My Kids versus "My Kids"

My children were sick all last week. My daughter missed 4 days of school. That means I missed 4 days of work as a substitute. I was hoping to work a lot, since the year is so close to a close, but my kids are number one yesterday, today, and forever.

I know my sub coordinator is mad at me. She made it clear Thursday that she couldn't replace me for a planned Friday assignment. I couldn't help it. My daughter was vomiting Thursday night, and besides the fact she was still sick, the district rules are clear. If your child has a fever, or is vomiting, or contagious; they cannot return for at least 24 hours after their last episode. I had no choice. All is well now, but my phone didn't ring this morning. I'm really hoping that no one called in, but I don't know.

I guess you have to have your priorities, and I have to pick MY kids over my school kids every time. And, I especially have to pick my kids over the $ every time as well. We'll get by somehow, we always do. It just seems like you end up feeling guilty no matter what you do.

Not that Open

I've been looking at other student blogs in my technology class, and some of them are so open about their interests and their families. I used to think I was open about who I was, but my husband is a police officer and he made a good point way back to when we got married. He said there was no reason to post anything in the paper because everyone who should know about what was going on with us already did. And then, especially when our kids were born. I am amazed at how much personal information people are willing to share with strangers these days.

Tech Final # 5- WOWs

I think my favorite WOW moment was the whole idea of student-centered project learning. With every technology site, there always seemed to be the concept of the involved student, ways to get students personally invested in the projects in their classroom, in the hopes of getting the students more excited about learning. Until this class, I thought I would be more lecture based than discussion based. Not anymore.

I also didn't know there was so much help out there. It's nice to know there's plenty of blogs with ideas, including those that didn't work. I love all the sights that help you create quizzes and games. Time management was also a concern of mine. Now, not as much of a concern anymore.

I've also discovered a host of knowledge about classroom management. (not classroom discipline) Classroom management, I believe, is truly the key to great classes and actual learning.

This class had opened doors that textbooks cannot open for me. The support I've found and will continue to be able to access is invaluable.

Tech Final # 3- ALTEC

I'm equally enthralled with ALTEC, as I was with Apple Interchange. You'll see it mentioned in my 10 websites later in the Blog. I was immediately drawn to the link that allows me to access a subject and topic and then search the state standard on that topic. I think I've mentioned before that one of my fears is keeping up with the state standard. But I love this sight due to the overall fact that you can check your state standard and immediately jump into a quiz template on that topic. It's the best one-stop shop I've seen all semester.

I asked a different teacher to view ALTEC. I subbed for a 4th grade teacher on Friday and asked another 4th grade teacher to look it over, especially since the higher grades are more rigorously tested. She said that he's been hunting and pecking for technology with the new computers. She said their last in-service was very helpful, as all district teachers were required to attend a technology class. I have spoken to many teachers about that class and they were equally enthralled with his ideas. But my teacher said that this sight was a god send to someone just catching up to technology ideas for the classroom. And she was as impressed as I was with the ease of linking curriculum ideas to the state standard for a topic and subject.

Tech Final Project #4- 10 new websites

Ten Websites:

1) factmonster.com
http://www.factmonster.com

I am enthralled with this website. It contains everything to make a subject fun.From flashcards to worksheets, it's one of the only sites that's fun for kids and teachers at the same time.


2) Middle Web.com
http://www.middleweb.com/

A great one-stop shop for middle school teachers with blogs about classroom situations, to new ideas for presenting material. It also contains news pertinent to what's happening in education.

3) Discovery School.com
http://school.discovery.com/

Thanks to another class, I discovered this website with everything from crossword templates to access to united streaming clips that are correlated to state standards. In anticipation of being a teacher, the thing I worry about most is creating a curriculum that is both relevant and yet meets all the standards necessary.

4) ALTEC
http://altec.org/index.php

After playing with this site for the earlier part of this assignment, I have to add to my 10 websites. With games and quiz templates, as well as having ways to integrate technology, all I can see is unlimited uses. I was really excited by the link that allows me to access a subject and topic and then search the state standard at a glance.

5) Apple Learning Interchange
http://ali.apple.com becomes http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/

I love this site, I just place it later in my list because I am not yet surrounded by Apple as I hope to be. Right now, I'm restricted to several I-Pods. (The district I hope to teach in is very Apple happy.) I come from a business background and the PC is king in that arena.

The teacher I introduced to this site said I opened her eyes on how to use the site right now, but she also opened my eyes to how I could use the site. The fact that she's going to give out CD's with pictures and movies with my daughter and about her experience in her first year of school is priceless. Jenna will treasure that forever. To give kids memories beyond their class photos is immeasureable.
Her ideas for this site have really inspired me, so I'm going to help her with the project.

