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.