Blog posting #1 -
Reflect to the first time that you remember having your own first thought – not something a parent/guardian shared with you, or a sibling, or a teacher. Something that you know was your very own thought.
If you are comfortable and want to share it – that would be great.
For your first blog posting reply to my blog by clicking on “comments” and identify and share a recent ponder about education or school or young adolescents that you want to share.
Blog posting #2 - I want you to explore some other teacher blogsites and how they use blogs in their classrooms. I will provide some in class – but to get you started – go to:
Thefischbowl.blogspot.com - in addition to how Karl Fisch uses his blog check out the right hand side of his blog scroll down and as you scroll down you will see other teachers’ blogs as well.
Another good resource is Will Richardson and his blog postings - http://weblogg-ed.com/category/teacher-as-learner/
And SupportBlogging.com provides a lot of links to all kinds of teacher blogs http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
Then posting on your blog site share a couple of ways that you might use blogs in your classroom either with students, or other teachers and/or parents.
Have fun
16 comments:
The first thought I remember having was regarding a pet turkey that a friend of the family owned. I was surprised at how huge the bird was and couldn't beleive we ate things like that...
Recently I was thinking about how different my junior high school experience would have been had I attended a middle school rather than a junior high. I was thinking about how much I think I would enjoy working in a true middle school environment.
Post Other sites.
http://csusmathiiiadvanced.blogspot.com/ ( i love TED) And this blogger posted many different TED ideas. It gives me ideas that i myself can find informing information to share with my students.
http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/- This concept of a blog is great. I like that it gives you different ideas of teaching and examples. I feel that getting ideas from many different aspects is important.
When I was a little girl I used to look at peoples license plates, at clocks, at anything with numbers in it and play games with the numbers. If it was 2:42 I would pretend the : was an equal sign and figure out how I could make it into an equation. so I would see 2=4-2 or if a license plate said G46BH22. I would count G as 7 because it is the seventh letter in the alphabet, then 4, 6, B would be 2 H would be 8 then 2, then 2. then I would wither calculate the difference between each number then add all the number together or multiply all the number together to get one number. So if I did differences they would be 3,2,4,6,6,and 0 added together is 21. Then I would add 2+1 to get 3. Then that day I would try different ways to make the time or numbers I see into threes. This was what I would do when I was on road trips or just in the car to keep myself amused. It was like a game to me, between me and myself.
When I was about 7 years old, I excitedly started asking my dad questions about living in South America over dinner. My dad looked at me quizzically and said, "what are you talking about?" I explained to him how I was speaking with grandma (his mom) and she told me that she grew up in Peru. My dad chuckled and kindly told me that my grandma grew up in Peru, Illinois not the country of Peru. I was surprised but it answered a lot of questions like why we don't speak Spanish.
The first time I remember having my own thought was probably first grade. I remember seeing the numbers tattooed on my grandfathers arm from being in the concentration camps during the holocaust. I made up in my head what they might mean before I was explained the actual meaning.
I recently have pondered if it is beneficial or harmful for children to skip grades. My neighbor is skipping a grade, however shes still mentally younger then the kids in the higher grade. I wonder how this will effect her social development for example.
My first thoughts.
When i was 5 i loved watching the indian movie clips and always loved their dancing and their usage of colors in their outfits. I remember thinking that i wanted to be one of those dancers. Also, i remember thinking of how i could win a card game against my sister and her friends. so i would sit there and play with myself in cards and pounder on different ways to win.
I always wonder how you teach mean girls to be nice. It’s amusing to me that those mean girls are generally very studious and well mannered in class, but you see them in the hall and you just know they are reeking havoc on poor innocent bystanders. I know modeling is a very powerful tool, but I feel like girls know how they are supposed to act, but they choose to be mean. I have yet to come across a good method for dealing with these bullies.
a recent ponder about education: one of the things i often find myself pondering about is how to make students feel more involved in my class. being a math teacher, i often find it difficult to make the curriculum applicable to the lives of my students. it is also difficult to balance the task of preparing students for college versus coming up with inventive ways to reach my students. i definitely agree that kids will be more motivated to learn if they have a stake in what they are learning. for this reason i try to let kids provide their own input in different ways. one thing i do is give different methods to solving math problems and let my students choose which ever one works the best for them. also, when it is appropriate, i have students come up with their own real life math word problems. i am continually searching for new ways to involve my students to keep them engaged in the classroom. if you have any ideas i would love to hear them!
My first original thought that I can remember was when I was in first grade. I reasoned with my mom on how Santa couldn't be real.
Young adolescents have a ton of energy. I think it's important to find productive outlets for their liveliness. In finding new activities to harness this energy, class will become exciting, unique and memorable.
The thing that I always ponder about education and teaching in my own classroom is how I will balance my role as teacher and being a relate-able resource in the classroom with my students. I want to have a positive rapport with them, all the while, still being the respected leader in their learning. I want to be able to relate to my students so that I can understand how they learn, what they want to learn, and how they best will have the opportunity to learn it while also being available to help them solve problems and give them advice without them feeling like they are being "graded" by a teacher.
I have been thinking a lot about education finance. As a teacher at a charter school, I am directly and significantly affected by cuts in state funding for education. Our school has had to cut our psychologist and her staff, our gym teacher and our librarian. We will launch our middle school next year without these resources or many other resources considered essential for middle school students (technology instruction, exploratories, etc). I ponder why education is so poorly funded. Even when looking at this issue from a purely cost-benefit point of view, putting money in education prevents social and financial costs to the state in the future.
I remember when I finished my reading program at NLU and we had to write a final reflection about what we learned through the program. I began the program expecting to be told the answers to all the questions I had but ended up with my own revelation. I learned the importance of motivation to learning. Obvious, to some but through my summer practicum I learned how important it was.
Recently, I've been pondering about how I can assess kids in a really meaningful way. It's still a work in progress. I keep finding out that all of these types of assessments and grades that I know about, and that have been used throughout my entire educational experience are not very accurate, meaningful or reflective of what students really know/are learning. So I've been coming up with different assessment ideas that could be useful/helpful for me and students, but that don't consist of taking an exam or quiz, writing a lab, or drawing a diagram.
Since parents can play such a huge role in the education process, it only makes sense to explain important philosophy and curriculum to them. By effectively communicating information to parents, teachers and schools can gain community support to help them help their children. Districts should really think about having a communications liaison at a middle school to effectively communicate and to manage parent workshops. This person can help the district support and educate parents about the district's educational philosophy, values and beliefs.
This is response to Eclectica's post about going to a middle school versus a junior high, which made me a bit (the 80's baby in me) jealous. I always thought going to a junior high would be the coolest thing in the whole world when I was a YA. Junior high always seemed so glamorous, compared to the elementary school I attended.
Perhaps the movies did a number on me...who am I kidding? They totally did! Although now, I know better and going to a middle school is a much beter choice, when you factor in the support system and learning advantages. I guess I am pondering about being pretty in pink, sweet sixteen and having Jake Ryan at my door. Oh the good years.
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