Creative Classroom

December 2, 2010

There are definitely times when I think I am creative in the classroom.  I know that I attempt to present each lesson in a creative way or at least give create practical examples for understanding the concepts.  It is definitely difficult to be over-the-top creative with every lesson.  That kind of creativity takes a lot of time to develop and prepare for.  Hopefully after being able to teach the same subject in the same grade at the same school I will be able to build more creative lessons.  I  know that when teaching math I always think of creative examples to help my students understand.  I give them some of the same ideas that I used myself as a student. 

I know that with a little more time and experience I can make more of my lessons creative.  It takes time to figure out what works for kids, and develop a resource supply to pull ideas from when teaching anything.

Sfumato

November 14, 2010

If you think about it ‘life’ is sfumato. On the grandest of all scales, none of us know what the future holds. I can recall times in my life where the unknown was extremely frightening to me. My parents divorced when I was young and for a while I never knew what was going to happen next. It seemed that just when things seemed ‘right’ in my life there would be a huge change that forced me to start over again. I have learned since that this is why I HATE change so much. I have learned that I don’t actually hate change I am just afraid of any negative effects it may have.

Uncertainty will always be a part of our jobs as teachers. We may never know what kind of impact we have on our students. It takes all year to find out if they have learned anything and that information comes through the results of spring testing which should always be taken with a grain of salt. Many teachers go for years without ever receiving feedback from a former student acknowledging an impact on their lives.

It has probably been for the last 8 or so years that I have learned to enjoy ambiguity. I think part of this has come with just becoming more secure with my life and my faith. I fully trust that the Lord is in charge and that He has a plan for my life. Believing in this has made uncertainty less scary to me. For me, ambguity keeps me going. Without working toward something, anything, I think we would all just sit around.

Blog Assignment 1

September 28, 2010
   

Creativity is important t me because I believe it is what sets us apart from each other.  I also believe that it can pull us together.  I believe that self-actualized creativity is what holds society together.  I see creativity in myself as solving problems creatively.  I also have a way of creating easier, more efficient ways of doing things.  My first college degree is in Interior Design so I have always had a creative ability to visualize a space that doesn’t exist yet.  We would call this spatial reasoning.   There are many people who can’t visualize something unless they are looking at the actual object or space.

As a teacher I think that creativity creeps in as we figure out ways to communicate with each of our students.  I have 108 students with at least 110 different personalities.   I think we have to be creative in our teaching approaches and how we build separate types of relationships with each kid.

Stoll

May 10, 2008

I feel like I didn’t give enough of my opinion about Stoll.  I appreciate the book…I also appreciate Papert’s book.  I just got aggravated about how different the two authors were.  I know we need to look at both angles it just caught me off guard.

So I decided to include some quotes from the book that I found profound…good or bad.

pg 38   Stoll talks about the use of laptops in the classroom and how advocates feel they move at a quicker pace and can be updated quicker.  Problem is, websites like Wikipedia have been found to have innacurate content.  And if you are talking about a subject such as history we teach the same things to our kids year after year just throwing in any new historical events.

pg 45   Stoll talks about how when kids just ‘click’ on the right icon they don’t use critical thinking skills.  He argues that their choices happen on a screen not to them directly.

 

pg 58   One of the more compelling arguments, Stoll suggests that readers of multimedia don’t dig for meaning they just focus on the pretty pictures on a web page.  I have to agree I sometimes fall into this category.  I usually read what has the most interesting headline or the most eye catching picture. 

Stoll also mentions the need for balance when using computers for learning.  He suggests that we don’t allow children to watch TV at school for fear that they don’t have a TV at home so why the urgency to allow computer use at school.  I think that kids these days will be comfortable with computers whether they have one at home or not.  They are just growing up in a different culture than we did.  Stoll suggests that there may not be any real balance between use and non-use.  I think we have to make an attempt at any cost.  

pg 76   Calculating against calculators.  My most favorite section of the book.  I have always felt that the use of calculators offered only a crutch to the student.  I remember, in 3rd grade, having to stand in front of the class everyday and recite the multiplication table.  I never forgot them.  Kids these days do not know their times tables.  I think that calculator use should be reserved for more complicated math such as calculus and trigonometry.  There is no real educational value in knowing which buttons to push on a calculator and having no idea what is happening inside to get the right answer.  I am constantly telling students to show their work so I can see where they went wrong.  I am a firm believer that getting the right answer is always what is important.  Learning the steps is where the real work is. 

pg 143    Stoll mentions that ‘wisdom and knowledge….are not the same as information’.  I would have to agree.  We take in endless amounts of information in a day, this doesn’t mean we have become knowledgeable about anything.  He also states that power depends on social skills and suggests that too much time spent using a computer leads to and inability to get along with others.  He says ‘ Internet = Loners’.  I agree with that statement too.  Although a person may be interacting with other people online they are still doing that in a quiet place probably alone.  I think we need to social interaction that requires more spontaneous, face-tot-face comments.  Sometimes when people are communicating through a computer they pretend to be something else.  This becomes more difficult in person.

Ethnography

May 9, 2008

Ethnography, according to Wikipedia, ‘is a genre of writing that uses fieldwork to provide a descriptive study of human societies’.  The human society that I have been studying is Facebook, a social network site (SNS) found on the Internet.  The fieldwork necessary to complete this ethnography began by becoming a member on the FaceBook website and interacting with other members.  I have also investigated the history of social network sites and read what other people have said about their experiences.

 

Danah Boyd defines ‘social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system’.   There are many SNS available on the Internet, but Facebook was one of the first.  It was created at Harvard University, and originally intended for their use only.  Not long after its creation, the use of Facebook spread to other Ivy League colleges.  The adoption of Facebook began on the coasts of the US, primarily used by people in their twenties.  It quickly spread to other universities and after only being used for a year it was made available to high school students.  In the year 2006, Facebook was opened to public and commercial use where its adoption has been widely successful.

