learning so much in this class. I love it. I hope to be able to use it in my classroom when I am a teacher.

Books

So, this is a technology class and I put books on my background. Hmmm... Well let's talk about books. I thought that video was really funny about the kid trying to click on the picture in the book. Will kids know how to use books anymore if they all use tablets? Would they automatically open it and explore it? There is organization to a book and someone would have to know how to use it. There is a table of contents, an index, glossary, title page, chapters and sections. With ebooks, you can search for a word. You have to do all the searching on your own with a real book. That's something I like about books. You explore and discover info. You come across something you weren't looking for. You come across something that gives you a different perspective or an intuitive idea. You get the whole picture instead of just snippets that you were searching for. Ebooks might minimize time, but not provide the opportunity for contemplation and discovery.