No matter what the topic is, something is always learned in a classroom. Though I knew most of what we learned as far as school-based materials go in this class, I also gained a vast amount of knowledge about our education system as a whole, and gained a renewed faith in the future of said education system.
Our system is flawed. Even when not comparing it to others in the world, the education system in America is too focused on standards and equal opportunities, which are good on paper but in practice hinder our abilities to educate. Using technology helps take a step in the right direction, but it's going to be a while before the flaws of our education system are found, let alone fixed.
This course has equiped me with knowledge of how to incorporate technology into my lesson plans, which is great, except that becoming a teacher is a back up plan (not knocking it, it's hard work, just not what I'd really like to do). Most of the technology I have already used and was already familiar with, and admitedly many of the classes bored me when we would just go over things and I lost interest fairly quickly because the topic of education as a whole bores me. I would have enjoyed focusing more on what makes technology useful or not, because I enjoy debating, but I enjoyed the course overall.
I know how to use technology to help emphasis my points and help bring discussion between people. This class provided a nice brush up on ways to do so, and even if I do not become a teacher, my main focus of whichever career I may choose will have to incorporate higher level thinking and open communication with those around me. By making sure to keep up with what new tech is available as well as making sure I am always thinking things through and helping others attain higher levels of thinking, I know I can succeed no matter which path I decide to take.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
A Vision of Student's Today
One of the things that strikes me most about this video is the fact that I have seen millions of videos over the past few years that are just like it. If this problem is so widespread, and so many people know about it, why is nothing being done about it? Parents argue, teachers are told to keep students engaged, yet they're also told to teach to standards created so that test scores could be high. Our education system is obviously old. Traditional. It needs to be changed, and it seems so many people realize this. So why is nothing being done?
Also, it is very obvious that we are in a new era. I know that I myself all throughout high school thought I was much more proficient with technology than almost all of my teachers, and it was definately true. There are teachers who try, and fail, and I'm not sure if it's just a gap in years or what, but it does seem easier to use something you've grown up with than something you were introduced with as an adult.
Basically, things need to change. And change always starts with one person moving one foot forward in the right direction.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
College Courses and Higher Level Thinking
Within many of my classes here at SU, we use class discussion as a method of learning. The class that we have the deepest and most meaningful discussions in is my Forms of Writing: Poetry course.
This week, though we only had class on Monday so far, we used small and large group discussions to produce higher level thinking. One of the main focuses of the course is to learn what different forms of poetry are and their rules. We do that by first writing words on the board such as "meter" and "rhythm" and form word webs to define them. This way, instead of getting just a straight definition, we can connect lots of different words, phrases, and meanings, to these words, which is important since most poetic language is symbolic.
We did this word web the previous Monday with the word "meter." We used higher level thinking by linking meter not only to poetic meter, but also to running, distance, goals, and Europe. By making all these connections, we then went into example poems, and started analyzing why a poet would choose certain meters, what they added to the poem, and what was lost if you took the meter away. This obviously involved a plethora of higher level thinking, and also incorporated Bloom's Taxonomy and 21st Century skills since all of our opinions were communicated with the rest of the class, so that they could build on eachother. And when people did disagree, they were expected to defend their points.
This week, though we only had class on Monday so far, we used small and large group discussions to produce higher level thinking. One of the main focuses of the course is to learn what different forms of poetry are and their rules. We do that by first writing words on the board such as "meter" and "rhythm" and form word webs to define them. This way, instead of getting just a straight definition, we can connect lots of different words, phrases, and meanings, to these words, which is important since most poetic language is symbolic.
We did this word web the previous Monday with the word "meter." We used higher level thinking by linking meter not only to poetic meter, but also to running, distance, goals, and Europe. By making all these connections, we then went into example poems, and started analyzing why a poet would choose certain meters, what they added to the poem, and what was lost if you took the meter away. This obviously involved a plethora of higher level thinking, and also incorporated Bloom's Taxonomy and 21st Century skills since all of our opinions were communicated with the rest of the class, so that they could build on eachother. And when people did disagree, they were expected to defend their points.
Monday, January 25, 2010
"The Machine is Us"
An educator is a guide. They do not have all the answers, they prompt you to think. They help us reach our full potential. An educator is not nessassarily a teacher. Anyone who helps us discover ourselves can be considered an educator.
My view of education takes place both within and outside the classroom doors. There are an exponential amount of life experiences that can educate you. The role of an educator such as a class room teacher is to aid in these life experiences. By giving assignments that actually make students think, they can apply what they are learning in a classroom to what they have learned by simply being alive. It is this sort of higher level thinking that will lead to success. Education should provide a student the ability and skills to think and make decisions for themselves that will help them reach their full potential; it is not just memorizing and spiting back globs of information.
Technology as a whole is growing, and quite possibly it's most important feature is that it links people together. I have friends now who are students in Romania, Italy, Japan, and Korea, thanks to modern technology. I know how different forms of education work, how daily life differs, and how alike and disalike we really are. This video clip shows that we are teaching eachother through technology. It helps support the ideals of higher level thinking, and allows us as both students and teachers to reach our potential while helping others reach theirs. All these educators, education as a whole, and the ability to link us all together are great benefits to our society as a whole. Being successful is a goal. With these prompts and guides, it is an obtainable one.
My view of education takes place both within and outside the classroom doors. There are an exponential amount of life experiences that can educate you. The role of an educator such as a class room teacher is to aid in these life experiences. By giving assignments that actually make students think, they can apply what they are learning in a classroom to what they have learned by simply being alive. It is this sort of higher level thinking that will lead to success. Education should provide a student the ability and skills to think and make decisions for themselves that will help them reach their full potential; it is not just memorizing and spiting back globs of information.