6) Electric Teacher.com
http://www.electricteacher.com/newteacher/

This is a site dedicated to new teachers. How can this not be valuable? It has chat rooms and guides to creating curriculum, as well as tips on things such as dealing with parents, especially difficult ones, diplomacy training if you will.

7) PBS Teachers.org
http://www.pbs.org/teachers

I love PBS anyway, but to find their website just for teachers is great. The first thing that caught my eye was a month-long "alternative reality" game where your students attempt to find a way for the world to survive without oil. Projects like this are so exciting to me. Developing thought skills while attempting to solve real world problems. The site is full of innovative and wonderful projects for every grade level and subject.


8) Teachers.net
http://www.teachers.net/

In all the website searching we've done, this is the first site I've seen with concise, well put-together meetings, job listings, and my favorite, the mailring. You can mailring with other substitutes if that's what you do, or with teachers from Australia, Canada, or the United Kingdom. How great is that. I'm especially interested in teaching my students through a global perspective, and being able to chat with teachers from other countries would be invaluable. They also have teacher classifieds. You can buy or sell many items, sort of a teacher only e-bay without the auction.

9) Teacher Blogs
http://teacherlingo.com

Right now, I'm really torn about switching from Blogger to Teacher Lingo. Teacher Lingo is made just for teachers so they will have a forum that other teachers can read and respond to, sort of a filter versus an all-encompassing site such as Blogger. A blog site just for teachers is intriguing to me. But who says all I want to write about is teaching. It's weird to say, but teaching isn't just some new career choice for me. I don't want it to be just my job, just something I do. But, I also don't want it to be my entire life. To be complete people, we have to have many aspects to ourselves, especially for us to grow. So, do I limit my blogging to teaching and switch or stay with Blogger, and maybe not get as much technical response. But, wait, maybe the teachers blogging on Teacher Lingo feel the way I do. I'm sure they have other aspects to their lives that we could all relate to, that don't necessarily involve teaching.

10) Oracle sponsored Think.com
http://www.think.com/en_us/

This site is operated free of charge by Oracle. You enroll your school, and you can blog, create teacher websites, student websites, and parent websites. And, only member schools can access your blog information or your website content, so if there's a problem, it can be easily traced. I'm very interested in creating class websites so that parents have full access to what we're doing. It makes it so much easier for busy parents to come home and be able to see our schedule at the touch of a button, and then, help with homework.

Hard to Handle

Yesterday I subbed for a 4th grade class. I have never had such a discipline problem. The list of kids that were good was easier to write for the teacher. If I gave one lecture, I gave 30. It's one thing I fear about being a teacher. Can I handle these problems? I understand that when you're the regular classroom teacher, there is more respect. Or is there? The elementary school has behavior bucks and flipping behavior cards. But I can honestly say, it doesn't seem to work.

Everyone says, "Send one to the office, and they'll all fall in line." I really want the office to be an option of last resort not a defense tactic. I want to learn how to handle these problems, but sometimes I wonder if I'll be up to it.

But I can still say that my worst day in the classroom is still way better than my best day anywhere else working. So I know I've made the right decision about obtaining a teaching career.

Tech Final Project #1- These are the right ones

"More students getting laptops instead of textbooks"-
I would love to see an all-digital curriculum in my district. What I've seen is big, thick, heavy textbooks that go somewhat unused. They're also a bit like cars and computers; once they're published, they're almost immediately out-of-date. With laptops, the content could change as the information changes. It also keeps the students interested and more informed. I think that even as expensive as the all-digital would be, that it would probably save a district money in the long run.

"Video helps overhaul district's curriculum"-
How could a program like this not be a good thing? I can only imagine having access to thousands of video companions for your class curriculum. The article is correct about the media savviness of today's students. They soak so much in visually. I would jump at the chance to help implement a program like this. The article is about a large district (Baltimore), but think about the ramifications for small, rural districts, where some students don't have access to a full-service public library or maybe even internet. This would open a whole new world for those teachers and students.

"The Marshal of MySpace"- I have disliked MySpace since I first heard about it. I didn't like reading about so and so having hundreds if not thousands of "friends". Kids are telling their most intimate thoughts and secrets to hoards of strangers, not friends. The site does invite crime and victimization. Although I do understand that most teenagers think no one else is going through what they are; and I know that MySpace helps them find kids who are just like them. I know that must help them cope. But at the heart of it, I'm old-fashioned. Whatever happened to diaries and telling your best friend everything? Plus, your parents knew that best friend very well. Kids don't need MySpace to socialize. Kids don't need MySpace for academic help. So while I'm glad that MySpace has employed someone who is obviously dedicated to keeping these kids safe, I think that the world is better off MySpaceless. But I'm not naive. I know how the world works today. There has to be a safety net, and I'm glad MySpace has looked beyond profit and growth to try and install some kind of fail safe. It's especially worth getting child predators identified and marked. Because the majority of predators don't ever stop.

