G.S. Ed. Week post

In the October 27th issue the article "Teacher Speed Rights on Curriculum Rejected" proves that there is a very fine line for teachers that we have to tow. The article talks about a teacher who had students read books that were not o.k.'d with the school officials and parents and she was fired. When she took them to court...to my shock she lost. The courts said "that public employees do not have First Amendment protection for speech "pursuant to" their official duties. We as teachers have to be on our toes with not only how we teach but what...to save myself in the future I will always check with the principal first...and probably parents too. This will be a daunting task since not every parent will agree with all material.

G.S. Ed. Week post

In the October 27th issue, the article "Turnaround Team...Kentucky" talks about the staff of The Academy @ Shawnee and how they are desperately trying to raise performance levels in this school. I was heartbroken to hear just how many of the students do not think they will be able to go to college. The teachers are not only teaching the academic...they are also showing their students that they care about them which is forming community among the students as well as with the teachers. Just as we have learned in more than one of our classes...getting to know your students is crucial to their success in school.

Multi-Media Project

Oh Man....after watching this, I need to practice my speech skills because I said um and so too many times:} I put this off for a while because as usual I thought it was going to be hard and time consuming. What I found was...the powerpoint took the longest time. Adding my voice with voicethread was easy and posting/embedding the presentation was lightening fast.

GS Ed Wk post #6

In the October 6th issue, I literally was in tears reading the article, "Superman, builds houses". I soooooo want to see this movie. I have heard mixed reviews but this article proves that the movies message can clearly save/change lives. Safford Baskins did not feel safe or wanted in school. The teachers and the subjects were boring and he felt that the teachers/staff didn't care if he was there or learned. That"s so sad! I do not want to be that teacher. I will make sure my students know that I care about not just their academics but them personally and they will feel safe in my classroom. Safford and his friend both stated that having close personal relationships with their teachers and having those teacher hold high expectations for them but in a caring sincere manner gave them the self confidence needed to excel. The teachers in this program (YouthBuild) were a great support system. That"s what I want to be and in order to do that I have to know my students, their backgrounds, their families/communities. The job of a teacher may seem daunting and definitely time consuming but it will be worth it!

GS Ed Wk post #5

In the October 6th issue of Ed.Week the article "Districts begin looking harder at absenteeism" brings to mind something that I have often thought was a big issue in how well students do in school already. I have often said that I believe one of the reasons I did not do well in math, as well as other subjects, was due to absenteeism. Math, because it builds upon itself is one subject that you can't miss too many days or you will quickly get behind...and I did. Going back to school as an adult, I ended up having to start at the bottom level in math and I am grateful because there were concepts that I had never understood fully and I believe it was due to missing school. In the article Miss Sparks said, "one of the strongest and most often overlooked indicators of a student's rick of becoming disengaged, failing courses and eventually dropping out of school is absenteeism". The article states that some of the causes of chronic absenteeism is illness due to asthma, missed buses, parents/students not realizing the importance/link between attendance and grades, and teachers who make learning boring (especially in high school). A report out of a Baltimore school district showed that students who were chronically absent scored 15 to 20 percentage points lower than those who attended on a regular basis. One high school student stressed to her peers that graduating from high school and college will give students a million more dollars than a student who does not...and that may make kids choose to attend more often.

Because I feel so strong about this issue I will be trying my very best to understand why any of the kids I teach might be missing school and do my best to help make it easier for them to come to school...legalities aside.

GS Ed Wk post #4

In the September 29th issue the article "Educators advised to be cautious on Facebook profiles" really got me thinking about how we as educators need to be extremely careful what we put out publicly. How we conduct ourselves in the public eye can reflect on us scholastically. Students have access to a tremendous amount of technology in today's world including information on/about their teachers. Unfortunately this means that we do need to have higher standards for ourselves when putting personal information online or anywhere our kids might have access to it. The article said that "educators need to behave in a professional manner, realizing that one's actions reflect directly on the status and substance of the profession" and I agree. In a world with so many technological devices available to students we do need to be "moral exemplars". Almost every year there are teachers who are fired due to misconduct in various degrees. Children, especially young children are modelers, they will repeat what they hear and see and its a matter of trust too. Older kids need to know they can trust their teachers...if we are not morally sound then they are not going to take us serious as teachers.

GS Ed Wk post #3

In the September 29th issue, the article "Study finds homeless pupils hard hit by school closures" was heartbreaking. As if these kids don't have enough to worry about. The article talks about how much harder it is for homeless students to do well in schools when their school ends up getting closed and they have to be transferred to another school..usually one that is a low performing school. Lisa Fuentes, a principle at one of the high schools said, "Just because they're homeless doesn't mean they are any less capable to graduate than the other children". I agree...being homeless does not mean they have a lower intellect but it can make it harder on them to get homework done/turned in due to not having technology readily available to them not to mention nutrition and a good nights sleep. Then when schools close, these kids might have to travel farther making it difficult to get to school. In Minneapolis,the districts are trying to place homeless students in schools that are not slated to close, anytime soon, by restructuring their tracking system for those students.

