My Contribution to the Class Wiki

I contirbuted a link to a webquest titled Gatsby Meets the Press. This webquest allows students to dive into the roaring 20's as newpaper Jounalist. Students are put into teams that are responsible for producing a newpaper. Each student is responsible for certain articles. Each team is competing for the Pulitzer Prize title.

Chapter 10 Going Beyond the Classroom

One section of this chapter suggest to do regular class work out side of school. A student comment that goes with this is that a class went on a field trip to clean up a park and pond and they learned about fish and their environment at the same time.
This reminded me of my 6th grade year. Every year my science teacher had the 6th grade raise salmon eggs. It was part of a wild life and fishery project. So it involved institutions out side of the school at the same time we learned so much about fish and their environment and how they grow. When they where ready we got to let them go into the wild as a class.

Chapter 9 When Things Go Wrong

"Learning Involves Failure."
This is one of my favorite lines in the entire book. Sometimes you have to get it wrong before you know how to do it right. Sometime you have to mess up, or know what you don’t want to do again, in order to evolve and make progress. This holds true for students and teachers alike.

Chapter 8 Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

This chapter offers advice on working with ESL students. On piece of advice offered is to give students analogies, pictures, photographs, movies, and televisions to help make connections and provide background information in a variety of subject areas.
I like this because it is something that most educators can do and have access to. They are very common and fairly inexpensive. I also liked this because I think that these things would help all students not just ESL students.

Chapter 7 Teaching Difficult Academic Material

In this chapter there is a section titled Give us time to think, to draft, to revise. One student says that she was told “Hand it in and we’ll sit down with you and we can work on it.”
I really like this because I believe that writing is a process that may never actually stop. Every thing can be improved upon so the concept of a final draft, to me, is only for the sake of a deadline. I think that as long as students are learning a making progress they should be able to revise their writing.

Chapter 6 Motivation and Boredom

My favorite part of this chapter was a story. A student asked a question that was not directly pertinent to the lesson. Rather than ignoring it the teacher said that they would talk about it another time. I would assume that the class did not believe that the question would be addressed because the students were surprised when the teacher came in the next day with an entire lesson planned around the previously asked question.
This really stood out to me because I believe that it is ok and necessary for little side tracks like that to happen. I like that the teacher didn’t go on a tangent that day but stuck to what was planned; however she did make room in her curriculum for it. I think that students should feel that if they ask a question it will get answered. I also think that they should feel the questions they ask are important.

Chapter 5 Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

This chapter is all about group work. One idea presented is to let the students pick what group they are going to work in, especially if “outside” work is expected.
I completely agree with this. I think that the dynamics of group work are complicated and are further complicated when teachers expect students to work outside of school. What if students live on opposite sides of town? What if students have obligations and responsibilities after school such as work, sports, or babysitting a sibling? I think that group projects certainly have their place in education but I also think that they should be well planned and carefully thought out by the teacher prior to being assigned.

Chapter 4 Creating a Culture of Success

In this chapter I found several things that made me write in the margins. One of the things that really grabbed my attention was a student saying that “the worst thing a teacher can do is to compare a class to another class, and put them down.”
I completely agree with this. If we were constantly compared to block one I would not be happy. If you have ever been compared to a sibling you would know that this tactic is not a very constructive one. Each student/class should be treated individually.

Chapter 3 Classroom Behavior

One thing that really stood out to me in this chapter was a suggestion from a student: Have something strong that the start [that] leads down the road to what you’re teaching.
I thought that this was pretty cool because we are covering this in practicum right now. We are learning about starting a lesson or a unit with a hook so that it will draw student’s attention. Also a hook will make the lesson seem less like work and more like learning.

Copyright and Fair Use LR

12. A student tries to digitize the shower scene from a rented copy of Psycho into a "History of Horror" report. Her computer won't do it. The movie happens to be on an NBC station that week, so the teacher tapes it and then digitizes it on the computer for her. This is fair use.

This makes me mad it is just splitting hairs. In the end it is the same material that they are using. I don't see how a rented copy is any different then one that is copied. I almost think that the rented copy is more fair because at least the person paid for it.

Copyright and Fair Use SR

2. A technology coordinator installs the one copy of Photoshop the school owns on a central server so students are able to access it from their classroom workstations. This is a violation of copyright law.
- I didn't really see why this is fair but making copies of a cd-rom is not fair. It is the same senario just a different way of accessing the material.

4. The state mandates technology proficiency for all high school students but adds no money to schools' software budgets. To ensure equity, public schools are allowed to buy what software they can afford and copy the rest.
- I understand that copying the material is not fair; however, it also makes me angry that there would be a mandate that schools cannot complete because there isn't enough money.