"If wired right, computers do belong in classrooms"-
The big point of this piece is obvious and true. If you depend on the technology alone, you are not going to get the desired results. It takes a teacher, willing to be creative and do the research, for the combination of teaching and technology to succeed. Even if you're showing a class a movie or video, you have to engage them during the process by pointing things out, inspiring opinions. Just last week, the teacher I was subbing for had us watch "An Inconvenient Truth", the Al Gore documentary on global warming. I continuously asked them questions and pointed out important parts. I used it to ask them what they knew about the 2000 election. Most were unaware of the details, so we stopped and discussed them. I asked for their opinions on global warming, and what small things they thought they could do to help. You can't just press play or throw them in front of a computer and expect great increases in what they're actually learned. It has to be a combination of the two.

Whoops!

I've just discovered that my #1 for the final project is based on the wrong articles. But luckily I still have to do the right ones.

Tech Final # 2- Apple Interchange

I was excited from the first minute I got onto the site. I found a detailed lesson plan about using music to learn math. It involved the kids themselves creating rhymes and rhythms, and then recording them. The final product would be a CD they could listen to over and over again to help them remember, for instance, their multiplication tables. I've subbed where middle school students are still using Cheat tables to figure out their multiplication. I want to be a part of getting rid of that practice. When I was a student, we didn't have "cheat" tables. You just learned it. I'll be mentioning this later in number 5, but I've learned that kids get more excited about learning through projects they complete themselves. They get invested. If this site produces more ideas along these lines, I'll be in teaching heaven someday.

I asked my daughter's kindergarten teacher to review the site and this is what she had to say:

"I really found the edcommunity website valuable. I enjoyed searching all around the site first, then looked at the kindergarten ideas. With our new Apple computers and easy access to digital cameras and programs such as iMovie and iPhoto, I have been experimenting with this technology for classroom use. I found an idea that I will use this week! We are doing the ABC Countdown to Summer. Friday is Memory Day. I will interview the children as to a favorite memory of kindergarten. Then we will add our digital pictures of the children along with their words into the iMovie I am creating with pictures from the year. This is the first school that I have worked at in which using technology is actually realistic for me, so I am excited about the possibilities!"

National Ed Tech Plan- Articles

National Education Technology Plan- I am skeptical about this website. It is a federal government controlled website. You can tell by the "Impact of NCLB" segment that it is pro-current administration policies. What I see is a lot of broad ideas, but no real guidelines for educators to follow. Are they leaving this to the states? If they were there would be no NCLB. I really hate when people throw out an idea and call it a "plan". Plus, there are several success stories, but no real debate on what works and what doesn't. We need to know both to make a real difference in the curriculum.

Edutopia- This article has things I agree with and also disagree with. I also started to rethink some opinions. In the past, I have lamented the loss of handwritting. But this article makes a good point about longer, more thought out papers being the product of keyboarding. How students express themselves shouldn't be the issue, as long as they DO express themselves in some way. I long for this expression with the experiences I've had at the high school the last two days. Nothing but contempt for any attempt to get them to think about something new, think about something at all.
I'm not sure I completely agree with asking the students for their opinion. You might get some new ideas, but the students lately seem so disinterested in any type of education. It's kind of like which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think we're going to have to do the research, using our eyes and ears to study the kids and come up with new technology-based forms of instruction on our own. If they work, we can share that, if they don't we start again.
The idea that the standard curriculum would be gleaned faster doesn't bother me. I believe most kids have that ability given the right use of technology, but the following does bother me:
"To get everyone to the good stuff, the faster kids would work with and pull up the ones who were behind." This quote from the article was a little utopian for me. I'm not quite sure that would happen.

High School.com- As a student in a Virtual College right now, I can agree with a lot of things in the article.
I see the idea of a freedom to speak an opinion that might not be accepted in a traditional classroom. The anonymity does provide a more open forum for differing opinions when you know you're not going to run into that person in the cafeteria.
I also see an advantage in being able to take classes not normally offered in the traditional school. That freedom to take what interests a student might lead to a better idea of what to focus your study on in college, leading to less students wasting time taking classes blindly while trying to declare a major.
The only problem I see is with the students totally abandoning the traditional school. The social aspects of a high school, while difficult to navigate, I believe, are essential to the development of a well-rounded person. The jobs these students are going to hold are going to require people skills that would not be as developed when a student has kept themselves in an all digital world. Even if a students does find work in a completely digital world, I believe this leads to a downfall in the society of our world. People become insolated and isolated, unable to empathize with the outside world, because they don't have the skills to live in the real world. Because if they're high school experience was better online, they're probably going to be more likely to attend college online. And there is where the pattern of isolation could begin.