As a teacher, it would be vital to know which students might be homeless and do my very best to help in any way possible...extensions on assignments...access to school computers after hours etc. I don't know if there are any homeless students in my district...but I do need to find out and to find out if there are already any policies implemented for these students.

Ed Tech Standards

First I would like to start out by saying that after looking at these standards that are "law"...I find it hard to understand why Willamette University is the only Univ. to make Ed. Tech classes a requirement...although this does give me and my fellow cohorts a leg up when it comes to being marketable. In a world where schools are turning to virtual classes to save money it is absolutely necessary for children to know how to access and be proficient in technology and not simply for academic use but also out in the professional world. A person has to know how to use technology to even apply for jobs now. Technological literacy is invaluable in todays society...everything is computerized and if a person does not know how to utilize technology, they will be left behind.

The OETS and NETS were created to make sure that teachers are prepared to teach technology to students so that they can not only improve their academic achievements but also be able to maneuver in the professional world because they will have strong technological skills. However, I feel that in order to make sure that 'all students have access to technology", as stated in OETS, schools need to have access to technology...which means more funding.

Learning technology has been challenging for me but I am grateful to have had this course because I can now impart this knowledge to my students. I can use googleapps to do a variety of things in my classroom. I will be starting a teacher blog in order to keep parents updated on what was done in class, on a daily/weekly basis. This will also help students who are out for extended periods. I will be able to upload/download information into my blog so they can work from home. These applications will also be useful for students to use on collaborative assignments/projects/presentations. Googleapps will also help me to compute grades easier/faster in order to see how students are doing test to test and help me to understand if there are any assignments or tests that need to be adjusted. I can use technology to do online discussions with the kids and god forbid if our district ever has to go to an online setting I will be able to do this without hesitation.

Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

Well, hopefully I did this right, lol. If I did, it wasn't too difficult...after all is said and done that is. I of course had anxiety while doing it. I don't know why I let technology give me anxiety because once I learn something its not so hard the next time. I guess I always go into it thinking its going to take a long time, which sometimes it does, and that I "can't" do it. Well...I have proven to myself that i can:} Feels good!

My analysis of the information, from a teachers perspective is that, even though these students were under the overall average their scores consistently went up with the exception of Katherine. Initially, her score soared from test 6 to test 7. Does this mean that for her test 7 was too easy? Was the test set up differently so that her understand was easier? Although in test 8 her score plummeted again, so does this mean that test 7 was a fluke? Or, was test 8 too easy? Was there some sort of environmental issues going on her life such as family problems or was she ill or distracted? Or maybe this would be a clue that she misunderstood or even didn't get a concept that was taught. These would be good questions the teacher would need to find out, in order to better help this student. My initial thought would be that its probably an environmental issue since all of the other students' scores consistently went up and also after test 8 Katherine's did as well.This would be excellent to use to for not only evaluating the students trend in achievement but also this could help evaluate the effectiveness of the teacher.

My favorite web2.0 tools

Web 2.0 tools are tools used to create word processing documents, blogs, photos, videos, spreadsheets etc. that are stored on a secure website that you can access from any computer from anywhere, anytime. This technology is called Cloud computing and a person can create/edit/share their creations as well as collaborate with groups simultaneously.This would be helpful in education for when teachers want to collaborate with other teachers, or with students who are out on an extended leave of absence.

Delicious is one tool that I was interested in because there have been plenty of times I was not at my computer when I needed a website from my "favorites/bookmarks". Delicious is a web based site that holds my favorites/bookmarks information that I can access from any computer anywhere, anytime as well as share this information with anyone for their use. This would be helpful for when I'm a teacher because I can update blogs or classroom information, emails from home if I forget to do this before I leave school.

Voice thread is a tool that creates videos/presentations. A person uploads pictures/images and then creates audio for those images....kind of like the yodio video we did? This could be helpful for students to use when collaborating with group presentations because they all can work on this together from their own computers, saving time and then the video can be shared/published to the web or blogs.

Googledocs experience

This was an exciting experience. Google docs is a tool that essentially works like Microsoft word except that with Google docs groups of people can work on the same document simultaneously. To be able to collaborate with a group of people at the same time is an amazing time management tool. Admittedly I was confused at first, but then I always am:} This tool would come in handy to help teachers keep in communication with students who have a long term illness, or parents who want to keep up on whats done in class daily/weekly (teachers could post whats been done in class and what assignments are due soon. Since there was only two of us, Don and myself just worked on it together, side by side contributing equally.




https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1lUj510-6VTm5yvt8NvZRFMNxf4NsgLwBwZgQtOZu15c&hl=en

G.S. Ed Week article #2

I got a little behind so I am doing two article reviews in a row.One of the articles I loved the most was "Pledge of Allegiance Debate Heard by Federal Court". The article basically said that the federal district court upheld the New Hampshire statute that states schools have the right to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The Court stated that "teaching our country's history to the elementary and secondary pupils of this state does not have the effect of coercing children to support or participate in religion". I for one grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. My thought is, and I am probably opening a can of worms here, that the Allegiance is a Pledge to love this country as one nation no matter what your religion. I was pleasantly surprised to see that at least in some schools the Pledge is still done...and that Court systems are not letting anyone take it away...it is a part of our history. As the teacher that I am doing my observations with stated, "we do the pledge of allegiance in this school, but the children are given the right to either stand and say it or politely sit and wait", I think thats fair. Just my opinion.

