The Haves Vs. The Have-Nots

Well with the state of the economy right now there are not going to be funds to add anything new since there are still talks about cutting more. So the only way this can be done is to start small in the classroom with what we already have so that fostering creativity doesn’t die off in the midst of the worries about “teaching to the test”.

I think the bigger issue of creativity not being nurtured is “compassion fatigue”. It’s an easy way out to use the same lesson plan year after year and have students read out of the book and have them take the same tests over and over again to see if they retained the material. Going along with this syndrome Sir Ken Robinson said, “All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them pretty ruthlessly.” The power that teachers have over their students is tremendous and having an apathetic teacher that makes you feel like your ideas are not important or makes you feel horrible when you make a mistake can extinguish creativity and interest in learning. I think that we’ve all had an experience with this whether or not it happened to us or we saw it happen to someone else.

Sir Robinson pointed out that most public education forms did not exist before the 19^th century and the needs of industrialism came about. So until the societal shift towards creativity and 21^st century thinking becomes an official age or era in society and/or we hit another sizeable stint of economic recovery, growth, and prosperity adequate unfortunately the hierarchy of subjects will stay the same and funding will most likely not go towards anything new or extra in this area on a wide scale.

Week 6 - #1 "Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In the article The Workforce Readiness Crisis, it states, “particularly disturbing is the study's findings on the current lack of preparedness of the nation's high school graduates. In addition to the deficiencies in communication and professionalism shared by those with varying degrees of college education, well over half of new workforce entrants with only a high school diploma are deficiently prepared in all ten of the skills that employers rate critical.” How can we expect students to be successful in whatever they choose to do with their lives after high school if they are not equipped with the know-how to apply these 21st century skills to the knowledge they have learned. As technology continues to make the world smaller and smaller everyone needs to be able to deal with what lies ahead for them in the “real world”.

After being a manager in my field for the past five years the ability to have these skills makes the difference between not only the amount of shifts awarded but just keeping a job in general. We make it a priority to try and coach employees on these skills to see if they will pick up on them and be an integral part of the team but for a lot of them it’s too late and they have already become apathetic to the process and either quit or get terminated.

If you take a in-depth look at the critics’ articles they aren’t even truly against integrating these ideals into education, they just don’t want the content knowledge to go by the wayside and for this movement to be eased into since it is not data based at this time. For example, Diane Ravitch states, (in her article Critical thinking? You need knowledge), that she believes, “What matters most in the use of our brains is our capacity to make generalizations, to see beyond our own immediate experience. The intelligent person, the one who truly is a practitioner of critical thinking, has the capacity to understand the lessons of history, to grasp the inner logic of science and mathematics, and to realize the meaning of philosophical debates by studying them.” Isn’t that what this movement is trying to accomplish in the end?

I think that the critics of 21st century learning are taking the p21 information too literally. In the article, Flawed Assumptions Undergird the Program at the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills, the president of P21 Ken Kay states “Our real expertise is in the setting of goals. Other people have the expertise in how to make it happen.” These standards or any standards really are just an outline. It’s up to educators to put on their thinking caps when they make their lesson plans to be creative and find ways to implement these standards into their content learning and research ways to coach them so students can be better equipped to be successful members of society.

Week 5 - Back To School Night In Surround Sound

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I think adding the audio lecture to the Power Point can be very valuable. Not only can you have the presentation with the bullets posted on the Web but you can add your lecture so the class can have a full representation of each point you are trying to focus on. This can really help with different types of learners. Also, the media can be paused and replayed numerous times so that students can stop at different points to write something down they want to remember or repeat something they may have missed without having to ask a teacher to repeat in front of their peers and becoming embarrassed. With a lot of the smart technology the information is also downloadable and portable to a number of different devices.

I really thought that the last video “The Flipped Classroom” made some great points. Chemistry teacher Aaron Sams said, “When kids come to class they don’t show up to learn new stuff, they show up to apply the things they learned at home and to ask me questions about the things they learned at home.” Going along with Mr. Sams’s practice viewing and listening to lectures posted on the Slide Share site can become the homework and the students can be guided through different activities in the classroom with what they learned.

(*The actual application of this specific technology of course depends on the availability students have to Web accessible devices outside of the school.)

Week 4 - Back To School Night

Welcome

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I think being able to share presentations over the web is a very useful tool. Not only can it be used as a technology accommodation for students with special needs, it also makes the material available for all students and parents to access at anytime to use as a study guide or to catch up on missed classes. I think it is great because even before you take a class with a teacher or professor you can get a feel of their teaching approach and the general material that will be covered in the class.

Week 3 - Task 2 - CPI # 8.2.4.D.1

Standard - 8.2 Technology Education, Engineering, and Design: All students will develop an understanding of the nature and impact of technology, engineering, technological design, and the designed world, as they relate to the individual, global society, and the environment.

Strand - D. Research and Information Fluency

By the end of grade four students need to be able to, “Analyze responses collected from owners/users of a particular product and suggest modifications in the design of the product based on their responses,” according to the Cumulative Progress Indicator for this strand. This will help students to develop their, “information-literacy skills, research, data analysis, and prediction provide the basis for the effective design of technology systems,” as stated in the content statement for this part of the standard.