6. A middle school science class studying ocean ecosystems must gather material for multimedia projects. The teacher downloads pictures and information on marine life from various commercial and noncommercial sites to store in a folder for students to access. This is fair use.
-This did not surprise.

7. An elementary school designs a password-protected Web site for families and faculty only. It's OK for teachers to post student work there, even when it uses copyright material without permission.
- I like this idea.

10. A teacher gets clip art and music from popular file-sharing sites, then creates a lesson plan and posts it on the school Web site to share with other teachers. This is permissible.
-This surprises me because clip art is so common now that I would not think twice about using it. I can see the music copyright law though.

12. A student tries to digitize the shower scene from a rented copy of Psycho into a "History of Horror" report. Her computer won't do it. The movie happens to be on an NBC station that week, so the teacher tapes it and then digitizes it on the computer for her. This is fair use.
- This makes me mad it is just splitting hairs.

14. On Back-to-School night, an elementary school offers child care for students' younger siblings. They put the kids in the library and show them Disney VHS tapes bought by the PTA. This is permissible.
-I don't like this because no one is profiting from showing it so it should not be wrong for them to watch it.

19. A high school video class produces a DVD yearbook that includes the year's top ten music hits as background music. This is fair use.
- This didn't surprise me because I worked on Yearbook my highschool year.

Creativity Exercise

In it tell what you did to exercise your right brain and explain (based on the reading and on the activity) how it helped (or had the potential to help) your creativity. Then tell what you did for each of the other three areas (left brain, humor, inspiration) and how your activity helped your creativity (based on the reading and on the activity).

The exercise that I did for my right brain was answer a question about how an architect could build a house with windows on each wall that all had a southern exposer. I had many answers and I am still coming up with them my favorite being that the house could turn. The left brain activity was to answer a math question about socks; i still don't have the answer. For humor I acutally watched a funny movie and I suppose that could be counted as a right brain activity also. For inspiration I read a John Kennedy quote:

"When written in Chinese the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity."John Kennedy

How to Help Someone Use a Computer

One thing I have to tell myself is that "[I've]forgotten what it's like to be a beginner."

One important rule that I need to remember is "Don't take the keyboard [or mouse]. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction."

Both of these statments remind me of when I am trying to show my mother how to do something on a computer. Sometimes I just don't understand why she doesn't know this like I do, and I also get a little frustrated and use the all to common "here let me do it".

This is going to be interesting to use in the presentation considering that the software allows someone to "take over" another persons computer.


This information comes from http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/how-to-help.html

Web 2.0 Educator

For the final stage in the MEL Webquest I choose to review The Cool Cat Teacher's blog. This teacher takes real life events from the world around her to transition the events into learning experiences. Scott Rigsby is an example she uses as an inspirational story to motivate others to be inspirational teachers. She also is a teacher who likes to use a wide network of other teachers to support continued learning. In her blog she posts an excerpt from a letter written by another educator asking for specific information regarding a rather obscure topic. I also think that she is a resourceful and creative teacher. She has the optimistic view that a great teacher can teach with the resources available to them.
I think that her view on technology in the class room is that even if we do not have to most up to date electronics and technological devices that we can still use what we have or can get our hands on as a medium to convey our message. I think that her very large and popular blog geared toward the educational proffession speaks for her technology standpoint in and of itself. I agree with her on most parts. Although I think that her statment "Anyone can have a great technology program with an unlimited budget" is a more than a little idealistic and off.

Focus The Nation

As an activity to learn more about global warming I searched the "Focus the Nation" website and found a forum that interested me. This particular forum was focused on the correlation between alternate forms of energy and the job opportunities that can be provided by them. I also read a forum about how to cut energy and save money. A few things that I learned are that :

• I learned that the state of Maine actually has an engergy efficency law.
  
• Due to this law the state should have about 9.5 million dollars available for energy efficient programs.
  
• That California is a leading example of an energy efficient state.
  

Every solution that I viewed sounded fantastic until the question of who is going to foot the bill was proposed. Every person who presented an idea also ended with saying that a federally mandated tax of some sort should be imposed to pay for this. I don't think that is the solution. How can you get someone excited about preventing global warming when you want to take away half of their pay check? The answer is you can't. Instead I think that global warming prevention is going to have to take a grass roots effort. So I would teach my students how to do a combind number of small things that would eventually make a large impact. Things such as low efficency light bulbs. Using less water. Increasing gass milage. Also I would ask them to research alternative forms of energy like wind, solar, or water. I would ask them to research new hybrid or electric vehicles including vehicles that use energy forms such as ethenol. If one person was to change all of the small things like these in their own life-style it would make an impact, if many people were to change this it would make a huge impact.