G.S. Ed Week post #1

In the September 22 issue I read the article about Michelle Rhee, current Chancellor of the District of Columbia schools. The article "Rhee Reflective In Aftershock of D.C. Primary", conveys her concern over the lost election of her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty. Fenty and Rhee have spent 3.5 years overhauling the District of Columbia's schools. Rhee and Fenty have been criticized for their "hard-charging pace of change" but Rhee said that she didn't think "waiting one more day knowing that another D.C. child was not getting the education they deserve was worth slowing the pace". One of the comments made in the article annoyed me because of the lack of thought process it must have took...which is... "a public poll was done over the past year and voters liked the many improvements to the schools, but not the leaders who brought about the changes". I truly can't comprehend that if the public thinks the process is working, that why does it matter if you "LIKE" the leader? Its not about you, its about your childs education right? Rhee is not afraid that she might lose her job or even that she will stay if given the chance, but that the new Mayor Vincent C. Gray will undermine all that she and Fenty have accomplished, and that she said would be "devastating for the schoolchildren of Washington, D.C.

OTEN Conference 2010

First off....I will never understand why it takes me soooooooo very long to do something that ends up at the end to seem so very simple. This whole thing took me about 5 hours. I was very frustrated. However, now that I know how to do it, I should be able to do it again...and at a faster speed.

The conference overall was inspirational. I came into this class with very basic knowledge of technology. I knew how to check and send emails..I did know how to navigate facebook. Knowing how to do blogs and posts like this yodio really will be a valuable tool to keep in touch with parents and students and will help with collaborative learning. I will try to incorporate this somehow.
October 3, 2010 10:20 AM

Yodio - OTEN Conference 2010

My pic

O.K. soooo my picture is a little blurry, but I got it on there right...that counts right? lol

Blog #2

O.K....so I am laughing at myself right now. It just took me almost an hour to figure out how to get back onto my blog to do my second blog. Now, if I had been thinking straight, I should have went to somebody elses blog and asked them for help. That is what we are supposed to learn are we not? Again, laughing at myself. So, the question is, How can technology help teachers and what are the advantages?


First and foremost, the younger you can get kids doing these kinds of things the more at ease they will be. I for one had an anxiety attack just thinking about it. Blogging for a teacher could be very useful for communication between the parents/students both. For the parents its a chance to find out what was done in the classroom on a daily basis, because as most of us know, children do not typically share a whole lot of information with their parents. For both parents and students it could be a way of knowing what assignments were scheduled...due dates, etc. especially if the student is out with a prolonged illness. I know that when my daughter was out due to illness for over a week...I had to go back and forth to the school to pick up work and drop stuff off to the teacher. So blogging would have saved me a lot of time.

Blogging is also useful for the students who are afraid to speak up in class. I know I was. I would have been able to share my opinions and thoughts without feeling like everyone was staring at me and judging me. Students can also collaborate with each other on projects they are working on together. Kids today love computers...they are excited to be able to use them...they can relate.

Wow...another successful blog.....now, I just need to do the Yodio thing. I'm sure it's not as hard as it seems. Again, laughing

Personal Bio

Wow...this is rather exciting for me! I consider myself computer illiterate so to learn new computer tech. stuff feels liberating! So, for my personal bio. I was born and raised in Corvallis, Oregon, am an "older than average student", have two grown children (18 and 23) and one grandchild (6 weeks). Man, I feel old now:}. I have always wanted to be a teacher however, had my first child right out of high school so I became a hairdresser instead (took less time and $). When my children got older I decided to go back to school and pursue my dream as well as prove to my children that an education is not only important but also attainable. I am one of few people in my family, I'm talking past and extended, to graduate high school and am the only one to ever go to college.

I would like to teach 3rd or 4th grade mostly so that I can teach multiple subjects.I lived in Las Vegas for about 7 months and was able to get some substitute teaching in grades kindergarten thru 5th and found that the 3rd and 4th graders were my favorite.However, I am unsure at the moment about teaching middle school level so therefore will be getting licensed for 3rd thru 8th and an endorsement in social studies in case I do middle school.  Hobbies? Hmmmm....I love to read, especially when its something I'm interested in such as; education, history, biographies, cultural, mysteries, etc. I love that I live in an area that is 1 to 1.5 hours away from the coast, mountains and good shopping. I will try to upload a picture sometime this week.