In the exercise/sports/nutrition world there are enough gadgets, supplements, vitamins, gym franchises, exercise fads, web pages, work out routines, and equipment choices to make anyone’s head spin. Throughout this exercise I want students to learn how to make educated decisions when looking at consumer goods and also know that there are many different options for just about any health/fitness product or service they desire.

The students will be partnered in groups of three. The class will be given a list of products and services, (some examples pedometers, sports drinks, shape up sneakers, local fitness centers), that they can choose from or they can pick a topic themselves as long as it is approved by me.

Each group is to find basic information on the product or service. What it is, what it does, how long it has been in existence, price, etc … Then they are to search online to find at least five consumer reviews, (positive and negative) from at least two different web sources. Some examples include but are not limited to blogs, articles, or web pages that have these items for sale that include customer comments and reviews. The comment or review cannot just be a percentage or star rating it must have input on what the consumer felt was either wrong or right with the product or service. Based on the consumer responses and their own ideas about the product or service students must then make their own recommendations to fix any of the issues and/or make the product or service better.

To present their findings and suggestions each group must create a six slide Power Point presentation which will be presented to the class. Each group member must talk about two of the slides in their presentation.

Slides to include …

Introduction – Introduction of presenters.

Product/Service Information – Basic product/service information, why this product was chosen. Must include a graphic of product.

Positive Reviews/Negative Reviews

Suggestions for Improvement of Product/Service

Would You Buy or Use This Product/Service – Based on the information given do you think this product worth it? Would you use it?

Research is to be done at home. Each student in the group can research reviews online then bring their findings to class to collaborate. Time will be allotted in class for collaboration and in the computer lab to create the Power Point presentations so students can be taught the basics of the program if they haven’t already and/or any questions about how to use the program can be addressed right away. Groups must also hand in a print out of presentation and a list of all sources used.

Students will be evaluated on:

Their ability to work as a group in the computer lab and during presentation.

If all of the necessary information was included and all questions answered in presentation.

If graphic was included in presentation.
List of sources handed in were appropriate to project.

(This exercise also satisfies Standard 8.1 Strand A. CPI# 8.1.4.A.3 and Standard 2.2 Strand B. CPI # 2.2.4.B.1.)

Week 3 - Task 1 - Dinosaur Extinction

In many classrooms throughout schools and districts this technology initiative is going to take a lot of getting used to. Besides the direct technology components it proposes a new way of thinking and a new way of approaching teaching as a whole. Some districts and teachers are well on their way on their quest to conquer this while others are being left in the dust. For some educators that have been teaching for decades and are stuck in their ways of teaching this is going to be especially difficult. Rose Porpora, from Chatham High School, is a prime example of what I am talking about. Ms. Porpora shared that she feels she is “trying to hang on to what I think is the most important part of what [she does] but [her] time is over it’s too much for [her] this is not the educational arena that [she] entered into.” I do not think that you have to lose the direct connections to the material and the face to face interaction and processes that she referred to but there has to be a realization that flexibility with integrating the new technologies and 21^st century learning ideals is not only essential but at this point an inevitability.
I feel very fortunate that I have grown up and have gone to elementary and high school during the infancy of introducing technology into education and in everyday life. I believe that it has made me more adaptive to changing technological environments and made using various technologies a part of my everyday life.  I think that these standards and ideals will allow me to be much more creative as I develop myself and my pedagogical career. I plan on staying as informed as I can about emerging technologies and getting as much information and guidance as I can from educators that are exemplary in their efforts to achieve the standards. I feel that I am very creative and a critical thinker and after getting my bachelors and being in the working world for five years I know how important it is to have and to pass on these skills to others. I am a big advocate for this type of learning so for me it is a very exciting time in education.
I really enjoyed watching the overview of Frank Drapers class and their Hydrology Project. Mr. Draper did not have smart boards or a classroom where each student had individual access to a computer the whole time. He just simply used what he had to his advantage to create “authentic tasks”. He had them use simple web pages, interact with each other, interact with their community, and had them make personal connections to the material.  I think that he provides a great balance between the material, integrating the technology he has access to, and 21^st century learning in this project. His viewpoint is, “when [his] students do real work, authentic kinds of tasks where they’re doing something that is real for the school or for the community they now understand why this is important to learn this stuff, how valuable it is to their own life, and to the broader community. - When you have students do meaningless work your pretty much saying they’re not real important but when I give you something meaningful to do you’re an important member of the community and I value what you’re doing. It’s a different mindset of what schoolwork is about.”

It would be fantastic to be able to choose a district that already has all of the, “bells and whistles” technologically like Chatham High School. Though, the reality right now with the competitiveness of getting jobs in the teaching world needs to be highly considered. When I start to look for districts that I am interested in I will be looking for organizations that have a solid game plan and commitment in place to achieve the required technology and 21^st century learning standards. I feel that with a plan and my creativity I could do my part to help get a district and its students where they need to be.