 

Social network sites have become widely popular in our culture for a number of reasons.  One reason is the influx of technology, which allows people to communicate in seemingly different ways.  Also, dramatic changes in our society that puts limits on the social freedoms we allow our children to experience.  Our society today has become a place where it is sometimes unsafe to allow our children to roam their neighborhoods to visit their friends.  The use of SNS affords children the opportunity to socialize without leaving the safety of their home.  They can ‘roam’ their chosen group (community) feeling relatively safe about who they will come into contact with.  These SNS appeal to different groups of people for different reasons, some include the aesthetics of the site and different features made available by the site. 

 

Because Facebook originated on a college campus it’s core purpose was to connect people to fellow alumni and friends.  Rules for Facebook include all users must be at least thirteen years old and in high school or college.  If a user is under the age of thirteen or eighteen and under and not in college their use of the site is prohibited.  Facebook encourages the users to be honest in their portrayal of their personal information and to take full responsibility for all actions that take place under their account.  Other terms for using Facebook state that the site is not to be used for commercial purposes, basically you can’t place advertisements there, but to maintain a personal and social interaction between members.  Members are not to engage in any activity that would violate the rights of any third party member.  The Facebook company reserves the rights to perform periodic reviews of sites to ensure no information or audio/video files are posted without proper consent by the original owner.  The site also offers a Marketplace where users can list items for sale.  The rules for Facebook read like any other legal document, basically you are supposed to conduct yourself in a responsible manner and not engage in any illegal activity on the site.  The Facebook Company is not responsible for any wrongdoing that takes place on the site.  

The first step when starting a new account with Facebook is to define your profile.  Questions include: name, marital status, networking purpose, sex, hometown, and educational history.  Once your profile is complete you are shown a list of current members who are part of your network and who may have something in common with you.  You can view their profiles and choose to add them as a friend.  By doing so, an email is sent to that person notifying them that you want to add them to your list of ‘friends’.  Upon acknowledgement, that person will be added to your friend list and you can communicate with them easily.  You can send emails to them and they as well as you can see when they are available online.  One feature of Facebook is the ability to upload videos and photos for your friends to view.  This is a good way to stay current with the lives of people you may not live near. 

 

Facebook offers a huge selection of ‘groups’ you can join.  Some groups are open to everyone and others require permission to join.  The only groups I was able to find seemed to revolve around campus life at Morehead State University.  Their purposes ranged from political, religious, social, and current events.  I found some of the group’s names and purposes to be somewhat offensive, but it’s up to each individual member to stay away from content they may find inappropriate. 

 

In my experience using the Facebook website I felt comfortable looking around the site and evaluating the profiles of people in my network.  I did not witness any illegal or questionable activity.  After interviewing some of the people I had added as friends I found they joined the site to re-connect with old friends from high school or college.  Members I met had been a part of the community for varied amounts of time.  But, all that I met and added to my friend list joined the site to network with old friends.  They are eager to share photographs of their families and talk about where life has taken them since we last saw each other.  A social network site such as Facebook allows members to get in contact with people they may otherwise never speak to.  Networking at this caliber enables the user to broaden their life experiences socially and culturally.  Advantages to being in touch with so many different kinds of people can affect every aspect of our lives.  People from different parts of the world and different cultures expose us to different belief systems, different ways to approach an issue we may be facing, and even expose us to professional advice we may otherwise not receive.  Communicating on a social network site, such as Facebook, is certainly cheaper than long distance phone calls to everyone you know.  Time and money…two reasons to embrace a SNS. 

 

 

 

Extra credit

May 9, 2008

I am still really frustrated about my extra credit video.  I finished it before the deadline, but I still can’t get it to upload to youtube.  I have watched 3 videos on Youtube about how to upload a video from Camtasia.  All the steps mentioned, I was already following.  I have watched the Camtasia tutorials so many times I can recite the directions along with the narrator.  I have absolutely no idea why I keep getting an error on Youtube. 

I saved the stupid video in about 4 different places under different names hoping one of them would upload.  NOTHIN’.  I sent it on the listserve as an attachment I don’t know if anyone was able to watch it there or not.  I said earlier in the week I wasn’t going to let this thing beat me , but I lost. 

Stick a fork in me….I’m DONE!

 

I hope everyone had a good semester and learned as much as I did.  Thanks Nate. 

Quotes of the day

May 9, 2008
I like coming across quotes and sharing them with you all.  They are good for a laugh and sometimes good for a little reality check.

 

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant
US historian (1885 – 1981)
To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.
Farmers’ Almanac, 1978
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Pablo Picasso
Spanish Cubist painter (1881 – 1973)
For every person who wants to teach there are approximately thirty people who don’t want to learn–much.
W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, And Now All This (1932) introduction

SNS

May 8, 2008

I have collected data about FaceBook by investigating some of the groups.  I have also polled some people and asked them how they utilize the sight.  Most people join the sight to keep up with old friends from high school and college.

 

SNS

May 8, 2008

Well, as I dig deeper into FaceBook I realize that most of the people who participate are current Morehead students living on campus.  I realize that Facebook was originally designed for use by college students, I just somehow expected to see more alumni.  Most of the groups seemed to revolve around campus life.  Some of the groups just seem stupid and I’m not sure who is monitoring any of the posts because some are completely offensive.

video

May 4, 2008

I don’t know what is going wrong with the uploading of my video.  When I link it to my blog I get an error message.  When I upload it to YouTube I get a message that says the file is not compatible.  Any ideas?

 I will try again later.  We have had a death in the family, so I have to quit for now.  Hopefully I can get it fixed by today.


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