Steph’s Stuff

It’s been a while since I have posted…almost a year, in fact.  I am now student teaching and preparing for the “real world” of finding job.  Making the choice to become a teacher was relatively easy.  Student teaching has proven to me that I am a teacher, I always have been.  It is something that I don’t need to work at doing.  Now the biggest challenge I have is to try and find a job in a school district that isn’t more than an hour away.  I love the idea of having my own classroom, of making my own lesson plans, and teaching students every day.  God willing, I will be a full-time teacher in a few years.

I tried to put my “Where I Am From” poem into Read the Words and I am honestly disappointed. It sounds like a really bad translator.

So I had the opportunity to sub at home again this week. There were a few things that came up that made me stop and think. First of all, I tried to go online to check my mail and I found it was blocked. I could see if certain social network sites were blocked, but I couldn’t even get to my NMU webmail. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am addicted to my email. I like to check it several times a day. Not that I think I’m that important that someone would feel compelled to email me often, but it is one of the ways that people do know how to get a hold of me. I feel it is very important to be connected for my kids. If something were to come up, I want to be available to them. So it was frustrating to have my email blocked. Not only my email, but virtually any connection I make with the outside world. I could cruise the internet, but I couldn’t interact with it.

Another interesting thing that happened that day was when an administrator for the school asked me how many computers were in the classroom. There was a classroom desktop computer and the teacher’s laptop, which was in an “office” and inaccessible to the students. I was surprised that there was only one computer available.

Since this was a science class, wouldn’t it have been nice to have more access than just one computer for the students to use? I can’t imagine what it is like in that classroom during science fair time when students need to do research and to work on their projects. Last year I spent my spring break at a school in Sault Ste. Marie. To give a comparison, both of these schools are small with class sizes ranging from 10-20 students. One is a parochial school and the other was a charter school. At the charter school, there was a laptop computer available for every student in the middle school. What a shame that there were not some of the same resources available at a private school. I guess it just goes to show that private schools are not always in better shape than public or charter schools.

So, I had a chance to download three of the videos from the TED Talks and I spent some time watching them at “home” (my sister-in-laws) last night and this morning. I was impressed with the reasons for why Twitter was created when I watched Evan Williams. I recall bulletin boards that used to exist on college campuses–like one hundred years ago, the first time I went to college–and that is what Twitter reminds me of. I know when I have tried to describe it to people who are somewhat “technologically out-of-touch,” that is the analogy that I give.

I remember seeing Sir Ken Robinson’s talk one other time before. It is absolutely true! We are killing our children’s creativity in the name of education. The more information we can cram into their heads the smarter they are supposed to be! And aren’t we so smart because we did all the cramming! (Note the sarcasm in my “voice.”)

Now as far as the Bill Gates talk goes, as I understand it, he is claiming that educating the people will prevent the spread of malaria? Maybe I just missed the point of his talk. And as for how to judge a teacher’s performance…what qualifies him to make blanket statements?

So I’m sitting here trying to catch up on long overdue assignments for this class and it occurs to me that I have been behind in just about everything!  Talk about frustrating!! As I try to read the blogs and reflect on them, I find that it is a good week when I can just get a blog started. Take for instance this blog in particular. I started this entry on February 24th and today is March 30th! So many things have taken a back burner position.

Watch this to see how to load your jing

Jing Screencast part 1

I absolutely love this video. Besides the fact that the little girl is cute as a bug, she exemplifies what technology is to the future. When a four-year-old can manipulate a photo on the computer and do all that she does, with such ease, it makes me think that children even younger than her will be doing even more in the very near future!

So I’m sitting here trying to catch up on long overdue assignments for this class and it occurs to me that I have been behind in just about everything!  Talk about frustrating.  It never fails that as soon as I get one task completed, six more get assigned.  I have three projects to work on, two lesson plan reflections to write, three chapters of my online class to catch up on and blogs up the wa-zoo to read!  I know that there is value to doing the readings for all my classes, but short of never sleeping, it’s just not going to happen.

I am learning a lot about time management and just how bad I am at it.

Here is a couple of links…
Twitter
NMU School of Education
My Wikispace