Sunday, October 19, 2008

Last Last week...

So this is a little late... oops! During class that day, my group presented about 1-1 laptop programs, in the form of the Colbert Report. We had fun doing that! I have mixed feelings about 1-1 programs. On the one hand, I think students need to have access to computers on a regular basis, in order to be able to learn the skills they will certainly need beyond school. There are also a lot of great resources on the internet, and computers really open up a door to another world. BUT.... I think if students had laptops in class, it could be very distracting. I suppose a teacher could make a rule about not using laptops unless she/he says to... and students then still take old-fashioned notes. But that defeats the convenience of computers and the ability to store notes and such in 1 compact place. Unless the computer crashes, that is. I think at the very least, students need access to computers both at home and at school, so maybe with the right rules set in place, these programs could be extremely valuable.

The other group presented about using wiki's in the classroom. Again, I was sort of ambivalent about this. I really don't have much experience using wiki's, so I have some difficulty imagining what I could use it for. But they presented many different options, and it really seems like you could do just about anything with them. I'll have to give it more thought, as to whether or not I'd use it in my class, but its definitely a pretty neat tool to have available!

The guest speaker was a science teacher from skyline, who does TONS of things on his website. It seemed like his class was basically centered around the content of his websites, and the students all contributed as well, by producing podcasts and such. I was extremely impressed by what he's done, and it seems like the students really enjoy it too. I sort of freaked out and thought "there's no way I could do all that!" but then he mentioned that he started out small and built his way up to this point. That was a bit of a relief, and who knows, maybe someday I will have an elaborate website for MY classes!! We'll see =)

I took the MTTC subject tests yesterday- I was frustrated by the econ one because there were more than 1 right answers for many of the questions, so it was basically a guessing game as to what they think the "best" answer is. That's so frustrating. The psych test went well too, I studied a lot for that since it is not as fresh in my mind. So I guess now I just have to wait and see what scores I get!

Fall break is this week, which is a relief. I can get some work done & work on the wedding & maybe even relax, if theres time!!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Paperless Classrooms/PowerPoint/Early College

The presentations this past Friday were very interesting. The powerpoint one I already had a general idea of the pros/cons, how to make it "work", etc. The paperless classroom was hillarious, I loved their presentation. I was pretty familiar with their material as well, since our topic is 1-1 computing/laptops for every child. They touched on a few things that we've been digging up in our research. I was impressed at both groups' presentations, as they were both entertaining. (Especially the game show/candy part).

I also enjoyed learning about Early College, since I've never heard of this before. It sounds like a neat opportunity for many kids, it'll be interesting to see how that works out for them as the schools get more established. I'm not sure if teaching in a school like that would work for me- I'd have to learn more about that aspect of it. But I do really like the idea, especially if it helps students who are "underserved". When someone brought up "Why Oakland County since they're so rich", that kind of hit close to home. I went to school in Oakland County, and definitely at one of the best ones. But there are COUNTLESS students I graduated with (or maybe not graduated WITH) who have just as many problems as students in urban schools; teen pregnancy, drugs, alcohol..... so many people I used to be friends with are in jail or have dropped out/been kicked out of college, or didn't even make it through high school. And then there is Pontiac. But I think this will be a great opportunity for those students to get back on track and become a success story. It doesn't completely matter how good a school is if the student has other issues going on that their school doesn't/can't address.

Anyway, who knows, maybe some day I WILL end up at a school like that!