Font is Important

I see all the time from both students and school staff, where unusual or fancy fonts are used. Students will use them for lab reports and it just comes off and unprofessional and a little annoying to read -- especially data tables. As for teachers, I sometimes have a hard time taking an e-mail seriously if the font is "kiddish." There is a time and place for those more creative fonts -- advertisements, parties, fairs, etc. Not for the professional world.

No, You Can't Be My Facebook Friend!

Chapter 9 of Richardson says when asked if a teacher should friend their students on facebook, "I would advise against it." I agree 100% with this. It's not the kind of relationship that you are meant to have with a student. Now, perhaps a graduate from a few years ago that you had in your class, that is perhaps a year away from a bachelors degree and taking on responsibilities such as looking for internships and building up a resume, sure. They were your student once, but how they are a young adult; far more mature and have more common sense on how to use a social networking site like facebook.

Old Ideas Can Still Be Good!

I found this article on "Think-Aloud" which is a much older education strategy. I use it from time to time in my classroom and always felt a little cautious while doing so, mostly because there seems to be such a big emphasis on using newer methods.

I was happy when I found this article because it does help emphasis that just because something is new does not mean that it is better.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/think-aloud-strategy-oldie-but-goodie-elena-aguilar?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29

Protecting Identity

 So, I was reading the 7 things you need to known about google apps and I came across this section.

"From an administrative standpoint, Google doesn’t offer as much granularity in managing user accounts as many institutions want and need."

This was rather interesting to me because I do use a lot of apps from google, and I have put a lot of faith in them as a company. I suppose though, this is the drawback to the much more open and wider market for development that google supports where apple does not.

Twitter

First, I am against twitter. To me, it always seemed like a web tool where you could tell the world what you're doing and when you're doing it. My opinion -- I don't want the world to know what I'm doing and when I'm doing it!

I read Chapter 6 and have seen a potential use for it. I liked the idea of a "Network at my fingertips." The idea of having your school teachers on a network, or even a "hotline" if you will, ready to help if needed.

Perhaps I need to reevaluate Twitter and see what other uses it could have.

"Enlighten us, but make it quick."

I read an article on why teachers need to be great story tellers. I personally like to incorporate my students into a rather flashy, crazy story when it comes to designing Physics problems, as it seems to get them a little more interested in it.

What this article made me think about -- and what it encouraged you to ask as a teacher -- is when did you (others) learn the most?

Well, I reflected and thought about what sticks out in  my mind is when material was presented to me in a good story. I also thought about what do we often do in social gatherings? We talk about our lives -- in some sort of story format, we watch TV shows or movies, which are stories. When we don't go out to do something like bowling or golf, etc, but instead stay in and talk or watch something together, it's story time!

The quote in my title for this post is about how people do want to learn -- humans are naturally curious -- but the attention span is short, so tell us a story and don't let it drag out!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-educators-need-to-be-great-storytellers-suzie-boss?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29

Wikipedia Registration

So when I read the Wikipedia Article, I noted that it was dated June 2007. I came across this line, "Although Wikipedia encourages contributors to create accounts, registration is not required." I wondered if after six year this had changed, and according to the site itself, you can still edit without an account. I guess I was a little surprised to see that was the case even today.

The only counter measure for this is that a site is flagged if it has not been checked for accuracy recently, but otherwise, it's totally fair game.

You are your own substitute

"...create their own TV shows online in just a few clicks." (Will Richardson, pg. 126)

I first saw this happen in my own school this past March. 4 or 5 teachers were going to Chicago for a leadership conference and would miss three days of school. They decided that it was too much to miss and that students would suffer without their help over the half week they would be gone. As a solution, they went ahead and videotaped their lessons and posted it online for the sub to play during class.

The feedback from the students was that it worked -- but wasn't the same. The students learned, but still struggled because they were unable to ask questions. Overall, the teachers that attempted these video lessons felt it was certainly not perfect, but certainly worth doing.

Math Puzzles

I'm a math major, so it's easy for me to say that math is fun and I enjoy doing math problems. I've always found them to be a puzzle of their own. But I understand how easy it is for the class to become boring for students -- not hard, not frustrating, but boring. I found this article on using puzzles to teach math and thought this would be a great idea. After all, I've seen people who label math as "boring" be in love with sudoku puzzles.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recreational-educational-value-math-puzzles-deepak-kulkarni?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29

Wiki Definitions

As I was reading through Chapter 4, I came across a the section of creating an online text for the curriculum. I thought about how this could be useful for me.