Technology as a whole is growing, and quite possibly it's most important feature is that it links people together. I have friends now who are students in Romania, Italy, Japan, and Korea, thanks to modern technology. I know how different forms of education work, how daily life differs, and how alike and disalike we really are. This video clip shows that we are teaching eachother through technology. It helps support the ideals of higher level thinking, and allows us as both students and teachers to reach our potential while helping others reach theirs. All these educators, education as a whole, and the ability to link us all together are great benefits to our society as a whole. Being successful is a goal. With these prompts and guides, it is an obtainable one.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Reading Other Teacher's Blogs
http://jtspencer.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
Overall, reading these blogs and our first class meeting has done little to change my opinions of using technology in the classroom. I have always prefered classes that allowed laptops and internet access as opposed to simply copying notes. It has also been very apparent to me since high school that even though technology is being used in a classroom, it does not always do what it is intended too. For example, my World Cultures class constantly used videos, podcasts, and powerpoints to help us learn. Even though we were required to create our own projects using technology and use technology as a learning tool, there was no higher level thinking required to pass each test and ace each project. In my AP English course, however, we used a SmartBoard to make word webs, which always started with a quote or word or event from one of our readings. Upon finishing our word web, we would keep a weekly blog relating what we read to something going on in our lives. Using technology to help connect our everyday experiences to the events of our readings did in fact produce higher level thinking and resulted in more discussion and critical thinking in class. Though our first class meeting and the blogs I read were both very interesting, so far, it's all information and conclusions I've already known.
Upon reading Musings and Cool Cat, I realized that alot of methods teachers use in the classroom are repetative attempts at creating something students will actually pay attention to. Cool Cat's poem, "Never Just a Teacher," was by far my favorite post. Many members of my family are teachers, and I've had very close bonds with my high school teachers. I know how underappreciated most teachers are, and how many hours they put into their work outside of the classroom. As far as exciting things I cant wait to use in the classroom, I must admit that I am not very excited at all by the aspect of becoming a teacher. I know that if my career path does lead that way, I will be intuitive and helpful, one of the good teachers who expects students to actually use their brains, but I haven't really given much thought to my classroom. For me, teaching is a back-up plan. And frankly, many of the ideas in both blogs are ones I've seen and experienced before. The complaints about the restrictions on what can and cannot be taught on Musings are very commonplace to me; I hear them at every family gathering. As seen on Cool Cat's blog, I know it is sometimes hard to produce what types of lessons you want to due to time and money constraints. The lessons both of them used were sound, and required some higher level thinking, but they were neither original nor exciting. I will admit, however, that the thing I look forward to most about being in a classroom is getting to know my students and helping them cultivate their minds.
The most interesting blog post, however, was the first one I read on John Spencer's Musings, about teaching his 4 year old son about buoyancy. As a rule of thumb, teachers are expected to have all the answers. In reality, teachers are human beings, just like everyone else. Still, I remember being surprised every time I saw one of my teachers at the grocery store. A lot is expected of a teacher, very little of which they ever get credit for.
But just because you're a teacher doesn't mean you have all the answers.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
Overall, reading these blogs and our first class meeting has done little to change my opinions of using technology in the classroom. I have always prefered classes that allowed laptops and internet access as opposed to simply copying notes. It has also been very apparent to me since high school that even though technology is being used in a classroom, it does not always do what it is intended too. For example, my World Cultures class constantly used videos, podcasts, and powerpoints to help us learn. Even though we were required to create our own projects using technology and use technology as a learning tool, there was no higher level thinking required to pass each test and ace each project. In my AP English course, however, we used a SmartBoard to make word webs, which always started with a quote or word or event from one of our readings. Upon finishing our word web, we would keep a weekly blog relating what we read to something going on in our lives. Using technology to help connect our everyday experiences to the events of our readings did in fact produce higher level thinking and resulted in more discussion and critical thinking in class. Though our first class meeting and the blogs I read were both very interesting, so far, it's all information and conclusions I've already known.
Upon reading Musings and Cool Cat, I realized that alot of methods teachers use in the classroom are repetative attempts at creating something students will actually pay attention to. Cool Cat's poem, "Never Just a Teacher," was by far my favorite post. Many members of my family are teachers, and I've had very close bonds with my high school teachers. I know how underappreciated most teachers are, and how many hours they put into their work outside of the classroom. As far as exciting things I cant wait to use in the classroom, I must admit that I am not very excited at all by the aspect of becoming a teacher. I know that if my career path does lead that way, I will be intuitive and helpful, one of the good teachers who expects students to actually use their brains, but I haven't really given much thought to my classroom. For me, teaching is a back-up plan. And frankly, many of the ideas in both blogs are ones I've seen and experienced before. The complaints about the restrictions on what can and cannot be taught on Musings are very commonplace to me; I hear them at every family gathering. As seen on Cool Cat's blog, I know it is sometimes hard to produce what types of lessons you want to due to time and money constraints. The lessons both of them used were sound, and required some higher level thinking, but they were neither original nor exciting. I will admit, however, that the thing I look forward to most about being in a classroom is getting to know my students and helping them cultivate their minds.
The most interesting blog post, however, was the first one I read on John Spencer's Musings, about teaching his 4 year old son about buoyancy. As a rule of thumb, teachers are expected to have all the answers. In reality, teachers are human beings, just like everyone else. Still, I remember being surprised every time I saw one of my teachers at the grocery store. A lot is expected of a teacher, very little of which they ever get credit for.
But just because you're a teacher doesn't mean you have all the answers.
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