The sites for USA Today, and the CNETS article both say they are unavailable as of 4-20-07.

VT and "An Inconvenient Truth"

Today is the national memorial for Virginia Tech. I'm wearing Orange and Maroon. It will be on my mind all day.

Today I'm also subbing for a great history teacher. We're watching "An Inconvenient Truth." I hadn't seen it yet. It makes me want to do my part, including going to city commission to fight for curbside recycling. I hope it inspires some of these kids. Although I was a little disheartened to learn that most had no clue about the events of the 2000 election.

Later in the day, I had trouble getting classes to see what I saw in the film. How can we get them to see beyond what they're doing after school? I get so frustrated, usually it's when I'm at the high school, because these students take their free education so for granted. I wish I could bring students from say, South Africa, or India, or anywhere else without what we have, to this school to help these students understand what a great opportunity that they have everyday.

Subbing for a teacher in an IEP meeting. The shootings at Virginia Tech have opened up several dialogs. Today, the kids were wondering where the young man's parents were? They lived somewhat close. They allegedly suspected he was mentally ill. At his age, they could have had him involuntarily committed, with court approval. If I suspected this of my kids, I would move heaven and earth to help them, especially if there were concerns about violence toward other people. But then it's so easy as a parent to say what you would or wouldn't do differently. I think every parent has to have sympathy, because no matter what we do, I think every parent fears that there for the grace of God go I.

The students then began to discuss how their parents are disconnected from them. They wondered if his parents were just as disconnected. We talked about the fine line between letting them have the space to become who they're going to be and keeping an eye on what they're doing. It's not an easy line for parents to walk.

Later, I traveled to the middle school for the same teacher. The 8th grade teachers were talking at lunch. The consensus was that people did try to help the guy. But once someone is 18, and considered an adult, it's hard to help if the person doesn't want help. Parents can't even review medical records without their child's permission. One of the teachers talked about a friend in high school, who before being caught, made pipe bombs and downloaded terrorist handbooks, and hid them in places around the house, all without his parents knowing. The teacher assured us that his parents were VERY involved in his friend's life, and he was still able to hide his true dark side. Scary, huh?

The middle school teachers also seemed to agree to limit the discussion of the events. At the high school, they were using the news conferences as educational tools. That's a good question. What age is appropriate to use current events like Virginia Tech as a learning tool? Do we fulfill the shooter's wishes the longer and more in-depth we discuss what he did? During one of my middle school classes, two boys were talking about the shooter's race. I had to stop them and ask why they felt it was necessary to mention his race. I told them that when anyone commits an act like this, the race, age, gender, etc. of the person should not be an issue in any way.

I was present during a school shooting in 1987, when I was a junior in high school. A 7th grader tried to kill his entire class. One student rushed him to allow the other students to escape, but lost his life in the process. The shooter then killed himself. When the students fled the class, they fled to the library across the hall, where I was a library aide, alone at the time. It was the only time in my life when I feared I would die. So, as you can imagine, school shootings are a sensitive subject for me. It is hard for me to hate the shooter in my incident. He was only 12. He didn't know how to talk about his feelings of isolation and hatred for the students who treated him badly. The VT shooter was 23 years old. As someone who's also suffered from depression, I can't accept his rantings about being mistreated. I understand that he suffered from way more than mild depression, but if he was able to put his feelings on tape before this rampage, why couldn't he tell the mental health professionals who worked with him. His feelings were obviously clear to him. He said on one of the tapes that he didn't want to do this. It's clear that he made the choice. I can not let anyone use mental illness to even remotely mitigate his actions on Monday. I believe that does a disservice to the mental health community. We are all better off to try and use this as a guide to prevent future incidents. Columbine was 8 years ago, and we cannot keep forgetting and continue to face these tragedies more often in the future.

Back to normal

Tax season (my other career for the moment) ended yesterday. I didn't have to substitute today, so my son and I had a GREAT, relaxing day. Now I can focus on the end of the semester and making sure my work is done.

I really wish I already had my license. There are so many openings in my district, and I'm so anxious to get started, but I know that I have so, so, so much left to learn before I can take over my own class.

First Post

This is my first post. I'm substituting in 3rd Grade today. The class I have today is truly a good one. They are doing their work without a fight. This is one of those days that I know why I want to be a teacher.