The Best and the Worst

By far, my favorite for Tech & Topics was learning about Google Docs. It is all I use now. Everything i type all in one place and I can access it nearly anywhere. I think the style of instruction used in the class was great. There was tons of understanding for all the work we all have going on in our life. Not once was Tech & Topics something I stressed out about and that was nice. I learned a lot about awesome technology that can be used so effectively in the classroom. I usually walk out of class eager to share my new found knowledge about how awesome something is.

The worst.....hhmmmmm?? Honestly, Thursday nights are one just one time when I would rather not go to class. And that has nothing to say about this actual class. Somedays I just really had to gear up and go.

All in all, I really enjoyed the class.

Free Write: GLEE!

So recently, I watch the Whitney Houston episode of Glee. In the show, the school year is coming to a close and everyone is trying to deal with the change in their own way. In this episode, Whitney Houston songs were used by the students to express what they were going through. Almost every student, and even their teacher, was going through nerves about losing their friends and students. Almost all I could think about was how easy it is to communicate over the internet. Web 2.0 right? I think that these students should take Tech and Topics.

PLNs

There are a few PLN’s for math teachers that I found. The one I am most interested is in connection with NCTM, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. To be honest, joining one now seems a little strange. I almost feel like, because i won’t be student teaching for another semester that I won’t have to much to offer. Kind of like I will be taking and taking and providing nothing to the group. One thing I have actually been discussing with a professor in the math department is fostering a better community between teachers and students, majors especially, so as to improve the way we work together. The conversation was focused on finding some sort of lounge for math students to come and work in that is near the professors’ offices. With these discussions of PLNs, i am wondering if we can’t start one among our xavier students or even with other colleges and universities. We can bounce questions and ideas off of one another and learn and understand the subject we all love so much even more. I hope to see this happen sometime in the future. I think it would be nice.

Web 2.0

I must confess, I didn’t comment on anyone’s blog for this assignment. Rather, the acapella group I am in has been corresponding with another group, planning a dual concert, sharing music and ideas. As a new group, this has helped us so much. I don’t know if I have been a part of a more useful Web 2.0 event. We are young group and gained so much knowledge and experience thanks to the internet and the connection it gives us with people far away. It’s awesome.

Portfolios as valid assessment tools…

YES.

Realistically, how else is a teacher to be evaluated? Are you going to make us tryout? Well we already do. That is what student teaching is all about. Someone can’t be there to watch us the whole time. Our portfolio provides a way for us to gather the pertinent information and share it. It is kind of like an extended resume, and those are considered valid. Won’t a portfolio also reflect someone’s level of care? Things will be complete and done well if the individual cares. Also, this reflects on someone’s work ethic and skill as well. I think portfolios are great when the situation calls for them.

Are you a 21st century teacher? How?

             Am I a 21st century teacher? In a lot of ways I think I am or at least will be. Of course, I am young and haven’t started teaching full time yet which means I group up with teachers who were moving closer and closer to being 21st century teachers. This class has taught me a lot about technology that can be used to enable collaborative work. The more you can work with other people, the more you can learn. I grew up in environments of collaborative learning. In a lot of ways, this kind of teaching can allow us as instructors to be even more successful. So, if I’m not already some kind of 21st century teacher, I hope to be!

What’s it like to see / hear yourself teaching?- Well...weird!

    It was a little strange being on the other side of myself teaching. Watching or hearing myself doing something that was recorded has always been something that was weird for me, After watching the final version of my video lesson introduction my first critique would be that I need to enunciate more. The video was filmed on a simple digital camera, so the sound quality wasn’t going to be spectacular, however, it was still kind of difficult to understand. I think I did a good job of making good eye contact and keeping my face forward as opposed to facing the board the entire time. Sometimes, when i’m thinking on the spot, i say “um” while i try to put the words together. I don’t think I do it a huge amount, but I still noticed when I did it. I think that as I teach more I will become more practiced in thinking before speaking and speaking more concisely. I have a lot more to learn and a lot of room for improvement but I am so excited and ready to work.

Plan for Video Lesson Introduction

I think the best way to introduce a topic is to make it fun and interesting. If you keep the students on their toes and surprise them with what you do, you will have succeeded in getting them thinking about whatever topic you are introducing.

That being said, I plan on making a video of myself goofing around with some concepts in mathematics. Specifically, I will introduce a lesson on symmetries and transformations of the graph of a quadratic equation. I think the idea of just a voice speaking while the students watch things change on a screen is really cool, I just like the presence of a teacher for something like this. So I am going with a video.

We shall see how it goes. I am trying to have fun with this because math is something I love and it should be fun!

Legal Concerns

I guess when it comes to legal concerns for my future as an educator I think a lot about what my legal responsibilities will be and whether or not these responsibilities will be reasonable. Specifically, I am concerned with how they might begin evaluating a teacher's performance based on test scores and start basing pay, and job security on these evaluations. How innaccurate could these test scores reflect how well one fulfills their job as teacher and instructor? It is kind of a complicated topic but it is one that concerns me.

Presentation Tool Review

I kind of played around with Google Presentation, Google's version of Power Point. What really intrigued me about this program is the ability, like with Google Docs, to work together on one presentation from different computers. Getting students to work togerther and share ideas is reallu crucial to their learning. This tool makes that easy and simple.

As a math person I would like to see a tool that had the ability to type set mathematics that was easy like the toold we saw in class. Typing math is the worst, mostly because you have to use a seperate program to do it. If typing math could be incorporated into a program like google presentation, students could share ideas, and work together more easily! How great would that be?!?!

Article Review

Hello all.

The journal article I reviewed was titled "The Tech Effect." There is more juicy information about it inside the actual review. To read it, click here. Thanks!

My Educational Purpose

What is my educational purpose? That is a good question. I grew up in a family of teachers. My father, uncle, and aunt are all high school teachers at different high schools in my home town of Cleveland. I’ve been around education of some form or another for my entire life.

            In my opinion, a student can only learn if they first recognize and accept the fact that they don’t know something and, therefore, lack that knowledge. This makes a student very vulnerable. For this reason the relationship between teacher and student becomes vital to the process of learning. If students don’t like their instructor, or don’t feel comfortable with their instructor, how can they go through the process of learning? I don’t view teaching as a process of telling your students whatever stuff you are teaching and having them memorize it. It is a process of providing your students with the necessary experiences required for learning to happen. For this, good relationships need to be there.

            I have seen how rewarding teaching can be for the teacher. To see a student struggle with, get angry and frustrated at, and ultimately succeed in a topic you love is so incredibly rewarding. I love math, really. (I know….nerd, right?) I think it so cool, and I want to be able to share this awesome thing with students struggling just like I struggled when I was learning it for the first time. In a nut shell, that is why I want to be a teacher. (Oh…I don’t mind summer vacations either)

First Post

This is my very first blog post for my class, Tech and Topics. There will be many more fun and interesting things posted throughout the semester, I'm sure. Enjoy!!   :)