Type I and Type II Technology

I think that Type I Technology in the class room is used more as reinforcement for a lesson where as Type II Technology is used as a tool to teach a lesson. An example of Type I would be a PowerPoint presentation paired with a lecture. Although I really like PowerPoint's and feel that they can be effective, if the slides only mimic exactly what is being said then they are not a very effective piece of technology. Another example of Type I Technology could be movies when they are over used. Some teachers tend to use movies as a cop out for actual work. A third example of Type I Technology would be recordings of books, poetry, or other materials. If you are not engaged while you are also listening to them then you/ the whole class will zone out and nothing will be accomplished.
One example of Type II Technology would be a smart board. The middle school where my mother works uses one in the math room. Another example would be discussions that are hosted on a website such as blackboard. This would engage conversation that might not otherwise be initiated. Also, I had never seen Garage Band used in a classroom until I took a class last semester. This was fantastic for those who would prefer to experiment/express themselves through sound.


Maddux, Cleborne. "Type II Applications Of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning." Computers in the Schools (2005): 1-5.

My MEL experiences

• Student/Teacher relationships: I had a terrible relationship with one of my teachers for several years. I come from a very small community and Mr. Gilman always paid special attention to the students that he was family friends with. I was not one of those students. I always did my work and received good grades. Dispite this, I was always left with the feeling that I, along with several others, was not quite as important to him as the other children in the class.
• Helping Students Succeed: My Pre-Calculus teacher would always let us work in groups on just about everything. He would have a certain amount of lecture/class time and then we would break up and collaborate with the rest of the assignment. I think that this really helped me learn the material because I was able to show someone else how it worked. I’ve always found that teaching someone something is the best way to gauge your own understanding of the subject. By doing this I was able to work out what I did and didn’t understand and then go from there.
• Interest: Ms. Cyr was my high school English teacher. She was really great at getting every one interested in the subject. When a group of students came to her and told her that we were interested in journalism she listened to us. Our school did not have a news paper that we could work on and there was no journalism course. Throughout the year she worked on a curriculum, and the next year she offered an English course based around journalism. We even started the first student newspaper at our school.
• Learning Styles: My science teacher my first year of high school was really fantastic with working with different learning styles. Some people understood the material (physics) straight from the book. Other students (like me) needed additional instruction. He would do reviews of the previous chapter and answer any questions by making drawings on the board or using other objects in the room to demonstrate.
• Hands on: Several teachers in my high school started a 30 minute activity block every other day. Each of the high school teachers picked an activity that they would instruct and every student was able to sign up for the one that they wanted to participate in. One example would be a cooking class. Each student in the cooking class brought in a recipe that they found and would like to try or that they enjoyed and would like to share. Another would be line dancing. Yes, line dancing; and to this day I can still do the “boot scoot and boogie”.

MEL web quest

These are the results of your inventory. The scores are out of 20 for each style. A score of 20 indicates you use that style often.
Style Scores

Visual
12
Social
18
Physical
6
Aural
12
Verbal
18
Solitary
8
Logical
7


I think that these results are very accurate. I am a very verbal and social person and I absolutely need visuals to understand most everything. My aural and visual scores were tied, I’m not entirely sure about this. This quiz was taken at: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/ .

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

I agree that teachers should never play favorites. Instead they should challenge, grade, and treat each student equally.
I really liked that the book covered this from both the aspect of the student that was being ignored, and the student that was being treated specially. I for one have been in both situations and they are both uncomfortable. No student should be ignored or made to feel that they are not worth the effort. However; at the same time students don’t want to be singled out and treated differently than their peers. When students are put in this situation they are sometimes ostracized from, or made fun of by their peers.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

I liked chapter one because it reinforced the idea that students are not empty boxes waiting to be filled up with the information that we provide them. They are actually quite full of loads of information, facts and ideas already. According to the author students want the chance to demonstrate their previously acquired knowledge.
I feel that as an educator I need to find out what students already know and use it to build upon. I especially liked the section where the immigrant students listed things that they could do or had knowledge of that might be considered “non-traditional” for education. These students were just learning English, but they provided the opportunity to bring other aspects of learning to the table such as dance, music, or even sports. I also believe that by acknowledging these accomplishments students, particularly ones who may be struggling in other subjects, would have more self efficacy and therefore do better in all subject areas.