When I begin a new unit, one of my favorite things to have students do is share at least one thing they already know about the topic. For example, when we start magnetism, students make a list of what they know and each student must contribute one item for the whole class -- and it cannot be repeated.

I thought about taking this in-class activity and making it an online activity on the night before a new unit begins.

20% Time

The idea it that 20% of the day at school, students would be able to work on a project of their choosing -- that still meets the graduation requirements, of course. The idea is that students will work harder on something they are passionate about. It came originally from google.

"The idea for 20% time in schools comes from Google's own 20% policy, where employees are given twenty percent of their time to work and innovate on something else besides their current project."
(A.J. Juliani)

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-percent-time-a-j-juliani?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29

Blog Liability

So as I was reading through the text this week, I got part way into Chapter 3 and came across the section on Blog Safety. "Regardless of how you start using Weblogs with students, make sure that students, parents, and even administrators are clear about the expectations and the reasoning behind it." This is part of the reason why I love education programs like EdLine, where everything is part of the school district itself, which helps alleviate potential issues with having students use an outside blog, whether writing or reading. I think it is a little sad at how much issue there is today with liabilities versus when I was in school.

No More Text Books!

When I first began teaching, I had a very similar experience that this individual had with Chemistry. I had my experience with Physics, of course. I noticed that I used the book quite a bit in my first year. Then, I began to veer away from it in my second year -- so much so, that students and parents voiced some concerns on whether or not we should continue to have students purchase it. (This was at a private school.) By the time I started my third year, I told the students to keep the book at home and can count on one hand how many times I had the students use it. It's good to see that this appears to be a viable method, as I feel the students get more out of other resoucres than the text book.

"Without a textbook, I can create curriculum that engages students by relating science to their everyday lives." as quoted from Geoff Ruth.

http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-without-text

Our Students Know More Than Us!

I remember when I was in high school -- it was a major accomplishment if you could correct, respectfully of course, a teacher. Maybe it was a math teacher who made an arithmetic error, or a history teacher who accidentally twisted up some information from the past. Regardless, it didn't happen often.

This week, as I read through the text book, I got to page 7, just under "Social Learning." The first sentence caught me by surprise -- even though I already knew it. "Today's schools are faced with a difficult dilemma that pits a student boy that has grown up immersed in technology against a teaching faculty that is less agile with the tools of the trade." (Will Richardson) Yep -- it's true. I grew up with some of the technology. I'm only 26, so I am in the era of when video games exploded from a simple 20 minutes of fun, then you're board to vast online virtual worlds with millions of players across the continent playing with you. But I also was taught, and because it took some time for technology to get to where it was, to go outside! I suppose you could say I might very well be the last of the social butterfly generation! Back in the days of, "Meet at Jimmy's house at 7:30pm," you had to be at Jimmy's by 7:30pm, and if anything happened on your way there, there was no cell phone to tell him that you'd be late.

So when I read this line from Richardson, it took me a little by surprise. My students know more than I do about the virtual world. Not that I am ignorant of it, but they are far more immersed in it than I am. They know more tricks and tools than I do.

I suppose that's why I chose this major -- to make myself a better teacher and to be able to keep up with my students. Honestly, in 10 years, all that we learn now will be far outdated and replaced by something far more superior that we can't even imagine it yet, I hope that courses like this will give me the ability to keep up with the constantly changing world wide web.

Women In Science

I really liked the article linked below...

http://readwrite.com/2013/06/21/meet-the-women-of-nasas-2013-astronaut-class?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29#awesm=~o9Da40tHlYwOvN

It is about the women who are in training to be an astronaut. What is particularly nice about it is that these women had jobs previously in science and engineering and applied for the program. What is great about this is that they are women who could have just as easily as grown up down the road from us. In the AP Physics class, female students are far and few between. One year, I had a class of 12 boys and 2 girls -- certainly an unbalanced ratio. Articles like these are great leisurely reading material in the sciences that will help encourage young girls to pursue the Math and Sciences; a field that some young girls feel for one reason or another, probably from some wildly absurd stereotype, they can't perform well in -- but are at absolutely no disadvantage to their male counterparts.

Summer Classes

I never took summer classes when I was an undergrad, but I always wanted to. By the time I wanted to do so, and could afford to live on campus for the whole year, I couldn't take any summer classes because all of mine were too high level and not offered in the summer. But now, I have this class :)

I got a slow start on things, but that will change now that I'm getting the hang of things. I like the idea of only working a half day (summer school) then coming home and going at this at a leasurly pace.

Hopefully this will turn out to be a good semester!